Free Advice Archive
Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
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Bob points out this great example of how not-to launch a blog. A Florida candidate for Attorney General 'launched' his blog with a 'Coming Soon' post on July 20th. As of today, it's still 'coming soon'.
If you can't launch a blog with at least one substantial post, then don't even bother to turn it on. Following that basic advice will help you avoid embarrassing snafu's like Skip's non-blog.
I typically advise clients to have at least 1-2 weeks worth of posts in the system before you go live. When you do launch, you can post a 'We're here....' post and then talk about the subjects you'll be covering on the blog with links to previous entries that represent those subjects. This way the initial readers will get a good overview of the purpose of the blog with relevant examples of content.
A college student sent me a series of questions for a project they're working on. I decided to post my answers online.
When a company comes to you with the idea of setting up a blog, what steps do you go through with them to get it set up?
First off I like to assess the level of knowledge within the organization. When they say they, 'want to blog' I want to know what they think that means. In a few cases I have had potential clients approach blogging from the wrong direction. They're thoughts were usually purely marketing driven, which isn't the best thing. I also need to know who will be the primary blogger(s). The best-case-scenarios are when an individual or small team within a company really wants to start blogging and they contact me to help out. In that situation there is an internal passion and drive to make the project succeed. This is a big contrast to a communications manager that calls and says, "Yeah, we need to get one of those blog things going." Real enthusiastic!
This also goes back to the overall mood of the company. Are we dealing with an organization that has an open live of communication with the outside world (customers, vendors, etc) or are they somewhat secretive. Obviously a blog is a natural extension for organizations with open communication channels.
The next step is defining the purpose and content. Often an initial idea for a corporate blog will be very narrow in scope. While the narrow scope helps define the content it often can't support itself beyond a few months. I usually advise them to take things up one level. Once we establish the based needs/purpose for the blog we then look at the technical issues.
There are a number of other steps that can get quite detailed depending on the project. A while back I posted some other tips and questions as well. Most of them are research oriented.
Continue reading "Answers for a College Project" »
Yes that title is a bit over the top, since I am not an official 'rule' maker, I'm just one person offering my opinion.
Much has been written about the role of PR in blogs in the wake of the Edel-Wal story. Recenty, Robert posted his notes and Shel says enough (with some great comments). The entire affair has brought forth a discussion on ethics, disclosure, transparency (the new buzzword) and if PR can truly co-exist with blogs.
When working with a client here are some basic rules for developing a blog that PR wants to be involved in. If you can't adhere to all of these, then you shouldn't even start. It will sound a bit like a cliche, but remember blogs are about conversation and building relationships. Just like any relationship, whether it be with a significant other, friends, family or customers there needs to be openness and honesty.
1. Don't Lie. The truth always comes out. And when the truth does come out, you've got some explaining to do. You don't lie to your friends or your family, so why do it with blog readers.
2. Don't Hide Important Facts. Similar to number one, but some people say that there is a difference between a lie and hiding the truth. If you want to get technical, yes there is a difference, but in the end, the result will be the same. You will have broken the fundamental trust with the other person, and that's hard to get back.
3. Don't Pretend to be Something or Somebody You're Not. This also goes back to the first one, the truth will always come out. Just think about anytime you told a potential girlfriend/boyfriend a small fib to impress them. How did that turn out when they discovered you didn't really know Brad Pitt, or had never really run the New York Marathon?
4. Be Yourself. Perhaps another way of saying number three, but it's worth repeating. As with relationships in real life, you want people to like and respect you for who you are, not what you 'appear' to be. By putting on a front, you might achieve a short period of happiness/success but ultimately you'll be unhappy and you'll strain the relationship. Write in a style and tone that you're comfortable with...that will help with burnout as well.
5. Improve Yourself. Improve the product not the pitch. Many times people don't follow the previous four rules because they are ashamed of something, or trying to hide something. So rather than fixing their own problem they'll lie, hide it, etc. The original problem is still there and will continue to cause issues. If you're blogging and have to lie or pretend to be somebody else, what does that say about you and your position?
