On Sunday night, Steve Rubel took character blogging to task, calling the a "complete waste of time." I beg to differ, but with exceptions, of course. It's not a waste of time if you pick a character that would appeal to people, or is someone that would be amusing to "hear from." With the popularity of personal blogs out there these days (and for the history of blogging), attracting an audience shouldn't be an issue. Putting the personality of a fictional character "on paper" could be a way to keep your brand top of mind for the site's readers, in fact. A short while ago, I wrote about making your site "sticky," meaning a way to get people to come back again and again. Character blogs is a perfect execution of this concept, if done correctly.

Just because PR folks and internal marketing professionals are using blogs to communicate directly with customers through executives and other "humans." What Rubel fails to point out is the bet that many "executive blogs" are surely not absolutely the work of that one executive, and have probably been vetted by one or more PR, marketing, or legal department folks. Also missed is the fact that while blogs are a conversation tool, there are other ways to get visitors involved. Perhaps it's not the way that you would perceive blogs to work for everyone, but that doesn't mean that a company having their mascot or character filing a blog needs transparency. What if characters from a television show were to blog, with details from the show they are a part of, and perhaps details "filling in" the time between episodes? Oh, that's right. It's already happening. Vodkafish leads us to Nigel's Blog, the place to hear from Nigel Townsend, the medical examiner on NBC's Crossing Jordan. It's interactive, conversational, and interesting if you're a follower of the television show.

So again, I'll state that character blogs can work - well - when done properly.