As I previously noted, I was invited to speak on a panel yesterday held by the Columbus chapter of the Public Relations Society of America on the topic of how bloggers and PR folks can productively interact. Rounding out the rest of the panel was Leigh Householder of Advergirl and Alaina Sheer of MsSingleMama. Lara Kretler moderated the panel.
Overall I thought it went very well. I typically get a bit nervous speaking in front of large groups (who doesn’t, right?) but I actually felt alright today. We were given some prep questions up front, and I scribbled some pretty open-ended notes and left most of the conversation up to spontenaeity. I think my co-panelists came with more prepared talking points and some very detailed information, so I hope I was able to compliment that well. It’s hard to read a crowd like this sometimes, but it seemed as if most were seeking a fairly basic overview of how to properly communicate with this often-touted-yet-widely-diverse group of people known loosely as “bloggers”. It’s tough to give easy answers, since every blogger is unique and has different reasons for doing what they do. But I think we all helped to shed a bit of light on how best to approach them and engage them.
I always come away from these types of events with a whole headful of ideas on how I could stand to improve my own blog and make some of my personal information a bit more accessable and easy to find. I’ve been meaning to do a bit of an overhaul to my personal blog, but it’s taken a back seat lately. Perhaps it will move up to the front burner soon.
Anyway, I had a good time today and met several people who I’ve had online interactions with in the past but never met face to face. Always fun. I’ll be keeping tabs on other similar events that the PRSA is holding. They’ve actually got a PR/Blogger Mixer next Wednesday, but I’ve already got big plans for that evening. If anyone else is interested in attending, RSVP to Lara Kretler.
Thanks again for spending your lunch hour(s) with us and sharing your insights! We are getting some of the best feedback we’ve ever gotten from the folks who attended. One attendee said she went to a three-day conference on the topic and spent a lot of money for it, yet she got more out of our lunchtime panel than she did from that conference. Also, when reading the Tweetstream for “PRSA” last night, I found tons of positive Tweets about our event… as well as some Tweets from folks at a PRSA chapter in Denver who held a lunch panel with print journalists. I found myself shaking my head a bit at Denver. Print, really? Go Columbus!
Hey Walker – it was awesome to meet you! You were awesome, I’m so glad you could come.
Just said “awesome” twice. I am such a huge, huge dork.
Hey Lara! I’m glad the feedback was positive. I’ve gotten a few emails from attendees that were also positive. I was just thinking this morning that if there’s any sort of follow up questions, perhaps our email addresses could be provided to all in attendance, if that’s easy to push out to them? I’m always more than happy to answer questions or chat.
Hey Alaina! Heh, no problem. I’m re-reading what I wrote for this post laaaaate last night and sort of scratching my head over why I chose to word things the way I did. So I won’t hold the two awesomes against you.