Teaching clients to blog
Hello all! I’m back for a post. While I’ve been on leave, I’m FINALLY powering through “Naked Conversations” by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. I’ve worked with Scoble in my former life at Waggener Edstrom when I did public relations for Microsoft products like MSN and Windows Live (to name a few). I’ve always found Scoble interesting because he’s the man who really turned Microsoft on to blogging. And not just blogging, but blogging right. He was authentic, critical when appropriate to Microsoft (his own company), posted frequently and thoughtfully, and created a real dialogue. It went a long way in helping people see the people who work and build Microsoft products every day and that helped Microsoft in ways that you can’t put a dollar figure on.
I currently (well pending my medical leave) work for Weber Shandwick. I work on Microsoft still (enterprise focused) and MySpace, but beyond that I also help coach and teach clients about blogger strategy, digital communications, and social media. I love digital communications. Like obsessed, love it. I am a total extrovert and online gives me a forum to express myself endlessly whether it’s here, other blogs, comments, friends blogs, Facebook, MySpace, etc. I’m also a huge believer in a blogger strategy as part of an all up communications program - whether it’s proactively blogging and commenting, or for some cultures at least monitoring.
So back to the book - the book is a bit dated in web years, 2006 but it’s still totally relevant. Blogging has proved to be an important aspect to the comms channel yet there are still lots of clients and companies that still don’t get the value of blogging or just don’t get blogging at all. As a PR strategist, you spend a lot of time discussing this with clients and once they agree they need one, coaching them and their teams on how to actually launch and sustain a successful strategy.
This book has so much great info in it for anyone who is either in my position and trying to teach or if you just are getting started with blogging and want to learn. There are great examples of success stories, evidence to support the main concerns for blogging (time, ROI, FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), leaking info, cultural concerns, etc. They NAILED these issues in the book and it actually makes me laugh that in four years, they haven’t changed.
When I start working with clients on their digital plans, I’ve started to organize it in two ways – the first is just the basics of why have a blog, how it all works, and how we’ll get them started. We do a lot of coaching on content because most people write a blog like they are writing an internal e-mail and it can be HORRIBLE. They also seem to have a hard time figuring out what to write about. While we spend a lot of time up front, the goal is to have them independent in a few months with limited support on content. It takes a fundamental shift in communications, habit, and overall culture in order for it to be successful and those aren’t easy things to teach – it’s more like very persuasive conversations over a potentially long period of time.
The second step I’m thinking about is around refining content; adding more interactive and engagement aspects like Twitter, Facebook, and video; SEO; and coaching on commenting off the main blog and reciprocation. It’s just too much up front to get people’s heads around and I think you lose them if it feels too time consuming, too much change, or too much risk and time with no reward in sight yet. But these later things are some of the most important in taking a blog from a side project, to being really a valuable communications opportunty with customers and partners.
Other PR people out there? Are you still facing these issues? What other areas do clients need coaching on? Did you read the book – thoughts?
