These links complement the lecture on Engaging the Blogosphere:

• Dell Hell blog post by Jeff Jarvis
• Direct2Dell, Dell’s online “home” – please take a look at their different blogs and social media efforts, including several twitter accounts
• A list of the people on the Dell social media team. I’ve met Richard and Lionel at conferences, great people. Check them out on twitter!
• How NOT to respond to blog posts – see the 2 canned, unrelated comments someone from Maharishi University of Management posted on my PR Connections post. (I wonder if they’ll post some here, too?) [update: see note at the bottom]
• Blogger engagement exercises on the Edelman Authenticities blog – post a response to that post on your blog. How would you engage these bloggers?
• The book Naked Conversations on amazon.com – Robert Scoble is a very famous tech blogger, Shel Israel (blog, twitter) is a PR person

You have two blogging exercises (suggested, not mandatory – but highly recommended):

1. How would you engage the bloggers in the Edelman Autheniticities cases?
2. How would you advise a small, local yoga studio, an animal shelter, a small pizza restaurant, and/or a bathroom decor store to blog? Can you think of a niche and an angle? What topics would you recommend they write about? How could they engage their publics online?

[update Oct. 30]: This is the message I got last night in response to a Google Alert that someone at the Maharishi University of Management was following:

“Hello Dr. V,

I agree with your observation about the canned comments. The person who sent those isn’t with MUM… he’s an outside supporter who acted on his own.

It appears he needs to take one of your PR courses… so he can learn that his approach is actually counter-productive!

Regards,

Ron Barnett
Dean of Admissions
Maharishi University of Management”

What do you think? Is that a good response to a blog post? What would you advise Maharishi University of Management to do in this situation?

Anybody who’s somebody and/or would like to be somebody or just IS in PR blogs. There are lots of PR blogs out there. How do you find them and choose what to READ?

Here are some starting points:

• This post lists the finalists in the PR Week blog competition. These are some of the most poular & appreciated PR blogs. All of them worth reading.
• When you come across a blog you like, check out the blogroll – it’ll lead you to other blogs you might enjoy reading. For example, see the blogroll on PR Connections
• If you want more, see this comprehensive list of PR blogs, maintained by Constantin Basturea

Reading is not enough. You should also RESPOND, in comments or your own blog posts.

Here are some excellent tips on how to comment and how to invite comments on your posts, from UGA PR professor Karen Russell.

You’re reading blogs and responding, but how do you build your own online reputation? By WRITING your own blog. How? Chris Brogan wrote a number of excellent tips for better blogging, collected here. I also highly recommend the book Naked Conversations – it will teach you a lot about good blogging.

WHY? Besides the reasons mentioned in class, see:

• this story of someone getting a job because he read a blog
• this story of how listening and responding to a podcast helped this person connect with his employer, Joseph Jaffe of crayon, author of Join the Conversation.