Do blogs even matter now?
Richard Macmanus, the founder of ReadWriteWeb, recently asked that question in his annual post to commemorate his first blog post 14 years ago.
It’s been more than 10 years since our first Dell blog post. I was part of the team that launched the blog and remember well how we promised that “Real People are Here and We’re Listening.”
I’ve seen the Dell direct model expand to include multiple roads to market, and the Dell Technologies family grow to include Dell, Dell, Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream, and VMware. Through it all our desire for one-to-one contact with our customers has remained embedded in our culture.
A new look and a new blog
To keep up with this expansion, however, it was time for Direct2Dell to undergo a bit of its own digital transformation. As you can see, we’ve now got a new look; but the blog’s DNA remains the same – we’re still real people and we still want to listen and converse with our customers.
And, to help us tailor those conversations to the right audience, we have now transferred some of that Direct2Dell DNA into a brand new blog named Direct2Dell. It may be new, but it has a strong foundation created by merging the previous Dell4Enterprise, EMC Pulse and EMC Reflections blogs.
On Direct2Dell, we will focus on how we enable organizations to modernize, automate and transform their data center using industry-leading converged infrastructure, servers, storage and data protection technologies.
Here on Direct2Dell, we will continue to share stories about the company and our award-winning desktops, laptops, 2-in-1s and thin clients, workstations, rugged devices made for specialized environments, monitors, endpoint security solutions and services.
Yes. Yes, they do.
But back to the question of whether blogs even matter. Mcmanus said “Now, nobody reads or listens – we just write or talk into the ether, each of us stroking our own ego.” What excited him most about blogging in those early years was the comments, trackbacks, links inside the post, blogrolls and subscribing via RSS.
Well, the new Direct2Dell doesn’t include a blogroll, and trackbacks seem to have faded from most blogging platforms, but we do still want to hear your comments, will provide links inside the posts and encourage RSS subscriptions – as well as email subscriptions! (coming soon)
So I remain convinced that, yes, blogs do matter. And I commit to do my best as Dell’s chief blogger to bring you interesting, unique news, stories and discussions on both Direct2Dell and Direct2Dell. If you’d like to learn more about our approach to blogging at Dell, check out our new manifesto below.
Now, it’s up to you to keep me from talking into the ether!
