A Blog post about Blogging

About once a month the Edwards campus, which is part of the University of Kansas, hosts a lecture based on topics surrounding workforce development.  These sessions are free, open to the public, and always deliver a great presentation.  I really enjoy attending these sessions and today’s was, by far, my favorite.

The topic for today happened to be blogging and, more specifically, how blogging has evolved into a prevalent source of information.  Dr. David Perlmutter is not only the author of Blog Wars but is also a professor here in our very own journalism school at the University of Kansas.  Dr. Perlmutter had several great things to say so I’ll try to highlight a few pieces of his talk.

He discussed the efficient way that President-elect Barack Obama and his team dispersed information to potential voters.  The 2008 election marked another milestone in the history of gaining presidential popularity.  Franklin Roosevelt shared his message by hosting “Fireside chats” on the radio.  John F. Kennedy communicated with Americans on the television.  The Obama campaign gained popularity by interacting with society via Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.  They also relied heavily on text messaging to remind voters to get active.  People across the world were able to access very educated and well-informed discussions about his views using blogs.

Dr. Perlmutter also offered a few suggestions for starting or maintaining a blog:

1. A blog should serve a specific purpose.  If you are starting a blog without a goal in mind it will more than likely be difficult for you to maintain a steady stream of content for your readers. A blog should maintain or increase productivity.  Purposes can range from simply keeping family members updated on the kids’ activities to increasing knowledge and communication in a large corporation.
2. Remember your target audience.  This segues nicely from the first point and serves as a guideline when choosing content.   The sense of building a personal relationship can be quickly lost if you are writing to a faceless mass of people on the Internet.  Think of what your audience needs or is interested to hear, whether it is your great aunt in North Dakota or an entire network of educators.  (Hi guys!)
3. Feedback, feedback, feedback.  The purpose of a blog is to promote interactivity.  If a reader takes the time to leave a comment then you should comment back.  This gives the blogger a position of authority and the reader a sense of importance.  Dr. Perlmutter used this example: If you are having a conversation with someone, is it really a conversation if only one person is talking the entire time?
4. Update often.  I know it can be overwhelming at times to think of new topics but you want your readers to return to your blog.  Each post should work towards accomplishing your goal and keeping your target audience interested.
5. Set rules for yourself.  You need to decide how open and honest you want to be.  If someone writes “This product sucks.” on your comments section, are you going to delete it?  Many companies gain credibility by allowing consumers to leave honest, detailed opinions for others to read.

You can see him talk about his book here: