Bloggers Get Organized

It was bound to happen. Someone formed an association...or two. And why not? Everyone needs a central clearinghouse of information, especially for industries or concepts taking the Web by storm, like blogs and blogging. If you're a joiner, or seek out associations because they often have a finger on the pulse of trends, this is for you.

Paul Chaney of Radiant Marketing says his company is "a leading business blog consultancy." Wow! And this leadingship rating came from where? I see he's on this list, but I believe Rick Bruner listed the firms alphabetically, not by prominence. Oh, yeah -- the reason for this mention. Paul is President of the Professional Bloggers Association. Go figure. They might change the name to International Association of Business Blogging Professionals at some point, according to Paul in a recent podcast. He's working to get professional recognition and respect for blog writing and development. If it works, I say "Hear! Hear!" Or maybe even "Write! Write!" Hey, Paul. I don't know anything about your capabilities. I'm just messin' with you, so take any slights with a grain of salt.

The Media Bloggers Association is a non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting MBA members and their blogs, educating bloggers, and promoting the explosion of citizen's media. Check out their membership list to see if you're a fit.

And since I appear to be talking out of both sides of my mouth...

The Marketing Bloggers Association is a group of marketing communications professionals dedicated to tapping into the potential of the blogosphere by connecting directly to opt-in customers. Its mission is to create an honest, consumer-oriented relationship between companies and their markets without the usual PR/spokesperson firewall. Spam Bloggers and Bloggers Without Morals are not eligible for membership. Okay. I made this all up. Are you interested? Email for an application form. I'll tell ya the address later when I figure out how to leverage spin this to line my pockets. [pause] Umm. [pause] Did I say that out loud? Gee, I guess I have no internal dialogue. [pause] BTW, membership is free. And so is this blog.

And speaking of Spam Bloggers, have you seen the annoying blogs loaded with screens of keywords and no useful content? Unfortunately, I ran into a few. And the Gevalia Coffee blogs cropping up all over the place? [fumes] Don't get me started.

[ technorati: industry associations, crass commercialism, materialism, blogs, blogging, grassroots media, post-journalism, distributed journalism, participatory journalism, participatory media, citizen journalist, citizen journalists, citizen journalism, citizen media, media fragmentation, media culture ]