To use that other standard cliche, treat your blog readers the same way you would like to be treated. Think about it, if you had a friend which didn't follow the rules above, they wouldn't be your friend for long. With a blog, if you're not following the rules above, you won't have readers for long, and if the transgression are serious enough, you'll impact your reputation in a big way.
I have had corporations approach me to assist with blog projects, and for some reason or another they couldn't follow the rules above, so I don't take on the project. As an independent consultant I have that luxury. Things are different when you're working for a large agency or internally for a corporation. That's the billion dollar question with the Edel-Wal issue. Was is really some account group working on their own and not realizing they were breaking the rules? Or did Edelman say, 'We can't do this' and the client saying, 'Yes you will, otherwise we'll take our huge account somewhere else'?
People often say that blogs can be used to 'humanize' a corporation, and this is true to some degree. The corporation isn't really humanized, but a blog exposes the actual 'humans' within the corporation. This exposure allows two humans to actually have a conversation, which if done right can be a rewarding experience and build an actual relationship between the company (via the blogger) and the customer. However, if you don't follow the rules you're ultimately setting yourself (and your company) up for failure.
It's been said before, but it's worth repeating. Be sure you monitor your web address in Technorati in addition to specific keywords. Sure, many PR firms will search for their client names and services but remember to look for the URL.
What do I mean by this? Well, enter the full URL of your site in the Technorati search, i.e. http://www.hyku.com/. When you do this Technorati will show you any blog link to that specific URL. This type of search will uncover some additional conversation around your company/client that never mentions the name or keywords you might normally be looking for.
For example, an unhappy shopper might write a blog post that says, "I hate this store!" and link the word 'store' to your site. If you're just monitoring the basics, i.e. company name, service name(s) and the variants then you would miss this link. By monitoring the URL of the site, Technorati would pick it up.
Of course you can always do the standard link:URL search on Google, but that's a traditional relevance search, but a real-time blog search.
Update: If you've applied these tips to a conference blog, send me a link!
Having blogged a few conferences both on my own and with a team, I offer this quick 'how-to' for other groups looking to do the same. Feel free to use this to develop your conference blogging plan. Or you could just invite me to your conference :-)
At the most recent FPRA Annual Conference we had a team of four people blogging the event. Listed first are the tools we used. Following that, I'll talk some strategy.
The Tools
This is broken down into two major sections, hardware and software. As with everything, check to make sure all your tools are working ahead of time and that you know how to use them.
Hardware: Here is a list of the gear you'll need to lug around :-)
Laptop/PC/Mac - Obviously you'll need a way to post things online, laptops tend to work best at conferences :-) At this most recent event we had my PowerBook, two Dells and a ThinkPad.
Connectivity - You'll want some way to get online, either via wifi or a cellular technology such as Verizon EVDO. At the Ritz Carlton where the FPRA conference was held, there was not publicly available wifi in the conference rooms, but we had secured accounts in advance. As a back-up, one of the team had a Verizon EVDO card in his laptop.
Camera - Digital, point-and-shoot cameras work, but investing in a good DSLR will make a big difference. At FPRA I had a Nikon D70 and Chris had his Nikon D50. Make sure you have a way to easily transfer photos from the camera to your laptop.
Portable Audio Recorder - Some sort of device to record audio in digital format, MP3 is the best of course. I always carry an iRiver MP3 recorder. It features a built-in mic and a line-in jack to connect to external devices. A basic USB cable allows me to transfer the audio files.
Software: Make sure you're software is installed and ready to use. For web-based software, make sure you have an account.
Blog - Blogging a conference usually requires some sort of blog software :-) In some cases you can pick your platform, other times you'll need to work with the platform the conference is providing. For the FPRABlog we used MovableType.
