Over at the Experience Economist, David Polinchock has a few words for Brandweek's commentary about the lack of value of blogs as a whole, let along for marketing purposes. It seems that the folks at Brandweek don't see the point, considering that most blogs are written by people who "can't, you know, write." I mean, who would ever think that there are people on this planet who aren't employed by a print publication who have the capability to string together a few hundred words or so, and turn it into something of value. And who would have ever thought that the fact that there are a million publications - online and off - that have a lot of value, including Brandweek, that not every single person on the planet subscribes to or regularly reads, and perhaps said bloggers might work as a filter for said publications, further spreading the reach of that publication. Wow, no value? I don't think anyone would be complaining about their site's visitors going up anytime soon, even if it is because of something critical.

As for companies wanting to reach bloggers, there's a reason for it - people aren't reading every publication, but are finding like-minded individuals who write blogs, and reading them instead. There are plenty of blogs doing original work, writing the same kind of commentary on advertising and marketing that folks at Adweek, Brandweek's sister pub, are doing. There are plenty of bloggers regularly interviewing people for stories, plenty of blogs getting scoops, and receiving credit from major publications.

While it might be okay to call a few blogs out for not knowing what they're doing, and that every blog isn't a five-star publication, that doesn't mean the whole lot is a waste of your time.