Category Archives: Blogging

Blogging, Sharisax Is Out There

To Comment . . . or not to comment

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table piece. . . a blog re-do is similar to a New Year’s Resolution, but in my case, I hope this intention sticks.

My previous post suggested that sincere commenters send me emails, and I received two:

A) Shari, I am glad you are blogging again. Also, I am pleased I signed up for your RSS feed long ago, because this post popped up in my reader. Look forward to future posts.    Hope this comment works, since you seem to think commenting got eliminated? – Leora  Wenger Web Designer and Developer

[Leora was one of the first great people I met online through my blog in 2009]

B)   From: John Hunter

To: sharisax

Sent:Fri, Mar 27, 2015 02:12 AM

Subject: can’t add a comment

I tried to add a comment on   http://sharisax.com/2015/03/22/how-to-re-do-a-blog-and-why/   but I just get a failure message “Requested Range Not Satisfiable”

What I wrote:
 “Good luck. Paying attention to old content is important and something people overlook almost constantly.  I do occasionally make adjustments to categories and occasionally go back and add those to old posts (but most of the time I don’t get around to it, still I think doing it is wise).”

On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 5:45 PM, <sharisax@aol.com> wrote:

John, thanks so much for your comment. I will be adding comments like yours to future blog posts. There are actually TWO things going on regarding comments:

(1) apparently one of my plug-ins has caused a problem and so, in addition to going through my posts and categories and tags, I will need to check all the plug-ins AND figure out which ones I really need.

(2) Secondly, however, is the current conversation about commenting in general. Many bloggers have discontinued comments because they receive too many value-less spam messages AND there is the belief that the online conversation should be broader than simply with one person’s Blog — and if people have deep enough feelings about a topic, they need to post on their own sites and reference the “inciting” article.

Now, in direct reference to what you said — which I will begin my post with — when I do go over those old posts, I plan to re-publish those with particular relevance these days . . .  and make the relevant updates.

Thanks for taking the time to write.

Shari Weiss

John sent a subsequent comment:
 Yes, I certainly see the problem with no-value and spam comments.  Good comments though really add value, I think.

Commenters: BRING THEM ON

simply email me: sharisax@aol.com

BTW: You might want to check out my third post about Blog Commenting and how to get your blog noticed — from six years ago

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Blogging, Sharisax Is Out There

How to “re-do” a blog . . . and WHY?

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cats in boxTo: The blogosphere and friends and family

From: Shari

Re: Re-doing . . . and re-newing my blog and my blogging

Date: March 2015

Following the Oxford Sandwich format, I’ll be “telling you what I’m going to do, then telling you, then telling you what I told you.” So this paragraph is my intro and includes a little of the WHY I’m doing this. I started my blog in 2009 and learned while I was doing. After a few years . . . and some significant life changes, I “kinda” stopped. But now I’m restarting and redesigning and rethinking and redoing. Continue reading How to “re-do” a blog . . . and WHY? →

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Blogging

Why do YOU blog?

65 Comments

My college English students are all experimenting with blogging, and many of them want to know why. Here is guidance from previous posts on this blog:

What is a blog and WHY should I do one?

Why do people read blogs?

What should your first blog post be about?

Should you set up your own blog?

What do I blog about?

Use your blog to become the GO-TO source for information

To blog . . . or not to blog: that’s a good first question

For some briefer opinions, check out the responses contributed to the community of bloggers on LinkedIn’s group: THE BLOG ZONE.

Brittney Wilson posted this question to the group:

Why Did you Start Blogging?

I am interested to know what made each of you decide to get online and start blogging?

For me it was lateral violence, or bullying, which is a terrible phenomena in the nursing profession in which “nurses eat their young”. I needed to share my experiences with someone other than my husband, and blogging allowed me that outlet.

Here are some of the reasons offered by group members:

Ilias Chelidonis • For me was to put my thoughts and experiences in order, you need to express yourself about all the things you’ve been through, your mistakes and successes,blogging is probably the only mean to do that.

