Building Brand Equity in the Blogosphere

I just returned from an event where Robert Scoble and Shel Israel (authors of Naked Conversations www.nakedconversations.com) shared their experiences and vision regarding blogging and other social media. It was entertaining and informative. I asked Robert about how you build readership on your blog. He described what sounded like a journey over a few years of participation in various social media. The question I still have is how does an unknown blogger (like myself) build readership and brand? Robert had the benefit of the Microsoft brand halo and being one of the first in this new media, but what about the rest of us?

I read the book, I'm practicing the art, I'm asking the experts, so time will tell whether I get the results. It will be helpful as I meet with other marketing executives dealing with this same issue. If you have brand awareness & site traffic, you can leverage your existing assets. For those building a brand, launching a new company or new product, how do you leverage this new medium to build awareness, advocacy and eventually demand for whatever it is you have to offer the world? Robert, Shel, I seek your wisdom...

I also wanted to say I was quite relieved to hear Shel express similar sentiment regarding blogging tools (see my last posting). It seems that while Shel is technical enough (or persistent enough) to get things working, his wife is not yet up to par with the html skills of the technical community. Thank God I'm not alone! Perhaps this helps us understand the demographics of the blogosphere and understand that blogging tools are a gating factor to extending the demographics to a broader audience?