Offline Blog Editor - Having an offline blog editor such as Ecto or Qumana can make a huge difference. Being able to compose your posts and then upload them in the proper format saves time. You might say, "I can use Word and then upload." Well sometimes that copy/paste from Word to the blog software can cause some formatting problems. An offline editor also helps when you have limited connectivity. At WOMMA this year we could not connect in the session rooms, but we could in the hallway. We would write our posts in Ecto, then step into the hallway to quickly post.
Flickr - If you're planning on taking more than a few pictures you'll want to use Flickr. The ability to upload, organize and include photos on your blog can't be beat.
Flickr Upload Tool - A dedicated Flickr upload tool can help speed things along. On the Mac I use the Flickr plugin for iPhoto from Connected Flow. I also have the standalone Flickr Uploadr tool installed. At the FPRA conference, our team installed the upload tool on their PCs as well.
Technorati - You'll want to use Technorati or some other blog search tool to track any conversation surrounding the conference.
Audio Editing Software - If you plan on doing any audio work you might need some tools to edit your audio files. In recent cases I have just posted the audio interviews as is without any editing. You learn to structure/format your interview in such a way that you can minimize or eliminate the need to edit your files.
FTP Software - Many blog tools have upload capabilities, but if you need to upload a large audio or video files FTP will work best. Like the Flickr Upload tools you can start a process and then move on to something else. Of course you'll need to have the proper username/password for FTP.
Strategy
The Team:
Not every organization has the luxury of having a large blogging staff (whether paid or volunteers). You might be all on your own, but having some helpers makes a big difference. If you plan to cover everything, your lowest common denominator is the maximum number of breakout sessions. For example if at some point there are four concurrent breakout sessions you'll need at least four bloggers to get the job done. For a standard 2-3 day conference here is my dream team of 3-4 folks:
Blog/Tech Guru - This person is ultimately responsible for everything that gets posted. They also provide tech support to the other bloggers. In addition they can take photos/upload them and do audio interviews as needed. In a pinch they will also write-up sessions.
Bloggers (2-3) - These are folks that can write good reviews of sessions as well as recaps of other events. It's a bonus if they can do some outreach and find other blogs or references that pertain to the conference/topic.
Photographer (Optional) - If you can swing it I would suggest having a dedicated person to handle photography. Their job is to take photos and more photos then upload them. If only we could clone Scott Beale.
Obviously knowing somebody ahead of time helps fill your roster. In other cases, do some research. Who blogs within the topic? Are they already coming to the conference? Is the organization willing to offer them a free registration in exchange for blogging? Many savvy organizations realize the benefits of conference blogs and will gladly offer free registration for bloggers.
Continue reading "How to Blog a Conference" »
This is not going to be a comprehensive list by any means, but it is something that I tell people all the time (including this morning) and something that Fred Wilson blogged about today.
When thinking about starting a blog for you or your organization:
1. Get your own domain name. What are we talking $8.95 with GoDaddy? When you own your domain name you own your destiny. I have dealt with a few clients that have built their entire following (and links, and google juice) at name.blogspot.com or name.typepad.com. When they hit a feature wall or become dissatisfied with the service they are stuck.
Services like TypePad will allow you to map a domain name and that will do the trick, the trouble is convincing people to spend a few extra bucks at first to do so. Do not think that buying a domain name and then 'forwarding' it to Blogger will work. Sure you have a domain name to direct visitors to, but all your permalinks and archives are still at name.blogspot.com. Another common problem is domain forwarding that uses frames.
If you already have a domain name for a company think about creating a subdomain, i.e. blog.domain.com or integrate your blog within your existing web site, i.e. domain.com/blog/. Ultimately you have complete control over where you blog content can be. If you're not happy with a service or web provider you can move.
2. Use FeedBurner. By default many blog tools will create a number of different RSS feeds for you and you end up with subscribers across all of them and very little ability to track metrics. If you use TypePad then your prayers have been answered by the TypePad and FeedBurner partnership that was announced this week. As Fred wrote he had subscribers to his FeedBurner feed and his Atom feed.