Hao Nguyen • I’m a PR student and I started up a blog quite recently (February this year) and for me, I guess it was a way to keep in touch with the industry by connecting with fellow PR students / professionals.  So far I’m very pleased with the direction my blog’s headed and I’ve learnt so much more about PR just through reading and blogging.

Rebecca Barth • After Extreme Couponing aired, I was suddenly the most popular gal around. You see, I had been couponing for years, and suddenly, when friends saw the money that they could save, they wanted to know how to do it, especially since they know I don’t spend more than about 15 minutes a week (unlike the folks on the show, though I am sure they are super passionate about what they do!). I was starting to sound like a broken record (if you are old enough to know what one of those is!), so I put it all together on a blog. I am loving it!  — The Undercover Couponer

Nicole Nixen • I recently started a blog (seriously – it’s not even a month old) to keep me motivated in writing both fiction and non-fiction pieces. It is my way of applying pressure on myself to carve out time each day to this endeavor. I use the blogs to bounce off ideas I have for current projects and in the coming weeks, to post pieces of current drafts in progress.

Robyn Davis • My blog may be a bit different from others listed here, as it is a “business” blog instead of a personal blog. I started my blog to highlight my work experiences (for potential clients, etc) but, this year, I’ve expanded my blogging to include weekly article-style posts about sales, marketing, and exhibiting as a whole. It has been a great experience that, I hope, has been helpful to other professionals and I am currently in the process of moving my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted Word Press blog. This has been a challenge, but I’m looking forward to coming through on the other side even better off 🙂

Jayna Locke • Thanks for launching this topic, Brittney. It’s so interesting to see all the different reasons people start a blog.

I have had several blogs, but I started my main business blog to share what I have learned about content marketing, and also to give current and potential clients confidence in my expertise. It has been very worthwhile. I have several new clients for whom I write keyword enhanced press releases and blogs, which are my among my favorite projects.

One of the unsung benefits of blogging, in my opinion, is the self-discovery. It’s what you learn along the way. If I had the time, I would write a blog about each of my areas of interest.

Sandy McDonald • My passion for blogging started with a conviction that the world could be changed after we started an online grassroots charity aimed at warming and comforting children made vulnerable and orphaned by HIV/AIDS and poverty in South Africa. This was more a site than a blog (http://www.knit-a-square.com). Just a simple idea, ask the world’s knitters to send 8″ squares to SA to made into blankets. The response was truly amazing and took over our lives. My husband and I had to learn about the orphan crisis and this lead to http://allfororphans.com

Then reality slapped a caveat on our full time unpaid work and we had to get back to earning a living. So I started http://whyyoumustblog.com wanting to pass on what I had learned in creating community online. That morphed into working with small business or owner businesses to build their businesses online. I do have a great interest in helping people move quickly through the learnings it took me ages to understand and to save them time, money and effort.

So do any of these reasons resonate with you? Or are yours completely different? If so, please give my students more to consider.

 

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Blogging

Simple answer to getting blog readers and commenters

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Time for new student bloggers and the typical questions: “How do I get more readers?” and “How do I get people to comment?”

My standard answers have been these three:

1)  Comment on other people’s blogs

2)  Announce your new posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

3)  Add a user-friendly comment device [don’t make commenters jump through too many hoops].

However, after reading several of their posts, I have another simple answer — but, first, a story:

My Story about Peter

Several years ago, when I was teaching beginning journalism students at Southwest Missouri State, the students’  daily chore was to write in a log. . . .  and then I read them.

Big mistake — both the assignment and me spending time reading them.

When left to their own devices . . . students wrote about such earth-shattering events as breaking up with their boyfriends and flushing letters down the toilet to buying a pair of boots at the mall to the scores of basketball games in the local conference. Needless to say, I was questioning my sanity for having asked for these papers.

Until Peter, that is.

