Boomerang

Not all bloggers are created equal. With 71 million blogs published today, and the number growing by the minute, developing a way to prioritize bloggers into a hierarchy is an absolute necessity. So we’ve come up with three main categories of bloggers: hybrid, niche, and recreational. While they don’t all share the same level of patronage, influence, or attention, they all have unique value.

The Hybrid Blogger
At the top of the blogger hierarchy are what we call Hybrid bloggers. Typically, a Hybrid blogger is an A-list blogger who is a single-entity outlet. Reputable news reporters such as Tom Foremski and Om Malik define this category given their crossover from traditional media to blogging. Hybrids have created new models of online media and have established respectable online brands. Other Hybrid bloggers include Arianna Huffington, Robert Scoble, and Mike Arrington, since they have actually moved into more traditional media roles and blogging is how they spend the majority of their editorial energy. The important distinction here is that the personalities behind these blogs are what make them so successful. So whether it’s politics, technology, or venture capital, Hybrid bloggers have generated a loyal following based on their industry insight and knowledge.

The Niche Blogger
Niche bloggers are very different from hybrids in terms of character and identity. A Niche blog is not reliant upon a single author, but instead consists of content assembled from a variety of authors/sources with a focus on a particular theme, subject area, or organization. (I’d put Cohn & Wolfe’s blog, Boomerang, into this category.) I’m referring to blogs like TreeHugger, LifeHacker, Engadget, and LeftLaneNews – the collective blog content, not necessarily the individual bloggers, keeps us engaged and coming back for more. That’s not to say that the bloggers behind these sites are any less prolific than the Hybrids — it’s just that the spotlight shines brighter on the blogs they represent, rather than on their own personalities.

The Recreational Blogger
The last category is Recreational bloggers who, in general, are everyday people just wanting to share their stories and be heard. They are (long tail) consumers using free tools like Blogger, Vox, and Yahoo 360 to connect with others on the Web. While many are happy to just share their thoughts online, the reality is that Recreational bloggers don’t have tons of traffic. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have something powerful or important to say. I find the content created by Recreational bloggers to be most compelling given its raw, unmediated form. Content rules on these blogs, and outweighs both the site and the blogger in terms of influence.

By no means is this blogger hierarchy meant to categorize every blog out there; it’s really just a framework for understanding the blogosphere in general. The main point I want to get across is that all bloggers have a unique perspective and value, so while influence may be the most popular measure for determining a blogger’s worth, it shouldn’t be the only factor. As I see it, content and theme are just as important. Understanding how bloggers fit into the bigger scheme of things should be seen as a guiding force for creating highly successful connections with bloggers of all kinds.

For over eight hours, a few hundred communications professionals minimized the use of their Blackberries and cell phones to focus on one topic: the environment. PR Week’s Target Green event, held at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel on May 10, was a great success. The majority of top PR firms, along with many Bay Area and national companies, were in attendance. Just a few years ago this event would have been a much harder sell — but now, people were flying in from England and China to attend. More importantly, the event was a solid indicator that the environmental movement is no longer on the fringes of society. Given the breadth of topics covered – from fuel cells to fisheries; from green products to green brands – it was clear that Green has gone (or at least is in the process of going) mainstream.

Although the event was very positive, there was still room for improvement. For decades, the environmental movement has been driven by grassroots organizations that challenged the mainstream. High-profile organizations like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, as well as smaller groups like the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, have played a critical part in getting us to where we are today. Unfortunately, their voices were conspicuously absent at Target Green. The panels would have been a lot more interesting had they included, or been moderated by, some of these players. In fact, a panel that focused on the communications challenges of these organizations would have been extremely interesting and informative.

I used to wonder why grassroots environmentalists found it so easy to criticize large companies that did anything environmentally positive; but I think I get it now. It would be so easy for corporate America to completely co-opt the Green movement – ultimately making it nothing more than a marketing gimmick – that the grassroots voice, one not motivated by profit, is needed to keep things in check.

I’m certainly not saying it’s bad that corporate America is interested in being Green; quite the opposite, it’s great! Today an increasing number of companies are striving to create more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly products; and that benefits us all. But the opportunity to loosely use the term “Green” in the same way some loosely use the term “Organic” is dangerous. One way we can keep this from happening is to make sure the people who dedicated their lives to this cause don’t become marginalized simply because the movement has grown in popularity. This is one area that will always benefit from people outside the mainstream pushing us to do more.

If there is a second Target Green, I’d love to see this perspective included.

Before I sound too negative, I should say I walked away from Target Green feeling very positive. I hope PR Week holds more of these events. Things have changed significantly over the last few years. So many businesses now look at the environmental movement and see an opportunity. That’s great! Best of all, we’re part of an industry that has the ability to play a major role in making a difference in the future of our planet. That’s powerful stuff. I can only hope we never forget there’s more than profit at stake.

