Un blogger a subasta

Cada vez más, los blogs se están convirtiendo en una poderosa herramienta de promoción personal. Pero es verdad que hay ocasiones en que algunos llegan demasiado lejos.

Es el caso de Jeremy Wright, un autor que está subastando sus conocimientos en E-bay.

Quien gane la subasta (pensada para empresas) tendrá los servicios de Wright durante 3 meses, tiempo durante el cual escribirá de 5 a 10 posts a la semana en el blog que se le indique. Además, realizará una consultoría personalizada para ayudar a crear o mejorar un blog corporativo.

Wright ha explicado las razones que le han llevado a lanzar semejante iniciativa.

Why am I doing this?
To be honest, I’m doing this to raise the profile of blogging, plain and simple. Plus, being a writer as well as a consultant in a past life, I know I can help companies figure out if blogging is the right space for them to be looking at.

What’s in it for companies?
One of my business blogging friends sees it as an opportunity for companies to team with a well known blogger who will, at the very least, help them figure out if / how blogging fits into their culture. In addition they’re getting a regular content stream and, finally free consulting. After the 3 months it’s my goal that they’ll know if it’s for them and, hopefully, they’ll know if they have internal resources to carry on blogging (as, to me, that’s the ideal).

Shouldn’t companies have internal people blogging?
Given the choice, yes. In the same way that, given the choice, companies should have all marketing and branding materials created internally. That’s the ideal. However the reality is very different. Employees may not know the segment, may be constricted by marketing principles which simply won’t work in blogging and may end up doing more harm than good.

This is a dry run with an industry expert. If you were learning to golf you’d hire a pro, and that’s all this is. Someone to teach a company to blog, if it fits them.

Isn’t this all a little stupid?
Maybe. But, like all free market stuff, you never know if there’s a demand for something until you try. If there is a demand for this, there may be a demand for more blogger trials at more companies in which case - who knows - maybe I’ll end up brokering such deals for other bloggers with other companies.

You just don’t know until you try, and I’m quite happy to put myself out there as a guinea pig to see if this works.

Es decir, que no le importa presentarse como un conejillo de indias.

Sin lugar a dudas, es un experimiento alocado y audaz, sólamente comprensible y asumible para alguien que no tiene miedo al ridículo, normalmente proveniente de la cultura anglosajona.

La idea de Wright no sólo no ha causado escándalo, sino que ha creado una escuela que ya tiene su primer adepto: Darren Barefoot (en la foto). Quien lo viera con traje y con esas gafas no se lo podría creer.

Mientras algunos bloggers hispanos se rasgan las vestiduras diciendo que sus blogs nunca serán "tablones de anuncios para empresas", hay quienes le dan la vuelta y se presentan a si mismos como "conejillos de indias a subasta".

No sé si los 500 dólares que, a día de hoy, podríán obtener Wright o Barefoot merezcan la pena este tipo de exposición...