Beyond Shel Holtz
12:51 pm by Chris Heuer
Starting today we are going to begin to move the conversation into focus for next week. We begin with an email interview with our moderator for the event, Shel Holtz (who I am really looking forward to meeting after hearing such great things about him). I think you will find this very informative. If you don’t already read his top five Blogs, you should rectify that problem today.
Shel Holtz, ABC
Accredited Business Communicator
Holtz Communication + Technology
Concord, California, USA
Website | Blog | Podcast
Q1 - What are the 5 Blogs you can’t live without?
Q2 - Tell us a little more about you and your company.
I’m a sole practitioner working with companies to help them communicate effectively online. My background is in corporate communications — internal and external. I’ve been online since 1985 and on the Net since 1990, and I make it my business to stay on top of the trends that will have an effect on business. I help companies strategize ways to use these new tools as well as how to address the “dark side” of the online world. I’ve been independent since 1996, when I left a communications practice leader job at a global consulting firm.
Q3 - What does Beyond Blogging mean to you? What does it look like?
First of all, blogging is just a tool. In addition to the blogs that get all the attention, there are blogs about knitting, cats, books, cartography, you name it. Blogs are also being used to build non-blog websites because they have inherently powerful content management capabilities. What blogs represent, though, is the power of individuals to wield influence that was previously inaccessible to them…and to form communities that have even more power. Blogs were merely the first social computing tool to resonate with an audience because of their ease of use and low barriers to entry. What they’ll look like in two years is anybody’s guess, but they’ll certainly have merged with other technologies that achieve the same result. Look at blogs that now incorporate the ability to tag each article or let users bookmark the article in del.icio.us. Look at how tools that tap into the wisdom of crowds (like Digg and Memeorandum) are pointing to blog entries as much as content produced by mainstream media. This is really about citizen-generated content, not a single tool. As these become more pervasive and easier to use, we’ll see a tectonic shifting of power from institutions to communities, and institutions will have to figure out how to thrive in this environment. They’ll have to give up any hope they had of controlling their messages and opt instead to participate in the conversation.
Q4 - Do you have any sage advice for a communications professional trying to work with a client that wants to Blog? What are the 3 most important things they need to look out for?
My sage advice is to read a lot of blogs, comment on blogs, and start blogging. It doesn’t have to be a corporate blog at first; try one from home that focuses on a hobby instead of the job. But the worst examples of business blogs are usually those launched by companies that figure they need a blog but have made no effort to understand the culture of the blogosphere. They should also align the focus of the blog with their business issues. To start a business blog without a strategy is no different than the horrible outcomes we saw 10 years ago from companies who said, “We need a website” without any idea why they needed one and what it should communicate. As for three things to look out for…
- Anybody who suggests a blog should or could be ghost-authored. Blogging is personal. If you’re not going to write it, don’t blog.
- Anybody who suggests a blog should be written in a corporate style. Write conversationally. Write with passion. Write with authority.
- Anybody who suggests you moderate comments in order to remove any negative contributions. Nobody is stupid enough to believe everybody reading your blog will agree with everything you say. Your credibility suffers if you don’t let the negative comments appear. Your credibility soars if you do.
Q5 - What’s the one trend in communications that isn’t being picked up on, or understood, by mainstream communicators?
Citizen-generated content.
Q6 - What are some of your past Blog posts you would like to highlight for our audience? Why?
Smart Corporate Blogging
“I’m Sorry” Getting Easier to Say
– Institutions resist admitting they are fallible. People have no such problem.
Companies Blocking Employees from Reading RSS Feeds
– Companies need to let employees access information without restriction.
Q7 - Discuss briefly what you’ll be sharing with our audience at the Beyond Blogging event.
Nothing, really. I’m the emcee and panel moderator! I hope to be able to ask some salient and pointed questions, but only if the audience questions start off slowly.
Care to comment?
