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.

Discussion List Tips: Web Reading and Feeds

One way to cut e-mail overload: Here's what it looks like when you read a discussion list on the web, rather than by e-mail. (Click to enlarge)

For more than a decade, e-mail discussion lists have been a mainstay of conversational media -- and I think they're likely to continue to remain popular. E-mail is approachable even to total online newbies.

However, since everyone is on e-mail overload, discussion lists end up presenting a problem: clutter. Sure, you can cut down on list clutter via daily digest postings -- but if it's a busy list, scrolling through a digest posting gets to be tedious.

Since I am constantly overwhelmed by e-mail, I find that feeds or web-based reading can be better ways to participate. Of course, these options aren't available from every list service.

If you value the online discussions you've joined but can't handle the e-mail, here's some advice...

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...

10 Ideas: What To Post to a Conference Blog

I've been working hard lately to get the unofficial conference blog up and running for the 2006 conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Now that it's up and the crew of volunteer bloggers is mostly trained in how to use our blogging tool, Typepad, they're starting to request more guidance on content. Most of these contributing bloggers come from print media. They know how to write, but they've never blogged before -- and most of them also have little or no experience in creating any content specifically for online media.

Consequently, they aren't familiar with conference blogs. That's fine -- many people aren't, although that's starting to change. I've worked on some conference blogging efforts, so I've pulled together a list of 10 kinds of posts that work well on conference blogs.

As with any conversational-media effort, it helps to know your audience, as well as your community of contributors (both bloggers and commenters). What skills and expertise do they bring to the table? What do they want? Ultimately, that should be your guide.

Here's my list...

Capturing Conferences: Expanding on Beth Kanter's Thoughts

Beth Kanter, one of the many great minds I encountered at BlogHer 2006.

Ever since the BlogHer conference in late July, I've been thinking about live blogging and other ways to capture the energy and creativity that often arises at conferences and other gatherings.

Well, as often happens when I don't get around to writing something down, some smart blogger beats me to it. That's just what Beth Kanter did. See her Aug. 25 post, Collaborative Models for Capturing and Sharing Conference Notes at Nonprofit Gatherings.

As a matter of fact, go read her post first. What I'm about to say will make more sense after you read her excellent overview of tools and techniques.

(Really, go read it. I'll wait. It's cool.)

...OK, now that you've read Beth's overview of collaboration tools and strategies that can help capture the value of conferences (and hopefully followed her links to some examples), here's my bigger-picture thought for today:

Conference planners should consider how to capture and extend the value of the conference during the planning process. Because for many people and organizations, what gets captured from a conference is more valuable than the event itself.

READ MORE: Over at my client's blog, Capture the Conversation, I've published a quick checklist of what I think conference planners should start taking into account...

Beyond Blogs: Moleskine Goes Where the Conversation Happens

My Moleskine reporter's notebook -- which is holding up well, despite frequent abuse.

Like many media pros, I'm a die-hard fan of Moleskine notebooks -- especially their small, unlined reporter's notebook (see photo).

Moleskine notebooks aren't fancy. In fact, this brand's reputation hinges almost entirely on quality, and on a vocal, dedicated community of customer evangelists -- such as Merlin Mann of the popular productivity site 43 Folders.

Therefore, when sharply worded complaints about Moleskin's quality and service erupted on the 43 Folders Google Groups forum on Aug. 15, Modo & Modo (manufacturer of Moleskine notebooks) had a pretty big problem.

Apparently, some Moleskine notebooks started falling apart after just a few weeks or months of use. Some owners of these defective notebooks tried contacting Moleskine US, but got no response. Later, it turned out that Moleskin US is not the US distributor for this brand. The official US distributor is Kikkerland Design Inc. But in the meantime, these customers believed Moleskine was ignoring them. Not good.

Clued in by e-mails, Moleskine maker Modo & Modo began checking out the online complaints. On Aug. 30, the company posted a sincere apology on its blog. They offered an explanation of their late response: they're a small company, and in Italy everyone's on vacation in August -- not a great answer, but an honest one. They also offered clear instructions on how owners of defective notebooks could get their problem addressed.

Even smarter, Modo & Modo posted the full text of this statement onto the 43 Folders forum where the complaints arose. It's interesting to note that, despite earlier frustrations aired in that forum, all the responses to the company's apology were positive and supportive.

This story demonstrates the importance of three lessons for all organizations who understand how conversational media can help make or break your reputation...

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE on the Capture the Conversation blog...

Why Most CEOs Shouldn't Blog

What's the difference between Robert Scoble and Bill Gates? Blogging talent. (And, um, net worth...)

A couple of days ago, my friend and colleague Dave Taylor wrote a sure-to-be-provocative blog post, Why Jonathan Schwartz Should NOT Be Blogging. He also was quoted on this topic in a Sept. 16 AP article, and his posting explores his thoughts in more depth -- a great strategy for getting more mileage out of mainstream media play, by the way.

