Engaging The Blogosphere

In our first few posts on LVPRBlog we've talked about creating weblogs as a PR tactic in a communication strategy and we've even considered whether or not you should blog. In developing a strategy for a business, governmental or private entity, it is important to consider whether your audience is ignoring the blogosphere, or if they are competely immersed in it. And if they are engaged in blogging or participating in new media, then why aren't you?

People are using their blogs to talk about you and share their views about you and your products or service but you're not using your website to defend yourself and promote your case - why? Partly, this is because our PR rules are based on the media gateway. You have to understand - you can't starve the web of oxygen. You have to understand - the newscycle is gone. Newspapers might become fish and chip wrappers but blog posts don't have to. They can be there forever - to be found everytime someone does a search. Popping up into the consumer / investor / regulator's browser as fresh as a daisy, just as if it had landed on their doorstep in a shrinkwrap cover. It won't go away, it'll just lay dormant. You can't ignore anymore, you have to engage. At an appropriate level and tone of course but you do need to engage.

Trevor Cook nails it in his post, Note to corporates: Please take your website seriously. His contention is that people are talking about your company, but in most cases, corporations have failed to engage them. And while corporations and other entities ignore the potential of new media, they are missing out on valuable insights and opportunities for communication with their constituents and publics.

In my own experience a review of the blogosphere at the end of 2005 indicated a number of people where commenting about the Las Vegas District Court. While much of the comments were benign, a few were negative or critical of the court and its programs. In addition, local media were seeking more help from the courts to develop stories or to cover programs in the courts. From this research, the LVCourtsBlog was created.

Initially, the blog provided details about court cases as a media portal for the Clark County Courts to deliver updates on verdicts, court calendars and trial updates. However, at times it also has allowed the court to respond to criticism and explain court activities. Overall the blog has become an integral part of the communication strategy of the Las Vegas Justice and District Courts.

Increasingly to reach an ever fragmenting audience you must drill down to your publics.?Ç To illustrate, in today's Washington Post comes the following:

Advertisers are rushing to the Internet. Readers, even of the best newspapers and magazines, are abandoning print, while network television news shows have been losing viewers faster than you can say "CNN, MSNBC or Fox?" Wall Street money managers, fed up with slowing growth of what are still immensely profitable news companies, just forced the second-largest newspaper chain in the land to sell itself off. The American Journalism Review's current cover story is headlined "Adapt or Die."

The old rules no longer apply. Sure, you can say newspaper articles and letters to the editor supply all the reflection and research you need to accomplish you communications goals, and therefore, you don't need to worry about bloggers. But the fact is that in the past few years increasingly bloggers and PR practitioners are sidesteping traditional gatekeepers to use blogs for direct, open and honest communication with their publics. Which is why mainstrem media is embracing them, such as the Associated Press, who announced in May it has partnered with Technorati and Topix to link news stories with blog posts.

Blogs provide a superior way to connect with your intended audience. Blogs allow you to tell your story, engage the audience in a conversation, and review the subsequent feedback. In addition, blogs don't go away and fall off the fontpage when the newspaper is tossed away.

Last updated by Michael S. Sommermeyer at June 20, 2006.