What a difference a year can make! Last year’s Green brands study indicated that only a small percentage of the population cared even slightly about the environment. This year’s study, which Cohn & Wolfe did in conjunction with Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland, tells a completely different story.  

We found that all consumers are a shade of green. The majority (34%) are a vibrant, active green while 11% are a duller and more passive green, but we all fall somewhere on the spectrum and we all cognitively acknowledge a role in the environmental problem. The Active Green people very pointedly blame themselves for global warming and can identify steps towards improving their own green behavior. The Dull Greens, while not entirely convinced the problem is as dire as some say, make a minimal effort to be part of the solution. 

For Cohn & Wolfe, the important question is how to develop Green platforms that help our clients communicate to customers along the entire green spectrum. In working with our clients on Green strategies, the fundamentals of CSR and reputation management certainly come into play, but we also have to address more intuitive aspects of the topic. Last year’s study, for example, indicated that companies with green-colored logos may subconsciously sway consumers into thinking they’re healthier or better for the Earth. (Lesson for those companies that already have green logos: You have a built-in advantage!) 

For many well-known companies, such as Whole Foods (the brand identified as the “greenest” by consumers in the 2007 study), communicating Green is fundamental to the brand. Other companies are testing various techniques to see what consumers respond to but have already learned — for example, that programs such as carbon offsets are only acceptable in conjunction with a concerted effort to actually reduce emissions.  For many companies, the thought of becoming a Green business is still in a nascent state and the communication piece is far away. 

No matter what stage of developing a Green strategy a company is in, I do know that if consumer concern expands in 2007 as quickly as it did in 2006, communication will play an increasingly important role. We already know that consumers are suspicious of the word “natural” and confused about the differences between “recyclable” and “biodegradable.” What will happen when people really care?

Over the last few weeks, people have confessed to me that they are overwhelmed by the blogosphere. They have trouble finding blogs to suit their interests. Not surprising, since there are a reported 71 million blogs already on the Web today, according to Technorati, a popular blog search engine. (see David Sifry’s full report on the State of the Blogosphere)

So how do you find relevant and interesting blogs? Using specialized blog search engines like Technorati, IceRocket, and Google blog search should be your first step. I think Technorati is the most user-friendly of the bunch. It also compiles the most popular blogs for its Technorati Top 100, which can be a timesaver when you’re looking for the most influential blogs. Then there’s IceRocket: It has great trending tools that I use to illustrate momentum on a particular topic in the blogosphere. Google Blog is my least favorite, but they have a valuable feature that allows searching within a specific time frame.  

Choose relevant keywords and make sure to use synonyms to expand your results. When you find a blog you like, scroll down to the blogroll. The blogroll includes related sites or blogs that a blogger finds interesting or valuable, which could be a goldmine of data and means your search is complete. For example, The Huffington Post has an exceptional blogroll that lists the most interesting and influential politicos around.  

I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve learned by searching blogs and the people connected to them. In particular, I recently stumbled upon Neuromarketing, a blog that leverages brain science for marketing and sales. (Yeah, yeah — I know I’m a nerd. I’ve come to terms with it.) Topics range from green neuromarketing to multisensory advertising. Blogger Roger Dooley provides the neurological basis behind consumer behavior, among other things, and it’s great to see how science can apply to the business world. 

If you’re a newcomer to the blogosphere, don’t get discouraged by the tens of millions of blogs. There are plenty of great blogs out there — you just need to learn how to use the tools at hand.   

I envy the Extreme Green who, in stereotype, is the happy treehugger who would lay down for her cause, has been committed to saving the environment long before it was trendy and can comfortably glorify seitan and other vegan delights. These are the people who deserve credit for their dedication and for making us all aware, and there’s an appeal for me in being that pure, that simple and that full of conviction. But I also know that’s not really who I am and it’s not who most of us are.  

The New Green person, though, is one to whom I can more comfortably relate and aspire to be. She (or he) recognizes that her behavior affects the environment and she wants to be part of the solution, but does so without sacrificing the things that make her happy and keep her sane. This is the approach, I think, that will ultimately drive innovation around green and allow us to find earth-friendly solutions that can be more easily integrated into and accepted by society.  

A new client of ours, Tastybaby, is the perfect example. Co-founders Liane Weintraub and Shannan Swanson are absolutely dedicated to making their frozen organic baby food and lifestyle brand environmentally friendly. They spent months developing and testing biodegradable containers for their baby food before determining that the technology was just not there yet to keep the food safe. So they opted for recyclable plastic containers and continue the quest for a biodegradable answer. Liane calls the day they switched to the recyclable plastic “the darkest day of the company,” but I have no doubt their determination will be a catalyst for a solution in the near future.  

You’ll see this for yourself when you check out www.tastybaby.com, but one of the other cool things about the company is the unique take on healthy and balanced living. Because they are almost interchangeable, I can use the same words to describe both Liane and Shannan and Tastybaby the company: intelligent, captivating, dedicated and balanced. If they have their way, and I think they will, we will be living in a Tasty World.