Peter wrote plays and poetry. Peter analyzed the news. Peter shared intelligent conversations he had had with friends. Peter reported on books and articles he was reading.

And his writing was so flawless that I was envious.

But I loved reading his stuff and looked forward to every entry.

I was in awe of his talent and wondered what I could offer him.

So I went to several of my colleagues to ask their opinions; one comment stood out: “Peter’s stuff is good because he writes about things that are important and interesting.”

When you blog — and you want people to read and comment — WRITE ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING.

Why write about anything else?

 

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Blogging, Journalism, LinkedIn

Does our Constitution protect bloggers? Should it?

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My journalism students studied social media last semester, and I introduced the course with a blog post asking the question: “What’s one difference between a blogger and a journalist?”

One way I promote my articles is to post them on relevant LinkedIn groups, and this article is still generating discussions four months later:

The article was posted to more than a dozen groups and there were interesting discussions on several, especially MEDIA JOBS and ONLINE REPORTERS AND EDITORS.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating conversations evolved on the Media Jobs group where 30 comments have been posted and nine centered around whether bloggers have the same rights as journalists, especially in the area of libel::


One commenter, James Craig, wrote that he learned a lot from the discussion. Did you?

What do you think?

  • What’s the role in government and law when we post online?
  • Are you a blogger AND a journalist? If so, what do you think of bloggers who don’t “know journalism” and what rights do they deserve?
  • If you are a blogger AND NOT a journalist, where do you stand on these issues?

 

 

 

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Blogging, Interview

What works for your blog? Here are tips from the “Sleepy Blogger”

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“Write your own blog post everyday, but spend twice as much time reading other people’s blogs — and comment,” That was just one of the valuable suggestions discussed by the Sleepy Blogger, aka Robyn Tippins, who visited my PR class at San Francisco State when we first started to learn about social media back in 2009.

Here are some of the quotes students remembered after her presentation:

“Once you get out there, people start to refer to you and this is how you become influential.”

“It’s important for your blog to create a niche so that the right people can read the right blogs and leave the right comments for the benefit of the overall conversation.”

“Word of mouth has a lot to do with success in the blogging world as it is for business in general.”

“Paid advertising on your blog can hurt you rather than help you because of all the clutter and distraction.”

“Research is essential — it makes you credible and relevant.”

“Key words and meta tags make it easier to find your blog.”

“Spend more time visiting other blogs than writing your own.”

“Get your ideas out there and personalize some of your posts to keep yourself real.”

What works for your blog?

Who are your favorite bloggers — and why?

[content taken from early post 5/2009 – but still very relevant today]

 

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Blogging, Guest Post, Journalism

Blogs as Catharsis & More: here’s how one journalist started his

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There’s nothing like commenting on someone’s blog post to get the ball rolling, i.e. building online relationships. As part of re-strategizing my own blogging, I am revisiting my first posts to republish those with content that’s as relevant today as it was when I first began.

One of those blog articles answered a student’s question “How Do I Build a Blog Audience.” After two years, I’ve learned enough to streamline those posts AND promote them in ways to get more readers and comments. I reposted commenting on other blogs — and then promoted it through social media.

On one LinkedIn  Group Discussion,  “laid off” journalist Ted Schnell shared his process of building blog readership via social media. Read all about it in his Guest Post —

Using social media sites to build a blog audience

Guest Post by Ted Schnell

I started my blog, Laid off at 51: Seeking joy in change two weeks after my notice. Initially, I promoted it by email blasts to friends, family and former colleagues. The first entry took on a life of its own, generating hundreds of page views in the first couple of weeks.

The three posts I wrote in the last two weeks of December garnered 869 page views, but my traffic dropped to 453 for all of January. I had been following Steve Buttry’s blog, The Buttry Diary which offered some very useful suggestions.

So I started promoting it on Twitter, then added Facebook and LinkedIn — now I use Hootsuite to set up all three at once, although I still send out the email blasts. I’ve seen four months of progressive growth in page views, hitting a high of more than 1,000 for the month of May.

