A particular question has surfaced repeatedly in my mind as we've worked on these blog and Web 2.0 sites: “What do you call what we do?”
Is it Better than Blog Consulting?
I thought it best to go right to the source. Here are some excerpts from a thread at the Bryght projects blog:
(Mark) ...What do you call what we do?
- "Blog Consulting?" - meh!
- Social Software facilitators - snore...
- Commoncraft (who I found through GoodBasic) has a good description: "...Social Design for the Web, which is focused on business strategies for bringing people together online."
So what term will:
- satisfy the blogerati?
- not confuse the hell out of Mary Jane Customer and Joseph Averageman?
- not cause the eyes of Big Business to glaze over?
Mark Yuasa
Boris Mann's Take:
We had this discussion with Darren and I came back to "Internet Marketing"...it has just evolved to include things like blogging, search optimization, community management, etc.
Lee at CommonCraft is going a particular direction: community architect, social design, etc. If you asked, I'm pretty sure he'd never say blog consultant.
So...Internet Consulting, Web Presence Designer, Conversation Coordinator. I would probably stick to Internet Consulting and then have a list of things that you actually do. For instance, I certainly would never put "web design" on the list of things I do, but I would put search optimization.
Boris Mann
Kris Krug's Take:
Haha... had this coversation 3 times now today. It's a heirarchy and depends how narrow you want to define....
- IT consulting?
- web development?
- community content hosting?
- technology providors?
- web 2.0 evangelists?
- open source software developers?
- digital lifestyle aggregators? *snicker*
just to add some more to the list
Kris Krug
Talking with Will Pate:
I had a chat over barbeque and Halo 2 with Will about the same topic. If I recall correctly, he says "Blog Consulting" is just a fraction of what he does, falling within the general "Web 2.0 Consulting" title.
I wish the word Blog was never invented. It should really be called personal publishing.
Will Pate
As a sidenote: Do NOT challenge Will Pate to a round of Halo 2. That is, unless you want to quiver with inadequacy for days after the match. This means you Kris.
What's in a Name?
So it looks like "Internet Marketing" and "Web 2.0 Consulting" are on the short-list. I tend to agree with Will on the Web 2.0 angle, and you know Boris and Kris (Bryght Boys that they are) sing its praises. That said, not all Internet Marketers are blog consultants; neither are all blog consultants Web 2.0 consultants.
So, no uber-title found today. Something tells me that at the speed of the web, it wont take long.