Kevin Dugan blogs at Strategic Public Relations, #2 on the September 2007 M20 list. He is currently Director of Marketing Communications at FRCH Design Worldwide and blogs about PR strategy as part of integrated marketing communication.
Here's more on Kevin:
* How long have you been blogging?
prblog.typepad.com has been live since June of 2002. I was at an ad agency at the time before moving client side to my current employer -- an architecture and interior design firm.
* How did you first hear about blogs?
A co-worker had been writing a personal blog and the media was slowly starting to discuss them. The uninitiated were usually dismissive, characterizing them as online diaries brimming with teen-like angst. The uninitiated have since moved on to dismissing things like Twitter as blogs have been proven out as a viable marketing tactic. Twitter will get there too as marketers find new, creative ways to apply it and reach their target audience.
* Why did you decide to start blogging?
An opinion is worth 80 IQ points and a blog helps me craft mine. But the final trigger was an Information Week article. It noted how blogs are easy to use and allow you to serve up your intellectual capital and essentially carry it around with you over time. I wanted to stay current with my skills and continue to hone my writing. Mission accomplished.
* What process, if any, did you work through from a corporate perspective?
I'm very upfront about the fact that my views and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of my employer or its clients. My employer supports my efforts indirectly, but the blog is mine. They do have a blogging policy in place that I am also in line with…my posts cover topics and information I would be comfortable telling our competitors.
* What are your most and least favorite aspects of blogging?
- Most favorite has been meeting marketing folks from around the world and getting smarter through the conversation.
- Least favorite is being past deadline on a writing assignment for the last five years. I knew going into this five years ago that I needed to set expectations. My posts come about once or twice a week. Posting more for quality vs. quantity has meant the slow build of an audience. But it also allows me to have a life, day job and all that jazz.
* What would you change with 20/20 hindsight?
Start the blog at a dedicated domain that I own. Now I do not want to lose the Google juice it's taken me so long to collect. This would also give me the flexibility to change software platforms more easily.
* What three blogs have you gained the most insight from in the past month?
Twitter (if you reason that everyone I follow there is a microblog and Twitter one big feed)
Advertising Lab (Ilya has a great mix of content, links and eye candy)
Influx Insights - (Ed Cotton keeps coming up with the next/new now).
* Anything else?
After blogging for five years, my experience has really improved/changed in the past 12 months. After adding Twitter and social networks like Facebook into the mix I am more actively involved in the conversation. People are busy and, while they might be reading you, they might not be commenting as much as you'd like. Part of that may be my content style and some of the communication was behind the scenes via email.
The added level of almost contagious engagement I'm looking for comes through Twitter and the socnets. I've also started playing with video recently and am enjoying that experience as well. These breakthroughs all came just in time as I was considering walking away from the blog entirely.
The creation of this communication ecosystem (three buckets: blog, microblog, socnets) winds up fueling itself as I might start an idea using 140 characters, someone else thinking about it might come my way via Facebook…I do not have to surf Facebook, it continually serves up the latest to me...and then post about the topic on my blog. Or I might blog about something….you get the idea. It's a very potent combination for conversation.
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