My metrics have shown a shift — initially, most traffic came, unsurprisingly, from email accounts and, as the month of December wound toward an end, from Google. I think as far as Google was concerned, “Laid off at 51” was branded by mid-January.

By February and March, much of my traffic was coming from links via Twitter and from Google searches. Since adding Facebook and LinkedIn to my promotional effort, my metrics show a fluctuation between Facebook and LinkedIn as my top sources, although Twitter sometimes surges high as well. Google searches still draw traffic, but not as much as the early months.

In terms of measuring the success of my blog, I have no basis of comparison. I did not start it with the intent of making money off it, but to work through some of the issues I’ve faced as a middle-age guy who got the boot in an industry that is languishing. Besides the catharsis, I was hoping perhaps to use it to encourage others in similar straights. I hope the increasing readership reflects that.

In terms of comments, they have been few and far between, although the first post was an exception. Typically, if I comment on a blog — or for that matter, on a discussion board like this, I like to approach it with a well thought-out comment that either offers encouragement or adds to the discussion. I personally feel it serves no useful purpose to jump in with a snide remark or a comment that berates the author for expressing an opinion.

***

Here’s the discussion where Ted and I connected:

***

So here are some questions:

1 – Why do people blog, especially if there is no financial payoff?

2 – Do you have some advice for Ted to get more comments on http://tedschnell.blogspot.com/

3 – Do you have a comment strategy for other people’s articles?

 

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Blogging, Guest Post

How Social Media Works: it really is all about engagement!

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No, this is NOT going to be “the” answer to the subject “How social media really works” — only one, but an interesting one.

I just met freelance copywriter David McCauley via LinkedIn when he responded to my post How to increase blog readership. Now we are connected on both LinkedIn and Facebook, and we’ve begun to support one another’s efforts. David’s website Passionate Copy contains articles on business topics from lead generation to marketing via email, video and SEO. Check him out, but first read his Guest Post, which suggests how to best get noticed by paying customers.

Plan for the right discussions if the “payoff” is your goal

Guest Post by David McCauley
Shari –
Your article brings up great advice on blogging, and it reads quite well. The only thing I would add (even blogs like pro blogger miss this one):

“People need to be seen in their Target industry — not Career industry — in order to get noticed by the right ‘paying’ audience.”

Does this make sense?

For example I belong to several copywriting and Social Media groups (my career groups). I constantly see “Experts” talking/promoting either SEO, Linkedin, Blogging or Social Media advice and services.

Unfortunately, they are doing it to each other. What they see is a group like eMarketing or Social Media Marketing that has 310,000+ or 160,000+ members, and start to market their services to those groups.

What ends up happening is that they get caught up in discussions that talk about what Expert or SEO really means, which is fine, if you are trying to learn or have a lot of time to waste.

This is where the problem is – everyone is struggling to market to each other, and no one is listening – or buying.

If one is going to be marketing such services, pick a niche or two that actually needs help, say dentists, veterinarians, sporting equipment marketers, etc. Join those groups if they are business oriented.

If they are private groups then make sure to explain that you are joining to learn more about them and possibly assist them in learning more about Social Media, Blogging, etc.

More than likely group access will be granted. If denied, just move on to the next. Once in, then one can start the process of networking, becoming involved, and getting followers that would eventually become ‘paying’ clients, by following advice you have in your article.

If a person is struggling to find a niche, just write down the top ten hobbies they are interested in, research those groups to see how many marketing directors/ business owners are in those groups, then join if it is a business oriented, move on if it isn’t.

Bottom line – don’t be afraid to get out there. We all get too comfortable in our own environment, but sometimes we don’t realize that our hobbies are as much part of our environment as are our careers.

**

NOTE: David responded via this LinkedIn post:

If you are a social media maven, please join us there. We may not “pay” you, but we can share valuable info, and of course support your efforts.

 

 

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Blogging

How to increase blog readership: Comment on other blogs

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What can I do to get my blog noticed?

That question was answered in a blog April 25, 2009– two days after I first started my own blog — from Problogger.net, probably the best resource for info on blogging.

“Adding comments on other blogs, especially the most popular ones, is a great way to build traffic.” — Blogging expert Darren Rowse

Darren’s article referred me to a 2007 post listing 11 tips for getting your comments noticed on a popular blog. Would you believe there were 136 comments on that one article?

No, I couldn’t read all of them . . . had to stop myself somewhere around comment 93. But I learned a lot and wanted to share some of Darren’s tips, some from his readers, and just a few I’ve picked up along the Revolutionary Road we’re traveling.

Tips to get your blog noticed

  • ADD VALUE: First off, social media is really all about conversation, so the comments are every bit as important as the post. Implication — Be sure your comment adds value and doesn’t just say “I agree” or “You suck” or “Read my blog.”
  • COMMENT, BUT DON’T BE A STALKER: When you read a blog, you ought to consider leaving your comment. Lots of people have set goals for themselves to comment on every blog post they read. Of course, if you read someone’s opinion every single day and you comment every single day, you could be getting a bad rep as a stalker.
  • STAY ON TOPIC: Commenting gives you a chance to show what you know. And that’s always fun; plus you really can contribute, especially if you stay on topic. Very important. Stay on topic; don’t talk just to be heard.
  • USE HUMOR, AND PERSONALITY: If you want to connect with people, then your comments should show some of your personality and/or sense of humor. A comment has been called a mini-resume. You can be establishing your personal brand in your comments.
  • PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: Actually, I’d read advice early on that commenting was the best way to find your voice before you started to actually blog.
  • BUILD RELATIONSHIPS: In the business world, lots of comments are complaints — and this isn’t always a totally negative situation. Actually it is an opportunity for a company to handle a problem that they might never have known about otherwise. Handling disagreeable comments in a polite and respectful manner goes a long way to building better relationships and the community that companies are now trying to establish.
  • ASK QUESTIONS: One last tip: Ask relevant and thoughtful questions in your comment, so . . .

What kind of comment can you add here?

PS I did want to add a link to the Air Force’s “Blog Assessment” flow chart which offers suggestions on how to deal with comments on their blogs. Good for business people, particularly, to Think before Replying.

NOTE: This is one of my re-postings from the original articles written “way back when” I first started to blog in April 2009.

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Blogging

Blogging 101: What IS a blog, anyway . . . and WHY should I do one

55 Comments

 

Yes, a blog is definitely a great way to promote a business online these days – now that everyone can become a publisher at NO cost, or a relatively low one. Anyone with an Internet connection can post his or her thoughts, opinions, and activities on the Global Whiteboard to be read and responded to.

Here are 10 basic reasons to start blogging:

  1. Publishing Platform
  2. Control your Message
  3. Delivery system for your Messages
  4. 24/7 Online Network
  5. New Skill Development
  6. Increased Perception through Web 2.0 Sources
  7. Visibility
  8. Reputation Management [your silence allows your critics to win]
  9. Build Google Presence
  10. Research required increases your Expertise

Follow these five steps to get you blogging

STEP ONE: Before proceeding to Step Two, make certain that you really want to start a blog:

  • Are you passionate enough about a topic that you want to write and publish your ideas on a regular basis?
  • Can you commit to a consistent schedule, e.g., once a week?  twice a week? Twice a day?
  • Will you be comfortable learning as you’re doing? Think of Picasso who said “I am always doing that which I don’t know how to do in order to learn to do it.”
  • Can you be patient about putting in effort BEFORE you see the big “payoff,” i.e. results and lots of readers?
  • Will you make time to read other peoples’ blogs and comment on them?
  • Would you like to be an authentic, honest, interesting Voice in the blogosphere?

