Even "Newer" Influencers

As someone who is an avid reader and would choose fiction over non-fiction in a heartbeat, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how interesting New Influencers was, even just the introduction and first chapter. Not to mention, I finished the chapters relatively quickly and actually feel like I gained something from it, if not a simple refresher. But isn't that what they say, time flies when you're having fun? While blogs are probably my least favorite form of social media, I found myself completely engaged in the way the author kept an "easy-going" but straight forward and informative tone, but without managing to be too dry or bland. Which, when he discusses the importance of tone, creates a great example.

Mostly I was more interested in the anecdotes the author shared throughout the chapter. For example, the AOL customer service phone call recorded and posted by Vincent Ferrari in 2006, as well as the one known as "Dell Hell." Oddly enough, I remember hearing about both of those incidents, if only by passing by the TV when my mom has the news on and unintentionally eavesdropping on an adult conversation, that at the time was incredibly boring. Because let's be real, in 2006 the last thing I wanted to do was watch the news or spend my time online searching CNN.com for the latest headlines. However, the fact that someone who was a high school sophomore still remembers -- even vaguely -- those events shows what an impact those moments had on our society at the time, all because of an overzealous AOL representative and a little blog that took off like a rocket. Or maybe that's just how I see it. Thoughts?

I think my favorite part of the first chapter, however, was the section that touched on voice. Voice, of course, is a key component in public relations, and communications as a whole. Not only the literal sense of the word, but also in terms of a message or the "voice" of a campaign i.e. what vibe (for lack of a better word) do you want to give your audience? Regardless of the purpose behind your voice, it's always important to establish a voice, because it defines who you are. That can be who you are as an overall person, a PR practitioner, the company you're working for, the message of a campaign or in this case, the type of Blogger you want to be seen as. The whole point is to stand out above the rest and make yourself be heard by a specific group of people, especially in PR, so I think Gillin does a great job of emphasizing the importance of voice and what types of voices can be appropriate for what kinds of blogs.

One thing I noticed was that the book was published in 2007, which doesn't feel like that long ago (trust me four years ago still feels like two) but in a world and field that is constantly changing and updating to the next best thing, 2007 was a lifetime ago. However, I like that this book from what I have read so far, still has a lot of relevance to social media, as well as compare the differences between how social media has changed from 2003 as Gillin talked about in the beginning, to '06/'07 and to right now. Since then Twitter has become one of the most popular social media tools, parents, grandparents and even pets now have a Facebook account, MySpace is virtually irrelevant and Foursquare is supposedly the next big thing...but honestly I still don't understand it.  And really, it's this comparison between then and now in my mind that also brought about this post's title.