"If you're not blogging, you're an idiot," management uber-guru Tom Peters told hundreds of attendees at the 27th annual Inc. 5000 conference in Washington DC. "No single thing in the last 15 years has been more important to me professionally than blogging... It's changed my thinking, it’s changed my outlook… it’s the best damn marketing tool and it’s free."
In response to a question from moderator Susan Sobbott, president of AmEx OPEN ("True or False? You have control over your brand"), Tom said his perception of "brand" has changed since he started blogging in July 2004 (his first post was an enthusiastic review of Barack Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention). "The brand is now to a significant degree the quality of the conversation... and the conversation IS the brand," he said.
Fellow panelist Seth Godin agreed: "What matters is the humility that comes from writing (a blog), that forces you to describe why you did something. It doesn't matter if anyone is reading your blog.
Below Tom reprises how blogging has changed his life and his business.
Previous Comments
Andee Sellman said on September 21, 2008 at 07:47 AM
Hi Debbie,
Really great to hear these comments from the greatest Management guru in the world. I’m just new to blogging and it is a great encouragement to hear that I’m on the right track
Rajesh Kumar said on September 24, 2008 at 05:48 AM
Debbie, I have been following this conference through this blog and must say you are doing a great job.
Alistair Shaw said on October 10, 2008 at 04:37 AM
I work in internal comms and this achieves in two minutes way more than I could hope to, in arguing the case for a CEO/senior leader doing a blog, with half an hour worth of slides.
Debbie Weil said on October 10, 2008 at 08:17 AM
Alistair,
Thanks for your comment. It’s amazing how powerful a video is. I try to make them 60 seconds, even better than 2 mins.
Shaun Haney said on December 24, 2008 at 08:34 PM
I completely agree with tom on his point that blogging is changing the way that we access information. People no longer want information tomorrow, because they want it now. The internet and more importantly, blogging has accomplished this. The community that results from blogging creates greater sharing amongst the peer group which fosters faster rates of innovation.
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