Some have suggested that blogging represents a new marketing opportunity for business. Blogging is really the same thing the web has promised and delivered to many businesses over the past decade. It's just an easier way to get your web site updated in a timely manner. With timeliness come better search results and more traffic.


A principle of marketing theory is that you know your target group. Does your product appeal to 30-something mothers, bow hunters or gay car owners? You may think that such specificity is just not possible -- or for that matter relevant -- with many product and service offerings. What if you have customers that cover all of those aforementioned profiles and more? Then you're just not looking at the right differentiators.


Enter blogging. What is written about in a blog can act as both a filter and a magnet. "A-list" bloggers are expected to have certain opinions, biases, strengths and weaknesses. With the weight of time, experience, exposure and contribution one learns to filter portions of a blogger's spiel because it's just not germane to why you like reading (and -- increasingly -- like listening to) them. Dave Winer has an annoying presence on the microphone. His wandering cadence, repeated use of "um" and "you know", along with his annoying habit of snorting into the mic, make his "Morning Coffee Notes" abysmally amateurish. His repeated attempts at sophmoric "Bush" bashing also seem wildly out of context. But Dave's not a broadcaster. I filter that stuff out and listen for content related to past and future insights regarding software and the internet. I like "Morning Coffee Notes". It's a damn site better than seeing some "deer-in-the-headlights" CEO -- reading from a teleprompter -- being "interviewed" by the Morning Call crew on CNBC. That's not marketing; that's just propaganda.


What about lower tier bloggers like me? Can we get away with being annoying, can we stray off-message and still be heard and read? I never, ever put anything up on the blog without thinking twice about it. I don't want to post something that would have to be pulled down later. I do edit blog posts; mainly because I mangle and mis-spell with the best of them, but I know I have posted items that many people -- perhaps potential customers -- don't agree with. Well, let it be known, there is something of a method in that. I don't advocate anything radical, non-sensical or harmful, so if you find yourself so totally at odds with something you have read here that you would never visit again or work with me, that's okay; I don't want you as a customer. In sales we call that "qualification" and it's also a key principle of market differentiation. Filter and magnet.