Are You A Type B Blogger?
Blogs started off as personal journals maintained on line and many are still like that. Blogs by their structure and through the associated news feeds they generate are very visible on the Internet. Given this, it’s not surprising that they’re being used increasingly for business purposes. Some say marketing is all about dialogue. What could be a better vehicle for such a dialogue than a blog?
The blogging software is so user-friendly that everyone is jumping into the pool and blogging their hearts out. If they have a hankering for writing and are just blogging to enjoy themselves that’s great. However you can sense that some hope they’re doing something useful for their businesses. That may or may not be true. Few will be harming their business, but many may be spinning their wheels.
It is interesting to look at the blogs produced by company CEOs and classify them. They fall into two types. This is not the same Type A / Type B classification used to assess personalities. You may remember that a Type A personality generally referred to hard workers who were often preoccupied with schedules and the speed of their performance. Type B personalities were seen as more creative, imaginative, and philosophical. This typology was originally formulated to detect behaviours that lead to heart attacks.
Although there might be a certain value in using those types, a more useful split is into Type P and Type B bloggers. For Type P blogs, the P indicates Personal. They’re writing traditional blogs on whatever comes to mind. They do it for themselves. For Type B blogs, the B indicates Business. The Type B bloggers are to an extent doing it because it pleases them, but they’re writing their blogs with their customers and prospects in mind. In other words, they mean business.
It’s all a question of objectives. In some ways you can liken it to making a visit to a sales prospect that you’ve never met. In such a case, would you just go as you are or would you think a little and dress and act appropriately to try to make the sale happen.
There are many more Type P bloggers around than you might expect. Are they all doing it because they enjoy it? Perhaps some of them may decide to be more Type B. Whichever way they take that, it’s probably a good thing.
Related: Business Blogging – Type P or Type B?
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September 22nd, 2006 at 4:04 am
You forgot the new category of blogs – automated blogs – populated using RSS technology – which people just create to hopefully make some bucks in adsense.
September 22nd, 2006 at 6:15 am
Good point, Google Success. I was refering to human bloggers rather than to splogs.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:25 am
blogging is only fun when it is real….those automated blogs are just a waste of time for the reader but also the generator of it.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:33 am
I am definitely a type b type of blogger! I like to teach people how to blog.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Automated blogs have actually gone way past just RSS feeds now. I have many blogs that pull in unique content automatically from many sites without the use of RSS. It’s a changing world. Thanks for the great post.
Joseph
October 28th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Is the distinction really so black and white I would assess mine as 80%B with 20% P thrown in. If the personality isn’t there in some shape of form it just does not work for me.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Excellent point, Ex Smoker. It’s a point that was very well expressed by Pierre Far in a comment on an article on The Blog in the MRN – Marketing Right Now series. I think blogs with personality win hands down over those without personality.