If the answer is YES to all six questions, then proceed to Step Two.

STEP TWO: Spend a little bit of time searching the Internet for How To Blog articles. Many may be more advanced than a beginner can understand, but that’s OK. Reading them will not hurt you, and they may provide links to more basic articles.

STEP THREE: Do NOT wait until you think you will write a perfect blog post. If I had waited just over two years ago, I might never have gotten started. Common Wisdom suggests you listen to Nike, i.e., Just Do It. You will learn from your mistakes. After all, when you do get started, few people will know you are “out there,” so you can build your chops and publish content, which can always be revised and/or  deleted later on.

STEP FOUR: Choose a blogging platform. My suggestion is that you go with WordPress – the most popular and well supported blog tool and publishing platform. Here you have another choice: the absolutely FREE http://wordpress.com or the companion platform http://wordpress.org that requires you to (a) have a domaine name that will cost you less than $10 a year and (b) a blog hosting company that will cost around $10 a month. [I am very happy with Hostgator that I have been using for two years.]

Why would you pay when you can blog for free?

Actually, my suggestion is that you do choose the Free option, wordpress.com, for a month or so to make certain you are sure want to commit to the practice. My blog post: http://sharisax.com/2009/10/08/how-to-start-a-blog-step-by-step-and-voila-youre-a-publisher/ will help you set up a free blog.

Again, why would you want to pay to blog?

Self-hosting, i.e. a blog on a platform like wordpress.org will offer you much more control including options like the following:

  1. Your own URL and opportunity to build your brand without having to use the platform name, e.g., http://sharisax.com vs. my “free” blog that was at http://sharisaxiisoutthere/wordpress.com.
  2. An almost unlimited number of designs (or themes) that can be found free online or designed uniquely for your blog by a professional web developer.
  3. Opportunities to sell products and services as well as include advertising
  4. Addition of a large variety of “plugins” or applications that will extend the capabilities of your blog.

STEP FIVE: Just do it! Get started, and here is how to write your first blog post on the free platform.

Conclusion: Basically a blog can put a human face on a company, and people do business with people not organizations. Bloggers are the new Influencers. You can build your authority, and influence, by knowing your audience and writing relevant, original, interesting, keyword-rich content.  Use your blog to become the Go-To Source for information on your area of expertise.

ADDENDUM: I just found a new post that lists these reasons why businesses ought to blog.

I like PUTS FACE ON BRAND the best:

  • Create an image of an expert
  • Interact with clients and prospects
  • Improve search engine rankings
  • Spread the word
  • Talk about more than just products and services
  • Solve client’s problems
  • Build trust
  • Stay on top of your field
  • Build brand
  • Exercise your creativity
  • Put a human face on your brand
  • Proving ground
  • Foundation for social media activities
  • Differentiate from competition
  • Educate clients, prospects, stake holders
  • Increase traffic
  • Make money

Any other reason you can think of?

 

 

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Blogging, Journalism, LinkedIn, Twitter

Which comes first: The Chicken or the Egg? The Medium or the Message?

119 Comments

Long ago, business was all about building a better mousetrap and force-feeding it into homes. Long ago, publishing was all about dollars and cents (don’t mistakenly read “sense”). Long ago, free speech was easily regulated — and not particularly “free.”

Today’s technology advances are creating a New Normal, and intelligent folks who want to work and prosper in these revolutionary times must accept and embrace the challenges and opportunities.

How does one do this? How does one keep up with — and even stay ahead of — change.

My online course Social Media for Journalists [beginning today, January 24] will offer a roadmap, i.e., GPS turn-by-turn instructions, to a variety of destinations from a selection of career paths to a better understanding of today’s world.

In preparation for the course, I posted a Discussion Topic on a number of LinkedIn groups where online journalists congregate. I asked them what topics, issues, and skills they would emphasize in a course teaching student journalists about social media. Below is a listing of their responses.

