Sep
8
2008
Blog Critiquing at SearchCampPhilly
Posted in the Category of Events and Social Media and Stuff
Was delighted to participate in SearchCamp Philly, part of PodCamp Philly, over the weekend. It was a perfect way to spend a rainy, stormy Saturday as Hurricane Hannah swept up the East Coast. Took the train up and back from D.C. and somehow missed the rain and wind.
I ran a session on the viability of CEO blogging, a topic that has been much discussed over the past several years and about which there is little agreement. Should your CEO blog? It depends on his/her writing ability, personality, motivation, goals. Should your CEO’s blog be ghostwritten? I say no, although some editing is fine.
(Above, my list of attributes of a bad CEO or corporate blog on the whiteboard at SearchCampPhilly. Before I’d finished writing, everyone at the session identified what the list represented.)
Unfortunately, there are no reliable stats on the number of CEO blogs, although the New PR Wiki has a CEO blog list. The Wall Street Journal published a short list of public and private company CEO blogs.
Also ran a Blog Clinic with Geoff Livingston where we "live critiqued" two very different blogs (here and here) submitted by willing parties. The biggest mistake we saw? The lack of links embedded in their blog entries. Interesting how that basic tenet of good blogging—linking—is not widely understood.
Update: just looked at Blabrmouth.com, one of the blogs Geoff and I critiqued. Seems blog publisher Robert Barr has already changed the design of the blog AND started adding links to his posts. Kudos!
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Comments
Li Evans said on September 8, 2008 at 01:05 PM
Debbie you did an awesome job helping us out at Search Camp Philly! People were raving about you and Geoff and your participation.
You really helped make our first SearchCamp a great success! Thanks so much for coming and helping!
~Li
Robert Barr said on September 8, 2008 at 01:10 PM
Anyone seeking the advice of Debbie and not taking it is foolish. If you are a CEO and considering launching a corporate blog, don’t think your IT guys can figure it out for you. Debbie is EXACTLY what you need to make sure your message is being heard loud and clear!
Thanks for the tips Debbie!
Robert
Debbie Weil said on September 8, 2008 at 01:16 PM
Wow, thanks Robert. Not everybody learns as fast as you did what “good” blogging is.
John Lauber said on September 8, 2008 at 05:11 PM
I really enjoyed your session with Geoff at Blog Clinic. Gave me a bunch of ideas to help me with my own. I even removed the silly tag widget during the session. I never knew where that was good/bad to have until then. Thanks for the session.
Judy Vorfeld said on September 9, 2008 at 11:25 AM
Debbie, thanks for the post. I went to BlabrMouth.com and enjoyed the post and the links leading to other fascinating posts. Thanks for expanding my day and my thinking through your post.
