I've Been Bad.

And I'll admit it.

I haven't read GapingVoid for a long, long time. Hugh got too sucked into keeping me up to date on all the *things* he was doing and the people he was *talking to*, instead of *what* he was *thinking about* and *talking about* (By the way, is it bad internet grammar to use asteriks like that?).

Anyway, I wandered back over, and it's a reminder that I shouldn't let things that I once found interesting slip out of my consciousness if they go through uninteresting bits.

And I found this excellent post about a conversation he had with a client. Here's the top bullet points, but please go to Hugh's excellent site and read the post - he's right.

1. I'm not here to tell you about your business.

2. To me, The Cluetrain is the most important book about the internet ever written.

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

3. Nobody cares about you. That last sentence terrifies a lot of corporate types...

4. You've already done "efficient". We're living in a post-efficiency world now...

THESIS:

5. The growth will come, I believe, not by yet more increased efficiencies, but by humanification.

6. If corporate blogs work, it's because they help humanify the company.

7. Blogging is not about reaching a mass audience. Blogging is not about creating yet another sales channel. Blogging is about allowing "The Smarter Conversation" to happen.

Blogs allow you to cheaply and quickly begin a smarter conversation. And once you get it going, that conversation starts bleeding out into all other areas of your business- including advertising, PR and corporate communications.

8. Having a "Smarter Conversation" is not an intellectual decision. It's a moral decision.

9. Just because the conversation started out smart, doesn't mean it stayed that way.

WRAP-UP:

10. A fairly comprehensive list of corporate blogs can be found here on Wikipedia. [UPDATE: The Wikipedia list seems to have been taken down; but thankfully there's another list here.]

11. Blogs are very culturally disruptive- more so than people realize. So the question you have to ask yourself is, what part of your business are you trying to disrupt? Because you have to be ready for it.

12. "Conversation" is just a metaphor. Then again, no it's not.

13. Here are some links to give you some food for thought: Go to Hugh's site for all these:) please.

14. Remember, our internal drives were hardwired into us long before money was invented. So we're not doing it just for the money. We're really doing it to find meaning. Just my opinion.

15. Thoughts from my day job: "What's driving innovation and sales on our end is not a technological issue, it's a cultural issue. Get the right culture going, and the tech looks after itself."

Man, I've missed ya Hugh.