Writing A Blog

"Now you can show the whole world why no one listens to you." Yes, that's the line under the word BLOGGING, courtesy of diy.despair.com. I believe this is one part of writing a blog that I've mastered. Let me start by saying that I'd like to divide my ramble about writing a blog into two parts. The first relating to the "strategic aspect" of what to write and to whom to write for. On Thursday, I'll address the tactical aspects of what I've learned about posting.

Let's deal with "what" first. Up until my very first post, I planned to write about crisis communications because I served on Hill & Knowlton's crisis specialty group and I felt comfortable with the subject matter. However, I was also Director of Client Service for the US and concluded that client service was not only a sustainable topic that offered me lots of opportunity for variety and creativity, but also a subject that I didn't find being written about much in PR blogs at the time. It seemed a good combination of personal passion and opportunity.

Regarding whom, my blog is for people primarily in PR, or in other professional service businesses, who are truly passionate about client service. This is where you come to learn what I refer to as the blogger's survival credo: The true measure of a blog is who reads it, not how many. I learned quickly that despite being part of Hill & Knowton's Collective Conversation, which is a bit like a high-rise condo for bloggers, building any kind of critical readership mass, even among the neighbors so to speak, can be a challenge.

The bottom line is to write to your passion and an audience will follow. (Remember, it's about who, not how many). Pour yourself into every post and update your blog as often as you can. My favorite blogs are written by people who clearly love to post, and every post shows it.

Writing a blog has allowed me to discover some great bloggers and even more social media tools. The comments I receive have offered me a wealth of perspective on client service and the PR business in general. What's more, I've met (online) some of the smartest people I've ever known. Engaging in social media, starting with reading and writing blogs, has been among the most rewarding learning experiences of my career. That's why after suspending my blog at H&K, I was compelled to launch CSI/Season 2!