Creating the feed within FeedBurner is only half of the equation though. You need to promote/link to that feed alone. One problem is the meta-data that blog services put in the header of the blog posts. General users never think about this and need to edit their templates to get this changed, so it's not an easy fix.
3. Have Fun :-)
Yesterday, as part of an ongoing practical joke war, a friend sent me an invoice via PayPal. He then e-mailed me and said that if I didn't pay, he would, "turn on the juice, 2 1/2 points per day".
That got me thinking about a great new revenue source for PayPal, loan sharks. They could invoice their 'clients' and then automatically charge interest (or juice as we call it on the streets). Of course PayPal would take their standard percentage off the top.
Here is a mock-up of the promo offer you'd see when you visited your PayPal account.
Then again, maybe loan sharks don't want too much documentation of their business dealings :-)
Over at FPRA Blog Week Bob O'Malley posted a great comment on Doreen's article: The Benefits of Volunteering. Bob said:
Every year, I tell graduating college seniors to take notice of which PR firms are represented at FPRA luncheons, events and committees, and which ones are not. I tell them that the ones that are not represented are not good places to work.
Take that quote and insert just about any industry/professional association. I also pay attention to things like this. When a new member joins a professional group and they are paying out of their own pocket (because their firm won't pay) I watch to see how long before they change employers.
Over at Forward Blog Ashley writes about corporate politics. There is always a certain loss of innocence when you start your first job, see a great idea that can really help the organization, only to see it killed because of internal politics. Too many times it's because a particular person did not come up with the idea or some other petty thing. Ashley writes:
But as professional communicators, you would think that the people in the business communications/marketing/PR profession could avoid it. Yet I am still hearing all of the stories of how different, yet very related, departments in a company may never even discuss the company’s goals, strategies or their implementation. The flawed division of power and inability to communicate freely with those in charge seems to resemble the same complaints we have about the “politics” we find everywhere else, whether it is the politics that govern our country or the social politics that seem impossible to avoid in day-to-day life.
The comments for her post provide some great insight to young minds not yet spoiled by corporate backstabbing.
That's one of the things I like about being an outside consultant, sometimes I can cut through all that because my job is not at stake. If I push too hard against the internal politics would I lose the contract? Perhaps, but it's better to walk away than compromise what you were hired to do. By running your own shop one of the greatest powers you have is the ability to say no.
While recently talking with a company I pointed out that when you did a Google search for their name that the 2nd/3rd/4th result (depending on the week) was a negative blog post about their organization. It's been there for almost a year. My showing them was the first time they had seen it. I didn't want to sound to dumbfounded but I really was shocked. How could they not see this for almost a year?
Everybody has done some level of ego-surfing, i.e. Googling your own name. But I see a Google 'self-lookup' to be even more crucial for organizations. If you've done a halfway decent job of constructing a web site your official site should come up as the first result, but what's second, third or fourth? It could be a newspaper article, blog post or a customer review. Is it positive or negative?
Perhaps as techies we're a bit too close to the issue and in our hyper-connected states we just assume people will Google their organizations. In meat space this would be like me putting up a negative billboard right next to your location and you not noticing it for months.
The blog world is full of businesses that have jumped in with both feet, without knowing how deep the pool is. The majority of the time the mistakes are etiquette issues or just a general lack of knowledge in the space. Before you start to write a blog to promote your business here are just a few questions you need to answer/know. (perhaps these are a corollary to Jeremiah's list)
1. How long have you been reading blogs?
I don't know how many times I've said this, if you want to start a blog, start by reading other blogs first. The best answer for this question is 2-3 weeks at least. Reading blogs gives you an understanding of the tone and nature of the blogosphere. You'll also quickly learn what blogs are the authorities on certain subjects, which leads to...
2. Name the top five blogs in your industry/vertical?
I posed this question to a client today, they didn't have an answer, not good. Blogs are a conversation (getting tired of that line yet?), interaction with your readers and with other blogs is part of that dynamic. Knowing who are the key influencers and bloggers is absolutely necessary, which leads to...
