AMY GAHRAN: The Right Conversation

What to Do BEFORE You Start to Blog

Joe Shlabotnik, via Flickr

Want to try business blogging? Don't just dive in.

(NOTE: I've moved this article to my other weblog Contentious. If you wish to comment on this article, you can do so there. Also, this is an edited version of a column I wrote for the Boulder County Business Report. Here's the full article.)

You’ve probably heard that blogging is good for your business. If you haven’t already started blogging -- WAIT! Leaping into this medium cold is the most common and damaging error I’ve seen.

Before you do anything else, figure out which groups you wish to engage in a public conversation.

Next, figure out where they already spend time online...

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE ON CONTENTIOUS.

Accounting for Community: Thoughts for the BlogHer Business Summit

                                               

Stig Nygaard, via Flickr (CC license)

"Toto, I don't think we're in Boulder anymore..."

I'm in New York right now, and on Friday afternoon I'll be on a panel at the BlogHer Business Summit that I'm really looking forward to. Here's the official blurb from the conference program:

An RFP for the Measurement Industry

Where is the blog measurement tool that could measure more than "eyeballs," more than "authority" via inbound links, and could begin to approach measuring influence and relevance? [The panelists will] scope out what is, is not and ought to be available.

The panel will also include Edelman PR's Elizabeth Lee and LiveWorld's Jenna Woodul. Jory Des Jardins, one of the BlogHer founders and a gifted blogger in her own right will be moderating.

Gee... No pressure...

Frankly, I've been stressing a bit about this session. For a long time I've felt I was missing something very obvious about this topic. I've been worrying that I'm going to get up in front of an audience of people I respect and look like an idiot. Perhaps I'm about to do just that.

Regardless, something just occurred to me. I'd like to hear what you think about it...

Getting LinkedIn: Growing Your Network

After much nudging from various colleagues, I've finally begun to use the professional networking service LinkedIn. (See my profile.)

I thought now would be a good time to get more connected with this service. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be more focused and systematic about how I build my conversational media consulting business. I like the LinkedIn model because it focuses on personal connections -- which is also the foundation of conversational media. Seemed like a natural place for me to start.

Here's what I've been doing so far, including six tips for building your LinkedIn network...

Transparency vs. Payola: Weighing Risks

PayPerPost: Worth the risk?

Over at the Center for Citizen Media blog, I've joined an interesting conversation concerning the thorny issue of payola in online media. See: PayPerPost: A Cancer on the Blogosphere, or Merely Semi-Sleazy? by Dan Gillmor.

Background: The controversial online advertising service PayPerPost attracted considerable blog and media attention after it recently got $3 million in venture funding. In a nutshell, PayPerPost is an automated system where companies can advertise their sites, products, services, or brands through a network of approved bloggers who get paid $2 per qualifying post. That is, bloggers who sign on to PayPerPost agree to write about those advertisers.

PayPerPost reviews and approves those posts, which can be required to be positive. Although PayPerPost urges its bloggers to be "honest," it discourages them from disclosing their relationship with PayPerPost. So, ethically, everyone involved appears to be on thin ice -- but when did ethics ever have much to do with the advertising business?

...Anyway, Dan Gillmor's post on the PayPerPost flap nudged me to consider the issue of payola more closely. Here are a couple of comments I contributed to that discussion...

Conversational Media Tools at Capture the Conversation

I've recently started blogging for one of my  clients, Room 214. They're an internet marketing firm that offers an intriguing service, Capture the Conversation. This service gets to the heart of why conversational media is so valuable and important. I think the Room 214 people and I can learn a lot from each other.

The Capture the Conversation blog is a good resource for marketing/PR pros and others who want to learn how to make the most of conversational media. My "beat" there will mainly be the tools of conversational media. So when I have tool-focused topics to discuss, I'll post over there. (I'll mention it here, though, with a link). I'll continue to post my think pieces and open questions to this blog. I believe that's a complementary content strategy -- we'll see how it works out.

Over at the Capture the Conversation blog, I just launched into what will be a multi-part discussion of the tools of comment tracking. Today's post is very introductory, but watch for followups. See: Tracking Blog Comments: The Challenge...

How to Foster News Conversations

(NOTE: I'm cross-posting this from Poynter's E-Media Tidbits, another blog that I edit.)

Today in Editor & Publisher online, Steve Outing (former E-Media Tidbits editor and current contributor to e-Media Tidbits) just published an excellent article: How to Make Your Web Site More Conversational.

This is a must-read piece. Outing outlines several specific tips and strategies for fostering constructive, vibrant online conversations about the news. (Disclosure: I'm quoted in this article, but that's not why I'm recommending it. Steve really did a great job with this one.)

Why bother fostering online conversations about the news? Outing indicates that doing so is no longer a luxury: "The Internet enables the conversation, and 21st-century news consumers are becoming used to the idea that their voices now can be spread far and wide -- just like the voices of professional journalists."

To that I'd add: Failing to deliver what your  audience or community has come to commonly expect is always bad for business.

In my opinion, the main reason why news organizations should foster strong online conversations boils down to money...

News and the Fruits of Conversation

Lately, the time I've had available for blogging has been consumed mostly by my gig as editor of the Poynter Institute's group weblog E-Media Tidbits. So I'm sorry that I've been neglecting The Right Conversation lately. I'm only one person, after all.

Anyway, over at Tidbits, last Friday I published a rather provocative item which attracted some intriguing discussion. See: Has News Competition Outlived Its Usefulness? -- and don't miss the comments.

Here is yet another great example of how conversations carried on through conversational media can generate new ideas and options -- which is the main reason why I love conversational media, after all.

After I mulled over the comments to my article for a few days, today I published on my other weblog, Contentious, an extended exploration on the growing need for (and opportunities for) collaboration between news venues.

See: Why News Needs More Collaboration

The problem, as I see it, is that right now most news venues view each other primarily as competitors. Meanwhile, news audiences are increasingly viewing the internet as one big publication. The competitive culture of traditional news organizations tends to create a kind of tunnel vision that excludes collaborative opportunities.

I think increased collaboration among news organizations, coupled with constructive competition, might be an important way to save quality traditional journalism in the long run.

Anyway, check it out, and let me know what you think.

Blog Bubble Bursting? Get a Grip

"The blogosphere is falling! The blogosphere is falling!" Well, so says Daniel Gross in Slate's "Twilight of the Blogs" -- the latest in a flurry of mainstream media articles about how the business potential of weblogs is allegedly imploding.

Actually, the above was a paraphrase. Here's what Gross actually said:

"As a cultural phenomenon, blogs are in their gangly adolescence. Every day, thousands of people around the world launch their blogs on LiveJournal or the Iranian equivalent. But as businesses, blogs may have peaked. There are troubling signs—akin to the 1999 warnings about the Internet bubble—that suggest blogs have just hit their top."

This is only true if one considers the primary -- and sole -- business potential of blogs hinged on direct monetization strategies such as ads, subscriptions, and sponsorships. OK, I'd expect such a shortsighted view from someone who works within the mainstream media structure, which derives its revenue mainly from ads.

But here's the bigger picture of blogs and business value...