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Call To Arms

Call To Arms

By: Chris Michaels, Sr. Account Manager; Robert Brumfield, Account Manager; Ben Baruch, Sr. Account Executive – FusionPR

Just do itMark CubanDancing with the Stars?

No, we will not comment on these segments of pop culture, we’ll leave that for Finnegan. We do, however, want to relay Paul Boutin’s message “So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?” article in today’s New York Times. A fellow colleague brought this piece to our attention in response to the ongoing battle of inspiring colleagues as bloggers. In his article, Boutin shows that anyone, even a billionaire CEO can make time to blog, so why can’t we?

“Write about what you want to write about, in your own voice,” Boutin stresses. Fusion allows us, within bounds, to communicate freely with the outside world about our profession and our experiences. Mark Cuban later said in the article, “Blog about your passions. Don’t blog about what you think your audience wants.”

Blogging should be easy. We’re passionate about our work and clients. We see and interact with the media all the time. We notice the trends that get picked up and what tips and tricks work best for us. So why not share that with the rest of the clan? Most of us communicate freely/hourly with our friends online through social media portals, why not allow this behavior to percolate into the company Blog.

What are the benefits you might ask? We step out of taking in hyper-technical jargon; we step outside of our buckets, focused on business and technology; but most importantly, we become advocates for our own experiences. The more we share about what’s working or what we notice, the better we are as a whole. This is your chance to help your colleagues, even if it’s just to point out an article you read recently.

In the adapted words of one of our favorite film characters, “If I can [blog], and you can [blog], we all can [blog].”

David Kirkpatrick points out, in the new issue of Fortune Magazine, “Web 2.0 Gets Over Its Goofing-Off Phase,” that Web 2.0 and social media will be the prevailing information hubs and are here to stay. The transparent and accessible disposition will only benefit us professionally. So we ask, shouldn’t we leap at this opportunity to educate ourselves about this fundamental medium and benefit from its cooperative nature?

An emphatic yes, we say.

Now, whose turn is it?


3 Comments
  • Justin Finnegan

    March 21, 2008 at 6:48 am Reply

    Thanks for the shout out, guys.

    In a twist of fate, I was reading Valleywag yesterday and Paul Boutin mentioned his Times article in a post on writing for your company’s blog. He included a slide presentation that outline the three steps for success. I think it serves as a great companion piece for your post.

  • ains

    March 21, 2008 at 6:56 am Reply

    As soon as you said “Dancing with the Stars” you had my attention. The upcoming season looks to be a good one…poor Mark Cuban, he had a great run last season but just wasn’t popular enough. Could a blog have helped his popularity?

  • Suzanne McGee

    March 21, 2008 at 6:57 am Reply

    Agreed with what your saying especially about the hyper-technical jargon. As Web 2.0 matures, perhaps we’ll see more of this straight-forward approach in traditional PR channels – like press releases. So often our industry falls into the trap of using overly wordy descriptions half of which have no context or value. Just recently we had a reporter specifically call out a press release quote for not being “Not too press releasey.” Crazy to see that as a complement, but it says a lot about how we are using language across the board.

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