Page 154 - The Voice of Authority

Target your audience. Know whom you want to reach
with your information.
Know your purpose and why a blog is the best way to
communicate with that specific audience.
Allow feedback on what you say—the good, the bad,
the ugly.
Refuse offers from higher-ups, legal people, or cor-
porate PR to edit what you say. To do so destroys au-
thenticity. (Granted, editing may save your job or
your hide in a liability suit, but that’s another matter
altogether.)
Link to other resources for more information on your
subject.
Know when to shut it down. Blogs are not forever.
They’re meant to serve a specific purpose—let’s say a
specific policy or cause that you feel passionate about.
When the issue passes, the blog has no further pur-
pose. Start a new one to serve a different audience or
purpose.

Some insist that bloggers have had such an impact on
getting information out to the right people quickly that
this trend has sounded the death knell for corporate PR
departments. I wouldn’t count on it. Accuracy still mat-
ters. But should you marry the blogger’s speed to the re-
search and precision of corporate PR, you’d take home a
communication Oscar.
We’re a culture of dedicated workers. Our ski jackets,
backpacks, exercise bikes, kitchens, and cars, with their com-
partments for our iPods, cell phones, PDAs, speakers, and
controls, accommodate our commitment to be connected.
Being current, however, doesn’tmean continually connected.

142 The Voice of Authority