My students will be asked to choose one of the responses and write a comment below. I invite all my readers to do the same.

What online journalists say about social media and the future:

  1. The way to revitalize the journalism “industry” is to use the new technology to build community, connections, and most important — solid relationships.
  2. Publishing today is not just about offering something of value; you need to know what people really want and how they want to receive it.
  3. Integration is key: we are losing separate distinctions between journalism, PR, marketing, and advertising.
  4. Journalists are the storytellers and disseminators of news — they connect people to information, and social media is the newest means to accomplish this.
  5. Media outlets are using Foursquare and other local apps to find people at the sites where news is breaking.
  6. Cheap, high speed internet access and social networking has broken up the mass audience into social, economic, geographic, and business “niche” communities.
  7. Search engines, blogs, and social networking have made everyone a publisher.
  8. Twitter and Foursquare have become valuable tools for sourcing and feedback; the impact of instant public feedback in the writing/creative processes of the journalist.
  9. Students will help create knowledge and process.
  10. Journalism and the stuff that looks like it is less reliable and requires more consumer skepticism.
  11. When access to social media both as a contributor and reader is so easy, what value can a journalist bring to the mix?
  12. Posts on social media become news.
  13. Stories can be updated throughout the day on social media sites.
  14. Social media is not a one-way street; you must listen and engage, not just post.
  15. One problem with social media is that it has convinced people that they have superior observation and analytical skills as well as original ideas.
  16. Interacting with people on a one-to-one basis helps grow relationships, spread information, and gather new facts.
  17. Missing from online blogging is the filter between the writer and the public — the copy editor or news editor.
  18. Visual and audio media convey emotion in a way that print never could. In fact, when using multimedia, it may be extremely difficult to separate the emotional content from the informational content.
  19. Traditional news values and techniques are valuable and should be studied. There are some things the internet should never change.
  20. Ideally “old school” and “new school” news sources will challenge each other to do a better job. A competitive news environment benefits all.

Do any of these statements resonate with you? If so, please write a comment telling us which one and why.

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Blogging, Journalism, Sharisax Is Out There

What’s one difference between a blogger and a journalist?

53 Comments

Bloggers do like I’m doing right now — write my thoughts just after they come to me.

Journalists research . . . and then write.

OK, now that we got my “answer” to the title question out of the way without any introductory fanfare, let’s chat for a moment about the context of this post:

1) I’m pumped up about beginning to teach my online course in Social Media for Journalists this semester.

2) I just got back from a winter break vacation during which I published three posts prepared in advance and one that “came to me” after I’d commented on Adam Singer’s article “The Critical Few”; click on HOME page to see all three [below this post].

3) It’s the new year and I’m trying to publish more often, which is one reason I started “Briefly Stated” posts. Sometimes More is More, but lots of times Less is More.

4) There’s buzz about Chris Brogan’s program to supply bloggers with blog topics, and there’s an equal amount of buzz from bloggers saying they have plenty to talk about, but not enough time to do it.

So here’s some of my thinking:

Long ago in a creative writing course I was told that any writing worth reading can stand the test of time; Homer reportedly taught that one should put away a piece of writing for nine years; if it was still important, interesting, and useful after that hiatus, then one should refine it and publish it.

Blog posts can be “evergreen,” i.e., relevant beyond the day of publication. Many bloggers publish their Best of the Year posts. Book publishers look for works that will continue to resonate with readers. Withstanding the test of time is a critical component to quality.

But what does all this have to do with the One Difference between Bloggers and Journalists?

Well, first off, the only reason for a title like that is to encourage discussion — beginning with the fact that lots of journalists are bloggers. The terms blogger and journalist are not mutually exclusive. The main point I wanted to “put out there” was that when a journalist blogs as a journalist he or she ought to adhere to solid journalistic principles, which include a degree of objectivity; adherence to fact not opinion [unless quoting someone else’s opinion]; and writing that is concise, clear, and as free from error as possible.


What do you think?

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