According to a report titled "Firms in the dark over blog threat" by Guardian Media two-thirds of the businesses are totally in the dark of the power and influence of the blogosphere and its possible negative affects on their brand. They do not realize that bloggers could cause their business harm by planting seeds in blog posts which could send ripples through the blogging community of over 18 million bloggers. Hugh Fraser, the co-author of the report and a former journalist for the BBC World Service said:
"Public relations companies have long experience in dealing with appeasing journalists, but with bloggers they're often not sure how to react."
I think that this could be said for the media industry as well due in part to the denial to accept bloggers and citizen journalists as another part of the media industry who are in some cases becoming just as popular as professional writer. Political figures also should realize the strength of the blogosphere and in some cases they have. This recent "Beltway vs. the Blogosphere" article explains how political bloggers could sway the opinion of the blogosphere. I would have to agree because I cannot tell you how many times I have seen "Impeach Bush" and "Bush Indictment" as top Technorati searches in the last month which due to editorial standards would have trouble making a top media outlet's main headline. So how influential is the blogosphere?
To read some recent posts in blogosphere check out the post on Web of Influence which dissects a recent Kathy Gill paper titled "How Can We Measure The Influence Of The Blogosphere?". Also check out this post on the The Editor's Blog as it highlights how companies should measure the influence of the blogosphere.