3. Who writes them?
Relationships are key. You can't establish a relationship with a blog though. It's great that you know that blog X is the most influential blog in your segment but you need to know who writes it. Establish a dialog with that person. A good first start is via blog comments. But don't comment for the sake of commenting (that one's for Jeremy). Add something substantial to the conversation. By participating in the conversation you establish a relationship with the blogger, which leads to...
4. Do those five people know who you are?
If you need to communicate directly with a blogger will they immediately recognize your name on an incoming e-mail? You know how it works, in the mass of e-mail you receive you'll look at things from friends or contacts first. Having an established relationship helps with this. When you finally launch your blog and you want to 'get the word out' being able to reach out to your friends is very helpful. Case in point, the recent FPRA Blog Week event. Once we launched the blog I e-mailed a few friends and asked them to take a look and blog about it if they could. Quite a few of them have, traffic and awareness is building.
From here we can get into some of the planning and best practices for developing a blog, but that's for another day.
Update: Over at Talkshop Alexandra has some more thoughts about the planning of a business blog.
Throwback jerseys from designers like Mitchell & Ness have been all the rage with the sports set (or the wannabe sports set) for some time now, but how about some gear for geeks?
Nothing says 'I was hip before the web was' like a throwback URL t-shirt. The first shirt I'd come out with would be: http://akebono.stanford.edu/:
For those of you that don't know, that was the original address for Yahoo. I can remember it so clearly, using my Telnet account and Lynx to visit the pre .com version of yahoo.
Like all other throwback gear we'll do a limited run and jack the price way up....say $120 per t-shirt. The question for you is what are some other throwback URLs? Remember altavista.digital.com?
A suggestion to the nice woman at Wal-Mart using the Kodak self-service photo kiosk. I can understand why you would want to use the self-serve kiosk to print your risque photos rather than give them to the photolab tech, but remember to take your CD-ROM with you when you leave. I guess you were a bit rushed to get the photos printed without anybody seeing them and left it in the machine.
The problem with leaving the CD behind is that the elderly woman who was next in line was a bit shocked when your photos appeared on screen. To which she said, "That isn't my daughter!"
For those of you that didn't visit Global PR Blog Week 2.0 here is a re-post of the article I wrote about event blogs:
Blogs offer a cost-effective solution for non-profits to promote, cover, discuss and wrap-up events
Events often pose smaller non-profits a problem with their limited web site budgets. Some non-profits might have basic content management tools that allow them to add a news item or calendar event, while many others have standard flat HTML pages. Often a new event was not in the 'master web plan' when the site we designed a year or two ago. In these situations an event will receive very limited exposure, if any, on the web site and is often shoe horned into an existing site structure. If a non-profit has additional web funds they will sometimes create a micro-site for the event, but it is often a flat/static page with few updates and no life beyond the event. Blog software can help change this.
Continue reading "Event Blogs" »
I am in the process of updating my Guide to Media Monitoring I wrote back in January of this year. I am planning on including all the new blog search tools and custom RSS watchlists/feed services. There will also be some information about tags, specifically dealing with monitoring tags via Technorati/del.icio.us/Flickr, etc.
The guide is mostly geared towards communicators, but just about any user can learn something from it. Anything you think I should include? Perhaps some service that I might not have heard of? Leave a comment.
A few friends have been having some issues including Technorati tags in their blogs so I thought I would put together a how-to of what I've done.
The simple modifications I have made to my MovableType software makes sure that any tags I include are quickly indexed by Technorati and other services that utilize tags. Using Blogger? Richard Massoner sent me a link to a Greasemonkey script that helps put tags in Blogger.com blogs.
Common Mistakes
- Include Tags in Your Post (RSS): The tags must be included in the post and not just a part of your blog template. That's the problem that MindComet has with their blog. They've just listed the tags on the blog template and not the individual post. Only content that is part of your post is included in your RSS feed. Items that are part of your blog template are not included in your RSS feed.
