Posted by Blake Sunshine in blogging, social media.
Tags: blog, blogging, blogging makes you smart, social media, tower talk, tower talk blog, university of texas
It’s officially 2010! And with a new year comes new goals for everyone, whether they come in the form of resolutions or not. One of my resolutions is to learn everything I can in this upcoming year, because I want to be smarter. Not just smarter at trivia or random questions, but smarter in my job, my life and especially smarter in my blog.
The good news is that blogging actually makes you smarter. Just ask Bill Powers, President of the University of Texas. Ever since I was a student Powers has sent out an email to students, alumni and faculty calling attention to important topics regarding life at Texas. This one-way method of communication worked out great for Powers, but it didn’t really make him any smarter about what his community was thinking. He said his piece and then he was done, but he was wasting his time.
Which is why I was so excited on December 20th to see that Powers was going to move from email to a blog called Tower Talk.
Powers wrote his first post, a happy holidays letter, and received 65 comments. The comments were not wishing him a great holiday season, but every single one was asking for an explanation about why Mack Brown got a huge pay raise at the end of this season.
Did Powers even know that his community wanted him to explain himself? Probably not, because they did not have any way to communicate with him before his blog. Powers had not idea what he was supposed to be talking about, but blogging has made him smarter.
Three days later Power’s next post was on a self-sustaining athletics program. He defended Mack Brown’s raise, and explained how athletics works at UT. And the best part? His last line, “Thank you for your input. Dialogue is what this blog is all about.”
Being President of a University, especially one as large as Texas, requires that you be perfectly in tune with your entire community of supporters and critics. Blogging makes you smarter and helps you listen to and respond to your community. It may not be a detailed social media plan where Powers listens and responds to every person who has a comment, but it’s definitely a start. Blogging will make Powers smarter in 2010, and I hope my blog will do the same for me.
Posted by Blake Sunshine in blogging.
Tags: be brave, blog, blog tips, blogging, blogging tips, bravery
Lately I have been thinking about how brave you have to be if you want to be a blogger. Let me start by saying that I am not brave. I am afraid of saying the wrong things, of hurting people’s feelings and I am afraid that people won’t agree with what I write. Despite my fear though, every time I blog I try to be very very brave. I write about my actual job and the people I work with and I write about my family even though I’m always scared when I press “publish post” that I will mess up in one way or another.
But the bravery I display in my blog don’t even come close to the bravery I have noticed from other bloggers. Like my Aunt Debbie, who has been blogging about her battle with cancer. Or my friend Jill, who has been blogging about her volunteer work with a refugee center in Israel. And I know there are millions of people out there who are blogging about topics that would scare most people to talk about. But if you are a blogger and you don’t want to try and be brave, then don’t even bother being a blogger. Blogging is all about telling the truth, and even though it’s scary, if you aren’t telling the truth than you aren’t helping anyone or yourself.
Which is why from now on I am going to try and be braver in my blog, and I hope you will try too.
Posted by Blake Sunshine in blogging, social media.
Tags: blog, blogging, everyone should blog, social media
One of my best friends is working toward a Master’s Degree in Accounting at University of Georgia. She doesn’t get social media, and she definitely doesn’t get my blog. And while it sometimes annoys me that she thinks what I do is crazy (lets face it, sometimes social media is crazy), I think she should start a blog.
Now I don’t think everyone SHOULD have a blog, but I think everyone on the entire planet (including my friend) COULD have a blog. And even though I know she will never start a blog, I think there are some important reasons why if you have never tried blogging before that maybe you should give it a chance.
Here is why I think everyone could have a blog:
1. Everyone is good at something or something- My friend is great at accounting. She has been since high school, and she still is today. And if you are good at something I think you have an obligation to admit that you are good at it. That is exactly what blogging is, admitting you are good at something and then sharing your knowledge with the world. If you are good at something or somethings, not great but just good, you could have a blog.
2. Everyone knows things I don’t know- This is a vast understatement, because my friend knows a TON of things about accounting I don’t know. In fact, I know very very little about accounting at all. My friend knows all of the accounting violations, which could send you to jail if you violate, but I don’t know any of them. And that’s bad for me, especially if one day I find out that my accountant is breaking these rule, but I can only stop that if I know the rules. Which is why, if you know something that someone in the world may not know, you could start a blog.
3. Everyone should be on a mission to constantly learn- If you aren’t trying to constantly learn new things, then I have no idea what you are doing reading my blog, or being on the internet in general. Blogging allows you to learn more about your field than people who just sit in the classroom or do their job at work. Blogging makes you research new ideas and develop your own thoughts on them, which can then be put into words on your blog. Everyone can have a blog, because everyone should want to learn more about their field. And if this isn’t true, well maybe you are in the wrong field.
I think everyone on the entire planet could have a blog. Did I convince you that you need one?
Posted by Blake Sunshine in blogging, social media, Uncategorized.
Tags: blog, blogging, coca-cola, phil mooney, social media, The Coca-Cola company
Not many companies have very successful blogs, and for one reason or another most corporations fail at trying to reach their consumers in the blogosphere. Last summer when I interned in the digital communications group at The Coca-Cola Company, I was lucky enough to get a first hand look at what Coca-Cola is trying to accomplish through blogging. More specifically, I was able to see how they used Coke Conversations to start a dialogue with an important group of their consumers.
Here is how they did it:
1. Target Audience/ Topic Selection- With 1.5 billion customers served every day, it would be very easy for Coca-Cola to try and create a blog that speaks to everyone. But lets be honest, that would be IMPOSSIBLE! What blog do you know of that could possible speak with even half that many consumers? Instead, Coca-Cola decided to only talk to Coca-Cola product collectors. Coca-Cola beverages date back to 1886, so not only are there A LOT of collectibles but also a lot of collectors. By choosing a small target audience and a very specific topic Coca-Cola was able to have a very meaningful and targeted conversation with an interested group of people.
2. Best blogger- Phil Mooney is the lead blogger for Coke Conversations,and while you may not know who he is, Phil has a huge following among Coca-Cola collectors all over the world. Phil has been the head archivist at Coca-Cola for 30 years and knows pretty much everything there is to know about collectibles. Collectors love to talk to Phil because they believe that he is the most knowledgeable source to finding the information they need. Phil is the best person to lead the blog, and because of this people want to discuss different topics with him.
3. Dynamic content- Video, video and more video! Coca-Cola Conversations is full of interviews and archive video, including an interview with “mean” Joe Greene. Video is interesting and people enjoy it!
4. Fan participation- Every Friday Phil holds a caption contest where he takes an archived ad and asks the audience to create a caption for the piece. It is an easy way to get comments and engages his readers, thus enhancing the user experience.
The Coca-Cola Conversations blog just celebrated its first birthday to the tune of many successes, including more than 200 blog posts and over 2,000 conversations in the comments section. Coca-Cola knows the secret to corporate blogging, and now you do too!
Did Powers even know that his community wanted him to explain himself? Probably not, because they did not have any way to communicate with him before his blog. Powers had not idea what he was supposed to be talking about, but blogging has made him smarter.
