For my last blog post, I’m participating in a blog carnival
to check out and review some of my fellow classmates’ blogs that we’ve put
together over the past few months. We’re all focusing on communications-related
topics, so it will be interesting to explore the similarities and differences
in approaches. From my experience, this was a tough task. It’s not easy to put
yourself out there and share your expertise (or learning experiences) on
prescribed topics.
So, let’s take a tour of some of my favorites.
Let me start with Jamie.
I love Jamie’s E-Communication
blog! I think she nailed the content and headlines, with strong post after
strong post. My favorite was How
to Handle Trolls in a Positive Way. It was such a great reminder to not
engage those who are not out to have an actual conversation, but who only want to
vent or spread negative words. I’ve had to learn that on my own through blogging
for work. One technique that was successful for us was offering to take the conversation offline. After providing a personal name and phone number for the commenter to call
to discuss concerns, we found silence. It was a helpful technique to diffuse the situation.
I also loved Jamie's most recent post, It’s
Just Facebook, Who Needs a Plan? It highlighted the challenges we as
communicators face in helping people understand and appreciate the value we
bring to the table, and outlined excellent tips for developing a social media
strategy.
Next up, Mandi. Mandi’s blog strikes a
great tone that’s personal but not too casual. I appreciate her admission that
while she’d like to be a blogger, her attempts haven’t been successful due to
her lack of discipline in posting regularly. She gave my post about blogging
best practices a shout-out in her blog carnival review, and I have to say, my
favorite post of hers is Blogging
Best Practices, as well. We had different takes on the topic. While I
thought blog tips would be relatively universal no matter who you’re blogging
for, after reading her post, I had a bit of a different take-away. I felt like I
was writing from more of a business perspective while she was writing with more
of a personal blog in mind. Perhaps that’s why we came up with different tips, all
of which I think are important. I like that she highlighted the importance of
showing your personality (part of the reason I’ve never wanted to blog in my
personal life), and of having a regular posting schedule. I think the latter is
much easier said than done – especially if it’s your personal blog – but
establishing an editorial calendar of some sort for yourself is important.
Now onto Heidi. Heidi’s blog is one I can really
relate to because we’re in similar lines of work. The stories she shared in
different posts were experiences I could connect with (or could forsee
happening in my own job). Her post, Is
social media a reputation management risk?, is a perfect example of that. As
I read the story, I felt the panic she inevitably experienced after realizing
her boss sent a politically charged tweet from their corporate account. I was
glad to hear the tweet was removed quickly and that no negative consequences
ensued, but wow – talk about a teachable moment! I hope the organization has
been able to learn from the mistake.
And to wrap up this carnival, here’s a look at Kimberly’s blog, Working Big. Kimberly covered a
lot of solid content related to communications. I found her tone authentic and
informative, even if she didn’t feel she had all the answers to the issues she
was addressing. My favorite post was Why
nonprofits need to blog. Nonprofit organizations often overlook (or don’t
feel they have the time or budget) for good PR and marketing. This post
reinforced the need for nonprofits to share their stories to promote themselves
– which can only help them in their need to meet their goals, like fundraising,
gaining more volunteers, and more.
I also appreciated Kimberly's post, QR
codes: The tech that's hard to love, because the headline drew me in (I could
relate to that feeling), and the content was great. The post touched on the
fact that most marketers don’t use QR codes well, but also provided examples of
QR codes working for a company or event. For example, you can get lots of
information about a vehicle on a car lot after hours (without talking to a
sales person) – brilliant!
It was fun to explore these blogs on communication topics. I
learned something in each one and even found a few nuggets I will take with me
on my communications journey.