- Publish Full Text in RSS: If you are not including the full text of your post in your RSS feed the blog index tools will not see your tags. This is because most people put the tag code at the end of the post which is often not included in a partial feed.
- Failure to Ping: You have your tags coded correctly, you're publishing a full text feed but still nothing? You might not be pinging the blog index tools each time you publish a new post. If you are using MovableType of TypePad your blog should be configured to automatically ping Technorati. If you are unsure you can always use Ping-o-Matic!
- Technorati is Not the Only Game in Town: There are other blog search tools that are starting to use tags. IceRocket is another blog search that you can ping with your tagged posts.
Background Info
You can review Technorati's help page on Tags to get the basics. The two most important items are:
1. Including the proper code in your RSS feed or blog post
2. Pinging the blog index such as Technorati
Failure to do both of these will result in your tags not being indexed. Every time a friend contacts me with an issue it's because they have a problem with one of those items.
Continue reading "How-To Include Tags in Your MovableType Blog" »
On Monday I had lunch with Mark Russell and Anthony Moor of the Orlando Sentinel. Here are some notes from that meeting.
Like many of the other newspapers/journalists/media I have met with they are slowly taking steps to embrace this new medium. How many of the newsroom staff are using RSS or blogs to assist with stories? Almost none. But that's something they are going to work on changing.
On the web side they're moving towards integrating external RSS feeds into their content offerings. These external feeds will be topic driven, i.e. business feeds in the business section. The next step would be to integrate the branded RSS reader that the LA Times is beta-testing.
The Sentinel has created a few blogs utilizing TypePad for special projects. The most recent was a Shuttle Discovery Blog to cover the return to flight. A staff reporter live-blogged the recent launch attempt. If you look at the blog you'll see they were posting quite frequently. They had quite a bit of traffic to the blog but asked how I thought they could expand their readership of an event-driven blog such as a shuttle launch. My two quick suggestions were:
1. Utilize Technorati Tags: Recent events such as Live8 and the London terror attacks have shown that information on breaking news can quickly be found via Technorati and other blog search tools. News junkies and bloggers know to use these new tools since they search the 'live' web. The Sentinel should determine the optimum tags for their shuttle posts, i.e. shuttle, NASA, spaceshuttle, etc.
2. Crosslink with other Blogs: Yes it's a basic principle of blogs, but when you tell a newspaper to link to another content source that might compete with them, they usually don't jump right on it. The day before the shuttle launch they should do some searches to find out who else might be live-blogging or providing other good content, then link to them. Chances are, those blogs will link back. I found this to be true during my Super Bowl live-blogging Experiment.
There are a few other things they can do as well, but we don't want to give away all the goods just yet :-)
Continue reading "Orlando Sentinel Lunch Follow-Up" »
Most marketing and PR directors who I deal with will take an occasional look at their stats to review page views and unique visitors, but they're often too busy to spend any more time on them. Digging down into your web site or blog stats will often reveal some hidden gems of information.
Two great areas to look at are the referral logs and incoming domain information. Most web stats programs will provide this information, but sometimes the report given only lists the top five or ten entries. See if you can expand that segment to get the complete list.
Continue reading "Finding Hidden Gems in Your Blog/Web Stats" »
This is the first of what will become a series of articles on utilizing blogs for public relations. This initial installment will provide some basic instructions for monitoring the blogosphere.
One of the first steps any PR practitioner should take when contemplating using blogs is to monitor and observe the landscape first. Why monitor? Kryptonite has become the poster child for the results of not monitoring blogs for developing trends. (Steve Rubel probably has the best recap of the Kryptonite saga)
To get started you will need to become acquainted with RSS, utilize an RSS reader, search the blogosphere, then harness the power of custom RSS feeds.
Continue reading "A Guide To Media Monitoring With RSS" »
