I'm participating in a Skypecast on the topic of how colleges and universities can capitalize on new communication and networking tools to foster meaningful dialogue with constituents. Thanks, Dan, for setting this up.
A couple of screen shots:
Enjoyed my first Skypecast
May 26, 2006
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Posted by paul baker
A blog evangelist
May 21, 2006Jeremiah Owyang writes about becoming a corporate blog evangelist for New Communications Review. Among his tips are Do a trial blog, Clearly define your blog's purpose, Learn from the best, and Demonstrate successes.
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Posted by paul baker
How to build a podcast audience
April 26, 2006If you're podcasting and want to build your audience (and who doesn't), make sure to list your cast with a directory like Podcast Alley and Podcast Pickle, says Jack Elias, in the April 2006 issue of Podcast User Magazine. Jack is a former radio professional. He also recommends hooking up with other podcasters and cross-promoting each other. The April issue of Podcast User also reviews several podcasts, discusses how to record audio tours, how to script and edit a podcast episode, and how beginners can get started.
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Posted by paul baker
Blogs as community engagement tool
April 26, 2006Brian Wheeler has posted a two-page primer on using blogs as a tool for engaging the community. He spoke at the annual conference of the National School Boards Association as part of a panel. Brian is an at-large member of the Albemarle County (Va.) school board. His tipsheet points to blog authoring software, RSS readers, and web authoring software, among other things. Good work Brian, and thanks for sharing with us.
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Posted by paul baker
Blog vs. blog
April 19, 2006The blog you're reading grew out of a previous blog, and with a change in focus came changes in format and title. For a walk-through in some things to consider when choosing a blog service, take a peek at a conversation I had with Dan Karleen as part of HigherEd BlogCon.
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Posted by paul baker
HigherEd BlogCon begins
April 3, 2006HigherEd BlogCon 2006 opens today. The project seeks to engage the higher education community in a conversation on the use of blogs, wikis, RSS, audio and video podcasts, social networks, and other digital tools in a range of areas in academe. Modelled after Global PR Blog Week 2.0, HigherEd BlogCon 2006 is being held online April 3 to April 28.
Participants from more than 30 institutions will publish articles, podcasts, and screencasts sharing their findings and experiences using these new technologies and inviting your participation through comments and questions.
All presentations are made available on the website at no charge (with the exception of the live, web/audio CASE Online Speaker Series events). Here's the schedule, in a nutshell:
- Blogs as personal learning environments
- Curriculum development using a wiki
- Legal issues in podcasting
April 10-14, 2006: Library and Information Resources
- Blogging and podcasting in libraries
- Web 2.0/Library 2.0
- Building an online research toolkit
April 17-21, 2006: Admissions, Alumni Relations, and Communications & Marketing
- Podcasts as a marketing tool
- Alumni E-Networks
- Blogging and podcasting for student recruitment
- April 20 CASE Speaker Event: Online Annual Giving Strategies (paid registration required)
April 24-28, 2006: Websites & Web Development
- Legal education podcasting project
- Taking control of HTML and CSS
- Agile web apps
- April 27 CASE Speaker Event: Podcasting News & Events (paid registration required)
Leave a Comment » | how-to | Tagged: blogging, My social media, podcasting, resources | Permalink
Posted by paul baker
Public Relations on the Net
March 28, 2006I had the good fortune to learn the art and science of public relations in a large organization (a trade association for a financial services provider). We had a ten-person PR team, each with a specialty. I got to learn from all of them. We had a speech writer, a media relations manager, a special events manager, industry news editor, and a director of state affiliates relations. My beat was employee communications and I edited print newsletters and provided photography services.
We were in the Midwest, and we had a busy governmental relations team in Washington, DC. We corresponded with Washington via a proprietary network (similar to CompuServe) which required logging in via dial up. (This was in the late 1980s.) Every week we collaborated on industry news stories and put together a newsletter every Thursday night (and there were some LONG Thursday nights). We printed out a single copy of the final product on a local office printer, then hand delivered it to our print shop late that night. Early Friday mornings the print shop crew came to work and fired up their massive printing machines, mass produced the newsletter, and got it into the mail so it would arrive in our members’ mailboxes Monday.
It was fun, and could be exciting. It amazes me now to think we did that without email and without the Web.
Given that background I really appreciate the new communication tools at our disposal. No more dial up connections! No more worrying about the mailman doing his job on time (he usually did).
We were using one-to-many communications. Now I’m having to un-learn that. As part of my re-education as a PR practitioner I read Shel Holtz’s book “Public Relations on the Net” (American Management Association, 2nd ed., 2002). He wrote it to help communicators like myself and our organizations figure out how to achieve measurable business results by using the Internet to communicate.
In addition to its value as a guide to strategically incorporating new media into a PR program, I recommend this book as a reminder of what the public relations field is all about – or is supposed to be.
One point Holtz keeps emphasizing is that the best public relations efforts are two-way and symmetrical – they afford both the company and the strategic audience equal opportunities to participate in the discussion and, even more important, equal opportunities to achieve their objectives.
As a whole, PR practitioners like myself have work to do in terms of using new communications media. The public often does a better job of online public relations than the professionals themselves, Holtz says, citing examples of activist groups and other passionate people who do a better job of understanding the Internet’s networked nature and using it to their advantage.
To effectively employ a medium as part of a communication strategy communicators must be intimately familiar with the medium. Holtz says to become better at online public relations, communicators must spend time online. PR practitioners should be the “eyes and ears” of the organization online, monitoring constituent content, extracting value from that content, and providing intelligence based on that content, which our organization can use to make strategic business decisions.
