如果你认真对待思想，请认真对待博客

土木坛子

我曾经写过“建立独立博客的好处”，解释为什么在微博大行其道的今天，我仍然在写博客。最近读到一篇哈佛商业评论的博文，讲到博客的影响力，虽然博客和独立博客有些区别，但是如果说到影响力，独立博客的效果也许更好，就像我上次提到的那样：用独立博客占领全球。

原文是英文，坛子觉得不错，不敢独享，于是把它翻译成中文。第一次翻译博文，自己读懂和用中文翻译出来是两回事，水平有限，现丑了。懂英文的同学建议阅读原文: If You’re Serious About Ideas, Get Serious About Blogging, author: Dorie Clark

最近，Pinterest和Instagram两家公司占驻各大媒体头条报道：被形容成不顾一切地竞争打造下一个巨型平台。但是，这并不意味着它们是所有公司最有用的社交媒体工具。当然，有些公司擅长使用这些基于图片的网络(Benjamin Moore公司的数字营销主任告诉我，Pinterest对他们非常有用：就好像是为Benjamin Moore而生)。不过对于那些想让自己的创意和想法广为人知的组织和个人，最清晰的途径——也是容易被低估的——是博客。虽然最近几年博客没有被人热议，却变得越发不可缺少，就像世界银行(该组织最近邀请我给他们的全球员工谈一谈博客)这样的组织也如此认为。

确实，如果你想改变公众的观点，你需要变成那个写作报道的人。雅虎公司做了一个有意思的研究，发现不到20000名Twitter用户——只占当时总用户数量的0.05%——产生的内容占驻被消费的内容的50%之多。极少部分的“精英用户”占驻着话题的主调，这和博客世界的总体情况相似。

博客能够影响主流媒体的观点从未像现在那么重要。我十年前从事记者职业时，我的编辑如果决定把某些内容放到网上，却不放在印刷版的报纸上时，这样的决定通常会被拒绝。那时候，很少有人看网上的内容，在前谷歌时代(没有搜索引擎)这些在线内容会像乙醚一样蒸发到空气中，那时候网上的内容不像家门口的报纸那样，看得见摸得着。现在的情况却是一切都倒转过来。一篇文章放在网上会永远存在，并且能被全世界上各个角落里的人读到。New York Times网站上Nick Bilton的博客与其印刷版的报纸拥有同样重要的可信度。在科技世界，Mashable的博客甚至比Times杂志更具有可信度。今天，我们被信息的质量所衡量，而不再是品牌。如果你能产生高质量的内容，就可能慢慢地变成一个值得信赖的强有力的消息源，一个具有法律效力的媒体。

是的，博客的数量这些年来有了暴涨，这不是秘密。2011年末，博客的总数量达到1.81亿，而在2006年，这个数量不过3600万。博客现在要得到关注，越来越难，因为噪音越来越多。然而，有理由相信，博客世界中那些严肃认真(高质量，注意思想)的博客之间的竞争会变弱，因此进一步增加博客的影响力。

第一个原因，近十年来，付费新闻媒体令人失望的下滑减少了过半的职业记者，而正是因为他们曾经一度在搜寻信息并创造好的内容(就在数周前，行业先驱New York Times报纸宣布了又一轮裁员)。第二个原因，业余博客主的数量在减少，因为这些博客主很难跟得上节奏。每周写几篇700字左右有深度的文章，在没有任何收入或者说很少的收入情况下，比起发张照片或者编一条140字的微博推文显然要更费劲。这也是Pew在2010的调查中的发现，年轻一代的人们写博客的频率越来越低，取而代之把时间花在社交网络上。

为了在网络上展示专长，写作依然是最清晰和最有决定性作用的媒介方式。不过，正如思想领袖Gary Vaynerchuk通过视频博客、哈佛商业评论博客主Mitch Joel用播客证明的那样，只要你的博客富含内容，不论通过何种渠道，总可以建立广泛的跟随者和名声。在一个对信息极度饥渴的世界里，总有对专业内容的需求。而且，读者和转载文章的人数永远比创造内容的人数多得多。

如果你想取得影响力，你也许要设定你的日程表，通过写博客传播你的想法。

英文原文：

These days, Pinterest and Instagram get all the headlines as companies desperately racing to establish a beachhead on what could be the next mega-platform. But that doesn’t mean they’re the most useful social media tools for all companies. Sure, some businesses excel on those photo-based networks (Benjamin Moore’s Director of Digital Marketing told me Pinterest worked so well for them, “it’s almost like it was made for Benjamin Moore.”) But for organizations and individuals that want to be known for their ideas, the clearest — yet most underrated — path is through blogging. It hasn’t been buzzed about in years, but it’s more essential than ever, as organizations like the World Bank (which recently invited me to speak to their global staff about blogging) recognize.

Indeed, if you want to shape public opinion, you need to be the one creating the narrative. A fascinating study last year by Yahoo Research showed that only 20,000 Twitter users (a mere .05% of the user base at the time) generated 50% of all tweets consumed. A small number of “elite users” sets the conversational tenor, just as in the general world of blogging.

And blogging’s ability to impact mainstream discourse has never been greater. When I worked as a reporter a decade ago, I knew that when my editor decided to put something on the web — but not in the actual paper — it was a brushoff. Fewer people would see the web content, and (pre-Google) it would evaporate into the ether; it wasn’t solid like an actual paper on someone’s doorstep. Now the hierarchy has been reversed; an article lives forever on the web and will be seen around the world. Nick Bilton’s blog on the New York Times website has just as much credibility as what’s in the print edition; and Mashable, in the tech world, has as much or more credibility than the Times. Nowadays, we’re measured by the quality of information — not its brand name. If you create high-quality content, you legitimately may become a source as powerful and trusted as the “legacy media.”

Of course, it’s no secret that the number of blogs has shot up in recent years; at the end of 2011, there were 181 million, compared to only 36 million in 2006. It’s harder to get noticed as the noise level increases. But there’s reason to believe that serious (high-quality, idea-focused) competition in the blogging world is likely to wane in the future, further increasing your impact.

One cause is the sad, decade-long decline of the paid news media, which has nearly halved the number of professional reporters out there seeking information and providing good content. (Only weeks ago, even the industry-leading New York Times announced yet another round of cuts.) Second, “avocational” bloggers are likely to drop off simply because it’s hard work to keep up the pace. Writing an insightful 700 word article several times a week, for no or little money, is far more taxing than snapping a photo or sending a 140 character tweet. That’s part of the reason a 2010 Pew study showed that the rate of blogging was declining among teens and young adults, who were instead spending their time on social networks.

Writing is still the clearest and most definitive medium for demonstrating expertise on the web. But as thought leaders like Gary Vaynerchuk have shown with video blogging and fellow HBR blogger Mitch Joel with podcasting (i.e., audio blogging), as long as your content is rich and thoughtful, you can still build up a massive following and reputation regardless of your channel. In an information-hungry world, there will always be a need for expert content. And there will always be more readers and “retweeters” than there will be creators.

If you want to have an impact, you might as well be the one setting the agenda by blogging your ideas.