To Write is To Write

IC Blogs

As my focus has changed from overall public relations to internal communications in my day-to-day worklife, I have went on the hunt for more IC-related blogs.  I have found a few and have added them to my resources blogroll.  Here are two that I am find particularly interesting and insightful... Change & Internal Communications and Intranet Blog. If you write one or know of some that I don't have listed, please comment and point me in its/their direction.

Technorati Tags: Internal Communications, Employee Communications, Intranet

I dream of ...

quitting the corporate world and making a living from blogging and freelance public relations/writing.  If you are like me, let's both read Steve Pavlina's Making Money Post carefully and see if we can be like him.

Community Relations Blogs

I just discovered P&G's Community Relations Blog (Thanks Kevin Dugan) Notes from the Front Line.  This one and McDonald's Social Responsibility Blog are the first of the business blogs to highlight their community initiatives.  I suspect we see more of these types of blogs popping up as businesses start to understand blogging and its advantages more. 

I think blogging is an excellent way for businesses to share with the world their community intiatives and their outreach programs.  And, not only for the purposes of public relations, but because of the discussion and awareness that it creates.  If companies truly are transparent with their philantrophic endeavors and are blogging to share with the world the intricacies and the depth of these issues/problems that they deam important to tackle, then hopefully, it spurs a larger discussion about the problems that this world faces and creates, within that discussion, how the businesses (and individuals) can better help solve these problems that society faces.

If you know of other community relations blogs out there, please share them with me.  I would love to learn more about how companies/non-profits are tying blogging into their larger issue-oriented efforts.

Technorati Tags: Blogs, Community Relations, Business Blogging, Social Responsibility

Naked Conversations -- A Book, A Blog -- Necessary Reading for Communicators

So, I took a break from my work Friday and was tooling through CW, IABC's magazine.  I didn't get through the whole magazine, but I did read Neville Hobson's review of Naked Conversations.  If you are hanging in the PR blogosphere, you most likely have already heard of this book, this blog, its authors and Hobson.  But if not , I wanted to point you in the right direction. 

If you are at all interested in learning more about how blogs (and other social media) are changing the way businesses talk and engage with their customers, you have to check out this book, which was written by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.  The book is one of the most talked about business books in publishing history because the authors solicited their readers (blog readers) feedback via their blog while they were writing the book.

Hobson explains that Scoble and Israel included 50 case studies based on interviews with more than 50 who are involved with blogging.  Such people ranged from corporate CEOs to small business leaders and to self employed individuals.    The book makes the point that

"corporate communication is one-way and that customers are tired of being talked at.  They want to be talked with, to be engaged by people in organizations in a way that 'strips out all the crap that gets in the way of understanding and trust.' "

This is a definite read for anyone in the communications profession.  As communications vehicles change and as more customers enter the blogosphere, companies will have to understand how to enter in to the conversation with the same means or be left behind.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Business Blogging, Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, Robert Scoble, Neville Hobson, Shel Israel, Naked Conversations

FPRA Blog Week Wrapped Up--Great PR Articles

The FPRA Blog Week 2006 wrapped up last Friday.  If you have not been to their blog event site yet, be sure to check it out.  There are great articles and perspective from some of Florida's finest in public relations.   

The goal of the FPRA Blog Week was to showcase the talent of the Florida-based PR pracitioners, which it certainly did that.  What I wanted to reiterate in my post about it though is the stellar use of a blog to reach their goals.  To reference McLuhan, the medium is the message here.  The FPRA is using blog technology to raise awareness of its association, to provide valuable knowledge about public relations for those seeking it, to showcase their members expertise and to attract potential members by highlighting their innovative thinking. 

