Shel Israel, co-author of the book Naked Conversations, How Blogs Are Changing The Way Businesses Talk With Customers, took the time to talk with the Buzz Bin about the advantage of corporate blogs and social media. Shel says while interviewing prominent bloggers for his book, he became convinced that blogging was spearheading something real and fundamental – something that would instigate a change that benefited both companies and customers. Read on for more thoughts from Shel and check out his blog, Global Neighbourhoods.

BB: What propelled you to write Naked Conversations?

SI: Desperation. I sold my PR agency to employees in 2001, just in time for the value of a communications expert specializing in Silicon Valley startups imploded. I figured that if I was going to take a vow of poverty, I might as well go back to my first love of journalism.

But traditional editorial jobs were also imploding—something like 75,000 jobs disappeared between 2001-04 in North America. The editors I was applying to were getting laid off before I could get in to see them. So I started approaching people who were better known than me, to see if they would collaborate with me on a book.

Scoble was the 4^th person I approached. He said he would do it, but he did not fully engage for several weeks. Then he declared that we should blog the book and have publishers go to eBay to bid on it. I said, “Let’s think about it.� I told my wife I thought the guy was loony tunes. The next morning I woke up and found that he had blogged that we were going to do it the way he said. What struck me is that I had scores of comments on my little known personal blog.

We actually did get the publishers to competitively bid, but not on eBay. I did not get the power of the blog—and the conversation—until I started interviewing prominent bloggers for the book—almost 200 of them. And story after story from blogger after blogger convinced me that blogging was spearheading something real and fundamental, something that would instigate a change that benefited both companies and customers.

That’s when I turned my short collar around and became an evangelist.

BB: What percentage of corporate blogs succeed – and what does it entail to be successful?

SI: I have no idea how you would quantify such a number nor would I be the one to try it. To succeed you need to understand that talking with customers benefits you more than shouting at them.

BB: You make a comment about the Jet Blue fiasco on your Global Neighbourhoods blog. How badly did their lack of response hurt them?

SI: As I recall, I came out rather favorably on JetBlue. My religion is all about the conversations between customers. Blogs happen to be the first popular social media tool and they are very good at bringing customers and companies together into a conversation.

JetBlue’s CEO expressed regret and humiliation about the incident and vowed to do better. However, the rubber meets the runway when customers and prospects determine if JetBlue can do better in the future while remaining profitable and in growth mode. Blog won’t accomplish that. But how JetBlue is perceived will be determined by bloggers and I think the company would be wise to join the conversation going on about them.

BB: You’re a senior fellow at the Society of New Media Research. Do you view social networking as an art or a science?

SI: Neither. Nor would I define SNCR as just a social networking organization. The Society is addressing numerous areas including business and academia where people need to better understand the new tools of social media.

BB: If companies choose not get involved with new media, will it hurt them in the long run?

SI: In the long run, many such companies who ignore the transformation going on will end up in Jurassic Park with other fossils who fail to adapt to change. If today’s business decision makers want to understand where the marketplace is headed over the next 5, 10 or 20 years they should look at young people, who will be replacing my generation in companies and in the market. Look at their habits. The emerging generation is the Online Generation. They have Teflon resistance to traditional marketing. They get information online, not on TV or in newspapers. To ignore the phenomenon of what is going on will be unfortunate, but for a great number of companies this is probably what will happen.

During every era that is noted by technology innovation—steamships, trains, planes, TV, mainframes, etc. There are incumbents who are doing just fine until they are not. And then it is too late.

The last time I ever spoke to my Travel Agent, she was telling me how Internet Travel services would not hurt her because of the close personal service she provided her customers. I’ve always wondered what ever happened to her.

BB: What are your favorite marketing blogs?

SI: I never list my favorite blogs. I want people to find the ones that are good for them. Ranking doesn’t do it. My referral doesn’t do it. Go out and read a bunch of blogs. Find the ones that are relevant to you, that are useful and interesting to your business. Subscribe to them. Every few months drop the ones you are not reading and just keep rocking on with the ones you find you cannot live without.

BB: Last year, Time Magazine dubbed its Blogger of the Year, which seemed to legitimize blogging. How has that, as well as the impact of books like yours, affected the blogosphere. Has it made a difference?

SI: There are 70 million blogs, posting 2000 times a minute 24/7. Blogs do not need the contrived endorsement of a fading traditional publication to be legitimized. Naked Conversations was a simple attempt to tell businesses of all sizes the strategic advantages to blogging.

Bloggers have used the book to educate others about what can be done. The explosion of tools that have come out since Naked Conversations was published shows that the social media explosion revolution has only just begun. We’re pretty proud that we seem to have played some role in pushing it along.