Leave a Comment » | how-to | Tagged: blogging, book review, public relations, Strategy | Permalink
Posted by paul baker
New and recent books
March 20, 2006I’m on a reading frenzy and will soon have comments on these recent and new books, which promise to benefit communicators in education as well as those in business:
Blogs Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Will Richardson, Corwin Press, 2006.
We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the people, for the people. Dan Gillmor, O’Reilly, 2004/2006.
Essential Blogging. Cory Doctorow et al., O’Reilly, 2002.
Public Relations on the net. Shel Holtz, Amacom, 2002. 2nd edition.
(This is a monster of a book and has as much to say about the PR profession as it does about using the net.)
Leave a Comment » | how-to | Tagged: blogging, podcasting, public relations, reading list | Permalink
Posted by paul baker
Blogging for Business, Blogging for Beginners
March 15, 2006Just finished reading a couple of good books about blogging, each aimed at different audiences, and each with something valuable to offer. “Blogging for Business” explains how and why blogs are popular and why a business might consider blogging as part of its communication strategy. “Best of Blogs” shows how business blogs and entertainment blogs have been put into practice. It offers thumbnail reviews of almost 500 well-done blogs, in categories ranging from parenting to travel, from music to politics.
Communicators in education should have little trouble finding useful ideas in either book.
Blogging for Business (companion site: www.bloggingforbusinessbook.com) offers a number of bon mots, including “Blogging is every bit as much about listening as it is about posting” (p. 106). A major point of emhpasis: “The best business blogs were implemented in support of some business goal. Determining the kind of blogs you might consider begins with a review of your goals and issues in order to identify where your opportunities may lie. One kind of blog you should never launch is the “let’s launch a blog” blog. Any company blog should be viewed as a part of the company’s communication strategy.” (p. 22)
“Blogging for Business” analyzes the blogging phenomenon and shows how a business can take advantage of the power of blogging. It’s aimed at the person who will be responsible for a company’s blogging strategy, the person who want to start a business blog, and the person who needs to understand the impact of blogs on an organization.
Coauthor Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communications + Technology and cohosts the popular business/PR podcast “For Immediate Release.” Ted Demopoulos is a consultant who blogs about on information technology, security, and business at “The Ted Rap.” Shel and Ted share their rich business experience and technical knowledge in a crisp, lively style.
Chapter topics include Business uses of blogs, Monitoring and tapping into the blogosphere, How to make money with blogs, Planning and promoting your blog, Using search engines to promote your blog, and Measuring the results of your blog, among others.
Blogosphere: Best of Blogs (companion site: http://www.blogsbestof.com/) aims to help the general reader explore the world of blogs. “We’ve designed this book to help you find the blogs that interest you the most, not necessarily the blogs that are the best written, most influential, or most widely read,” writes coauthor Peter Kuhns, a published computer book author, photo-blogger, and publishing consultant, and Adrienne Crew, a blogger and licensing professional who coedits Laist.com, a group blog from Los Angeles.
They write for the beginning-to-intermediate-level user, and from the standpoint that “the strength of blogs is information delivery, not topicality, popularity, or even writing style” (p. xvii).
Chapter topics include What is a blog, entertainment blogs, hobby blogs, sports blogs, parenting blogs, influential current events blogs, political blogs, environmental blogs, blogs on seven continents, pushing boundaries of the blog format, and how to make your own blog. An introductory paragraph precedes each category, and thumbnail summaries of each site offer the blog title, URL, and a brief evaluation.
As an amateur musician and radio show host I was particularly drawn to the section on music blogs and was pleased to find entries on popular music, mashup blogs, music biz blogs, music reviews blogs, portable music blogs, and classical music.
Additional chapters are available free, online, as PDFs: Advanced blogging techniques and Blogging and the future.
Blogging for Business: Everything you need to know and why you should care
Shel Holtz, Ted Demopoulos
Kaplan Publishing, 2006. 247 p.
Blogosphere: Best of Blogs.
Peter Kuhns, Adrienne Crew.
Que Publishing, 2005. 320 p.
Other recommended titles:
Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers.
Robert Scoble, Shel Israel
Wiley, 2006. 251 p.
Publishing a Blog with Blogger.
Elizabeth Castro.
Peachpit Press, 2005. 127 p.
Blogging: Genius strategies for instant web content.
Biz Stone.
New Riders, 2003. 309 p.
2 Comments | how-to | Tagged: blogging, book review | Permalink
Posted by paul baker
Making a good podcast better
March 7, 2006I’m reviewing a boatload of podcast episodes produced by teachers, students, schools, and districts. As one might expect, the quality varies enormously. Based on some of the really good ones I’ve seen and heard, I’d offer a few things to consider to make yours stand out. (I use the word ‘podcast’ to refer to a series of ‘episodes’ delivered via RSS feed.)
a. Remember to tell us who you are. Create a brief introduction for every episode that includes the name of the episode, the name of the series, the name of the producing entity, and the date of production. If it’s audio from a school board meeting, for example, announce that right up front.
b. Choose the episode title thoughtfully. A title like “Mr. Blake’s Class” in a podcast directory doesn’t tell us where you are or the name of the school. We’d like to know these things.
c. If you include theme music, keep it brief (about 10 seconds). Advanced production expertise shouldn’t get in the way of your message.
d. When you create the mp3 version of the audio file for upload, make sure to use all available ID3 tags (name of podcast, time/length, artist/producer, album/producer, and genre). These tags are very important because they help identify and locate your podcast for potential listeners as they scan through iTunes and other directories. If you don’t use these tags, your episode will get lost in directories and in media players.
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Posted by paul baker