Dave lists several reasons why CEOs of major companies are probably not the best people to blog for a company -- at least in public, external blogs. (Intranets might be another matter.) One reason that I think is particularly compelling is this:

"Quick, how many CEOs can you name? How many from companies with more than $10 million in sales or more than 500 employees? I thought so.

...In my experience, people outside the company actually don't care much whether the CEO blogs. While company blogs can be popular, I think that mainly depends on the quality of the conversation that happens there.

A quality corporate blog requires putting someone on the job with these qualifications...

Why I Ditched Most of My Feeds, and Changed to NetNewsWire

Just part of my old feed list. What was I thinking?

I was just overwhelmed. My "system" felt organized at first, but it got to be chaos. So this weekend I made some radical changes in how I use feeds.

For a long time, I'd kept over 400 feeds organized into about 20 topic areas (environment, energy, science, women, law, etc.) bundled into my former favorite feed reader, Sage (a Firefox plugin). I figured since they were bundled neatly into folders and alphabetized within, I could find what I wanted easily.

But gradually I realized that I almost never looked at most of the feeds my topic folders. The only ones I scanned regularly were task-related -- mostly search feeds based on specific topics I'm currently following, and I change these a lot.

Bearing that in mind, this weekend I ditched all  my general topic folders from my feed list -- about 80% of my subscriptions. But now, since my feeds are more focused on exceedingly timely and personally relevant sources, I think they'll help me participate in online conversations -- public and private.

Here's more about the changes I made...

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...

Trackbacks, comments, and conversations

Ah, I love conversational media...  My earlier post on strategic commenting has generated an intriguing multi-threaded discussion. In one comment to that article, Uri Baruchin asked:

"Amy, could you share your opinion regarding the use of trackbacks vs. comments?"

Trackbacks are ubiquitous among weblogs, and often misunderstood. This theme also arose in the comments to Guy Kawasaki's posting which recommended my strategic commenting article. Here's how I responded the trackback v. comments issue there...

Strategic Commenting: No blog is an island

I do a lot of blog coaching, and one of the most common laments I hear is "no one visits / links to / comments on my blog!"

The solution is simple once you wrap your brain around the concept of conversational media.

If you view your blog as part of a public conversation, rather than a mere publication, then an easy way to attract more interest and interaction becomes obvious. I call it "strategic commenting."

Here's how it works...

READ THE REST OF THIS POST, and all comments, over at Contentious.

BWB (Blogging While Busy)

There's no getting around it: Following and participating in conversational media, especially blogging, takes time. For many folks, that's a huge hurdle. Occasionally my own time crunch lands me in a blogging bind.

I've been fortunate lately to score several meaty consulting projects. However, they're all due in approximately the same time frame, so I'm scrambling to get them done. Hence, I haven't been blogging much lately on any of my blogs.

However, I have been reading and commenting on a few other blogs. For me, that tends to take much less time then crafting a typical post for one of my own blogs. (I really don't like dashing off half-formed thoughts, that doesn't suit me.)

It strikes me that I can leverage my comments on other blogs constructively to both create postings when I'm really busy, and to expand the excellent conversations I've already joined. Here's what I have in mind...

Ego Surfing: Of Course You Do It, but Are You Good at It?

Ego surfing (searching the internet for mentions of your name, organization, or projects) is the dirty little linchpin of conversational media. Everyone does it, although many people hesitate to admit to it because they don't want to appear vain or they're ashamed of their meager results. Yet it's hard to participate effective in conversational media without doing at least occasional ego surfing.

Personally, I recommend consistent, ongoing ego surfing -- the easy way. I use a series of search feeds to handle this task for me. That is, I make certain queries to search engines (like Google) and feed aggregation services (like Technorati), then subscribe to feeds based on those queries so that I learn of new results as soon as they get indexed...

Feeling Your Way Into a Conversation

Tonight at the monthly meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group, I'll be hearing some local (Boulder, CO) luminaries speak on conversational media. One of these smart people, James Clark of the internet marketing firm Room214, noted recently in his company's weblog how "Conversations Thrive on Emotion."

He made a good point:

"Sparking a conversation is all about tripping someone’s emotional triggers. Let’s face it, the facts are boring. Yes they’re good, and yes they’re important, and yes they should be used to make sound decisions. But who makes sound emotionless decisions? Who tries to butt in to join a boring conversation?"

While I don't think conversation is "all" about tripping emotional triggers, I do agree that feelings strongly affect how people start, join, and participate in conversations. In order to thrive in conversational media, you need a strong degree of empathy.

Off the top of my head, here are a few simple tips I'd suggest for taking emotions into account in conversations that occur via weblogs and other types of conversational media...