No Longer Flogging The Blogging

While I’m a huge fan of good comedy, stinging satire, and rapier wit, I’ve never been a fan of Bill Maher. (Note, I said, good comedy.) So, I find it ironic that as I shamefully revel in schadenfreude over his latest attempt to outrage the masses, it is a quote of his from about a decade ago that inspires my first blog of the New Year.

“If I cared what you thought,” he once quipped to the camera, “I’d read your blog.” I remember laughing and thinking, “Exactly! Blogs! Feh! What do I care what some pale pajama-wearing cellar dweller who’s still eating his mamma’s Coco Puffs thinks about anything? Puhlease.”

Well, now I blog and Tweet and now so does Bill Maher. My opinions, however, have not caused national boycotts nor have they forced me from network television onto cable. No, my opinions establish me as a thought leader and public relations sage and drive potential clients to my Website. Especially, if I salt them with search terms such as crisis communications, strategic media consulting, and branding.

Bill’s blogs and Tweets establish him as a highly paid provocateur who says outrageous things for the sake of being outrageous while those who are outraged because others are outraged bleat about free speech. Bill, meanwhile just cashes the checks, washes his hands, and says, “My work here is done.” (I think he learned it from Rush Limbaugh.)

Blogging and Tweeting as well as using Facebook or Google+ or Tumblr, are like being First Lady: it’s really up to you to make of it what you will. Yes, for three years, I’ve now engaged in this activity that I once derided as the purview of sequestered nerds, many of whom are now filthy rich and who’ve bought their mammas new condos in Boca. Yes, I now read multiple blogs daily because I find them informative, thought provoking, or entertaining – and with any luck, all three. I read blogs about politics, arts, sports, literature, Hollywood, PR, medicine, and food to name a few – many of which have the luxury of covering topics the mainstream media can’t or won’t.

Most people blog because they believe they have something to say that other people may find worth their time. Most of what I blog about is applicable, in some way, to my profession. Sometimes it’s a stretch. I often want to write about a topic that may not readily have a PR angle. That’s when I have to ask myself, “Who cares what you think? If they cared, they’d read your blog.”

Thanks for reading. I’ll try to make sure it’s still worth your time.

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC

Image by Maria Reyes-McDavis

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 7:00 am and is filed under Branding & Positioning, Crisis Communication & Management, Politics, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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