Internal Blogger Guidelines

I’ve been working with clients to develop their internal and external blog guidelines. Many of them are blogging for the very first time and several of them have multiple bloggers to help share the blogging load.

Here is a recent draft of internal guidelines that I’ve come up with. I tried to make these accessible, achievable and more motivational than dictating “rules.”

Our blog is our brand – it represents who we are, what we think about, what we believe in. Here are some tips for blogging consistently and compellingly to help build our blog community.

1. Be transparent. No matter what, always be clear who you are. We are not blogging anonymously on our site and we do not encourage our guest bloggers to be anonymous either.

2. Be truthful. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to blogging. We will do our best to check facts, be accurate, and above all, tell the truth.

3. Be yourself. Your personality should show through in your blog posts. Since we have multiple authors, find a niche that you can call your own and be conversational.

Using Twitter to Publicize Events

Dear Social Media Mama:

I’m wondering how to use Twitter in your business to publicize events? I can’t figure out how Twitter can be useful for event PR. It seems very unfocused and random.

In a Twitter Quandry

Dear Quandry:

Or should I say “Tuandry” as in Twitter + Quandry (just a little Twitter insider talk)

I can’t say outright that Twitter is great for publicizing events. That’s putting the onus on Twitter when in fact the power rests in how one uses Twitter, not in how the application itself works. But used as part of an overall, comprehensive social media strategy, Twitter is a key component to galvanize people, tap into word-of-mouth power, get some Googleability and encourage action.

Here’s why and how I use Twitter in the social media campaigns I conduct.

1. Twitter as Gateway

First and foremost, I see Twitter as an active gateway to lead people over to the places where you can provide more information about whatever it is you want to publicize. If it is an event, you can post regular links to event news and developments to keep your followers informed.

Obama and Social Media

I totally believe that the savvy Obama displayed by bringing on the right tech team to implement a comprehensive social media campaign helped him to win the popular vote – not to mention raise funds in unprecedented ways.

Three cheers for the Obama Social Media Team!

Here’s a great slideshow breaking it down…

How Obama Won Using Digital and Social Media

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: election obama)

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What is the WORST Social Media Mistake…?

Dear Social Media Mama,

I’m just getting started with social media to promote myself and my work. What is the worst mistake I can make when engaging in social media?

Dipping a Pinky Toe in Social Networks

Dear Pinky Toe,

What is the WORST social media mistake? Oh, my friend, there are far too many to narrow it down to just one.

But let me tell you some of the things that really irk me when they happen to me in the social mediasphere.

Are You Following Too Many People on Twitter?

Image via CrunchBase

I was just trying to reduce the number of followers I was following for 2 practical reasons:

1. I can’t believe how many tweets I miss from people I really want to hear from;
2. I can’t believe I can properly follow 800+ people, especially if I’m missing important tweets.

I have about 40 pages of people I’m following on Twitter. As I began skimming page by page by page, I could pretty much tell you:

1. at least one thing about each person (or account holder as I also follow organizations and companies) and usually more;
2. how I know them or know of them; and
3. why I follow them.