Of course, this is similiar to Global PR Blog Week and has been done before.  Yet, this type of usage of blog technology is still underused in my opinion.   Businesses in other industries have an opportunity to embrace and utilize advancing technology to bring folks together, to engage in deeper and more thought provoking conversations and to do so in a more efficient way then ever before.   Folks should look to events like this as a great example to showcase their organizations, to gain valuable feedback on new and/or existing intiatives/products/services and to further develop relationships with their publics.  Bravo FPRA! 

Technorati Tags: Public Relations, Blogging, Blogs, FPRA Blog Week 2006, Business Blogging

Drive Traffic to Your Blog--Like Big Time Traffic!

BlogBurst launches tomorrow.  Don't know what BlogBurst is yet?  Well, stop reading this and click through the links to check it out.  It will be a great way to increase traffic to your blog.

Here is some media coverage of BlogBurst by Pluck and the official Burst Blog.

I'm back...and swamped!

Hey All, I am back from Jamaica (and Nashville for work).  I had a splendid time.  I soaked in the sun, had many water adventures (I am not the biggest water fan, but I did good on this trip) and spent much quality time with my boyfriend and friends.  I am refreshed, but returning to the office has proven to be overwhelming!  With approximately 500 and some unanswered e-mails and a gargantuan mound of mail, magazines and newspapers to get through, I may not  be blogging a whole lot yet for another week or so. 

I did take a few to scan my RSS reader and found Ryan May's post about the recent Chief Executive article about CEOs not understanding PR people.  It's a very interesting read.  The part I love the most are some of the responses from PR people.  Take a look...I am so glad that Bill (the author) is keeping the comments public.  Hopefully with all the feedback, the CEOs will start understanding that perhaps their PR people do know what they are doing, and journalists will start to understand that sometimes we are not the one controlling the final say (about how media materials look when they cross the wire).

Discovered Decker Marketing Today

I stumbled upon Decker Marketing blog today via Blog Business World, and I have to say Sam Decker provides excellent information/advice about marketing, eBusiness and leadership.  His three most recent posts on leadership and marketing are so extremely relavant to where I find myself right now in my career and what I am facing at work that I wanted all to know about his blog, if you aren't already familiar.   Also, as Wayne mentioned, Sam will be hosting next week's Carnival of the Capitalists blog carnival.

Technorati Tags: Blogs, Marketing, Leadership, Business Blogging, Public Relations, Change Management

Blogging Jobs Gone in 2016

Last night I attended an IABC networking event here in Minneapolis.  I have been a member of IABC for about eight months now and last night was my first official appearance at any meeting with my local chapter.  I have to say that I was rather impressed by the turnout for the event and was impressed with the variety of communicators who attended.  I got to meet many existing and future board members and definitely look forward to getting more involved in my chapter.

The one thing that I wanted to mention though that bothered me to hear last night is about a comment (and a facial gesture) from one of the past presidents (who I will not name because I was rather impressed with this person minus this one thing). 

I always talk about my excitement surrounding blogging and other forms of new social media.  And last night was no different.  I inquired with many folks about their thoughts on new media and how they are or are not using them in their professional lives.    When I asked this of her,  she grimaced and referenced the recent Fast Company article about the "Six Jobs That Won't Exist in 2016," which includes bloggers.  Well, from her response, I inferred that she is not on board with blogging or the like. 

Now, I understand that blogging and other consumer driven mediums are scary for some, but when I hear things like this, and I do quite often in my local market, I start to wonder if all that I read about new mediums and all that I surround myself with are just all livin' in a crazy-ole world? And then to see it in Fast Company.  Is this just another way that MSM is not embracing the new mediums?  And then I think...is this how folks advocating for television felt when the radio people were speaking out about "this new fad"? 

My thought is...even if you are not going to embrace new mediums, shouldn't you as a professional communicator be open enough to learn about them in order to be able to offer your clients and/or your organization the very best strategies for their business objectives?  or am I just livin' in the crazy-ole, drinking-the-blogging-kool-aid world too?

As for the blogging jobs issue (that started my rant), do you really think they'll be gone in 2016?