Fear of a blogging planet

If the thought that everyone around you is writing a blog — maybe even one that mentions you — is keeping you up at night, imagine how unglued big companies and big media are coming at the Internet’s Next Big Thing.

And when I say “Next Big Thing” I’m not even referring to the blogging revolution. That’s so 2001. Now, just about anyone with a voice can podcast. Vlogging is coming into its own, too.

Are the inmates running the asylum?

Not yet. But they may one day.

Depending on whom you ask, there are between 50 and 70 million bloggers in the world. Few have any formal training as journalists (not that it makes any difference). Big companies are scrambling to keep tabs on the online media — a lot of Web consulting firms now offer so-called “reputation management” services that follow the most influential blogs.

I’ve been asked to share my thoughts about blogging on a panel tomorrow in Washington. But like a lot of people who have been “blogging” for a while (my first Web journal was published back in 1996, and I posted a few unwieldy “podcasts” on my site in 1999) I haven’t really taken a lot of time to ponder this revolutionary thing called blogging.

Let me throw a few numbers out there …

About half of all Americans (55 million) read a newspaper every day, according to Editor & Publisher. That’s about the same number of Americans who visited a blog during the first quarter of 2005, according to a comScore Networks survey.

There are 250 million radio listeners, according to the National Association of Broadcasters. But by comparison, there are just 5,000 podcasts being distributed daily, and only 10 million people have downloaded a podcast.

The number of vloggers is estimated in just the thousands. Yet there are an estimated 110.2 million television households in the country, according to Nielsen Media Ratings.

What does this tell me?

Traditional media is still dominant, and will likely remain dominant for years to come. But if you are part of the traditional media (which I confess, I am) this is no time for complacency. The number of bloggers, podcasters and vloggers grows by the minute, and I think it’s important to understand these new forms of media.

I’d be much more concerned if I were in charge of public relations for a large company. Information used to be pretty easy to control — it was disseminated by an elite few national media outlets. The rest didn’t really matter.

That is no longer true. A well-placed blogger now has the capability of inflicting as much PR damage as any TV report or newspaper article. If corporate America isn’t part of the blogosphere (look at Boeing for a good example of what I mean) then it will eventually get broadsided by it.

If it hasn’t been already.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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