Alex Kapranos patched things up with an unhappy blogger
Bloggers have something of a reputation for being sad losers who post their opinions into an online echo chamber when they could be outside in the fresh air kicking a football around with the other kids. Yes, many of the blogs out there have more value to the author than they do to any audience they might attract, but bloggers have a secret.
What the critics don’t realise is that bloggers are listened to. When you sit in the pub and complain about poor service by your phone company, the CEO of the company isn’t going to come down and apologise to you and offer to make amends. Your complaint goes nowhere and nothing gets done. However, bloggers know that when they click ‘Publish’ on that 500 word rant complaining about the same problem it’s only a matter of time before someone at the company sees it. Chances are, they might get in touch too.
Remember Peter Askins and his video complaining about BT a couple of years ago? It got him listened to and his problem was dealt with. Similar things happen to bloggers all the time because companies know that bloggers have influence. Even the smallest of blogs can turn up in Google search results so if there’s a problem it’s in the company’s best interests to sort it out.
One of the most interesting recent examples of this in action involved not a brand, but a band. Mindy Gofton is a Manchester-based blogger who writes over at The Indie Credential. On Friday night she went to see Franz Ferdinand at Manchester Academy and was shocked at how poor the sound system appeared to be. She could barely identify any of the songs. On Saturday she posted a review of the gig that was scathing to say the least.
“I can’t tell you if they played a decent show or not because the sound system was so woefully inadequate that all I could hear for most of the gig was drums and a little bass. I honestly may as well have stood in a crowd of people in my front room and listened to their albums through the wall on a blown speaker“.
She also accused the band of ripping off fans “to save a few quid”.
Well, who’d have thought it, just a few hours later Franz Ferdinand’s frontman Alex Kapranos had posted a reply! He apologied for Mindy’s disappointment and gave a well reasoned argument for the band’s choice of sound system. He even returned the next day to further clarify a few points. Mindy wrote up a full account of what happened over at the I-Com blog.
Seriously, this is why blogging is not a ’sad’ activity to be mocked. It’s a ‘direct line’ to the people who matter, the people in power. It’s a cliché to say that the internet is “The Great Leveler” but it’s true. Unless you have the right connections you could never expect to have a direct conversation with the lead singer of an internationally successful rock band about the sound quality at their gig. The internet makes that possible.
It’s not just blogs that have influence online. Brands (and even some bands, as we’ve seen!) are listening to the wider ‘conversation’ going on through everything from Twitter to Facebook. Techcrunch today asks Are Blogs Losing Their Authority To The Statusphere? Blogs are still important but they’re part of a wider patchwork of services and outlets for information and conversation.
It’s a brave new world of ground-level empowerment and it’s exciting. You can’t expect everything you post to get a response “from the top” but when it happens it can have a powerful effect. So, what are you waiting for? Dive in and get your voice heard!
[Image credit: Gussifer on Flickr]
