Jeff Jarvis Interview on Weblogs.

iwantmedia: Jeff Jarvis: 'Bloggers Are Becoming Influencers'

Here is a great interview with Jeff Jarvis who heads Advance.net . He comments on how blogging fits into marketing. A good read.

IWM: Newsweek recently reported that, in a blog-related twist on viral marketing, Dr. Pepper is recruiting "key influence bloggers" to help promote a new beverage. Is such commercialism the next step for blogs?

Jarvis: They went about it the exact wrong way. Rather than creating a Weblog, they should have gone to Webloggers. When they want to advertise on TV, they don't start a Dr. Pepper TV show; when they want to advertise in print, they don't start a paper or a magazine. So why start a blog? Because they confused the tool with the people who use it.

If I were Dr. Pepper, I would have given out samples of the product to bloggers and see what they said. Even if they hated it, some would write about it. Or I'd advertise on blogs -- there can be no cheaper CPM anywhere in media. This works for marketers and also for PR people: Bloggers are becoming influencers. Note how they are getting quoted in newspapers now. So you should deal with a blogger just as you deal with any other media person.

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