Multi-author blogs and Strumpette
5May 24, 2006 by Colin
The biggest challenge for blog authors is creating a unique “voice”: what is the identity you wish to portray? The values you want to embody? The personality traits your writing will personify (albeit in shallow two-dimensional form)? As the blog format morphs from a personal and interactive medium to a corporate communications vehicle, it will prove increasingly difficult to maintain a common “voice” across a stable of authors contributing to a corporate blog.
A “voice” is especially difficult for an amalgam blog to maintain. By amalgam I mean a blog fed by multiple authors, all trying to work through one common identity. Like Strumpette.* In one particularly testy exchange over the last thirty six hours, Strumpette’s “Amanda Chapel” character has posted comments ranging in tone from vitriolic to apologetic to dismissive.
Strumpette is a unique character, created in part to shake, rattle and roil the insular “PR blogging” community.
Corporate blogs, on the other hand, need to be better managed. Not in great detail, and not to the point of censorship. Rather, an effective corporate blog needs to identify its vision at the outset, and explain how the community of authors assigned to the blog will be working towards that vision.
Acknowledge that different voices will be expressing themselves, and identify how those voices will contribute to the discussion. What is their individual background? What are their professional and personal preoccupations? (To a point – who needs to know about the VP’s fondness for vacations in Thailand?) Why should we listen to them? Believe them? Trust them?
With careful blog design, category identification and tag selection, a conversation can be maintained across a number of authors – to the benefit of the reader as well as the mother ship paying the bills.
* – “Also, for the record, as has been written variously, “Amanda” is comprised of a group of people, friends and colleagues, the majority of which are women. ” Strumpette
Technorati: strumpette
Colin,
Interesting post. While blogs are usually individual in nature, yes corp blogs likely won’t be. However, through the collective voice of the authors — whether a corp blog or not — won’t one voice or one personality of the blog evolve?
There’ll be inconsistencies (as you’ve well pointed out), but aren’t we also inconsistent as individuals?
Mike
It’s OK that Strumpette is anonymous and that it is authored by several people.
That could be a great platform for insiders within the PR world to share stories from the inside without fear of repercussion.
That’s what I thought and hoped Strumpette would be when I first read it.
I quickly realized that it was settling for easy personal attacks — which achieve what? Taking people like Steve Rubel and Phil Gomes down a notch or two? What an accomplishment…
Once you realize that the driving force behind Strumpette is not actually someone in PR, but someone who has left the profession and would not suffer professionally from “coming out,” then you have to wonder about the motivations. Is the reality that the blogger(s) behind Strumpette simply want to take personal potshots at bloggers behind the safety of their nom de plume?
Classy.
Good point, Scott.
That would be an opportunity lost.
If that’s the case, the expression of regret for the profanity, then a launch back into name-calling could indicate some sort of bipolar disorder.
And who keeps asking us to believe that they are smart, well-respected and well-read individual(s) with absolutely no proof.
Where is the credibility of a character blog who keeps insisting they are credible?
Baffling.
I don’t work in PR. I am an artist and blogger. My experience with Amanda I will never forget. She is in one word just a plain !@#$*. She is definitely everything that is wrong with the media and the people behind it. She has real issues with freedom of speech. I tried commenting nicely on her blog and it is like dealing with the “Borg” Queen. I almost don’t want to make this comment because it might give her more exposure. I am getting so used to censorship because of her and my experience on facebook that I am afraid to use a word to describe her. I saw that Amanda Chapel used TWITTER, except when she uses the site the “I” becomes an “A”