Finding Blogs Online

Tonight I had the honour of discussing social media with the great group of women who belong to the Victoria, BC chapter of e-Women.

My best analogy for social networking was doing what they already did so well in that room: gave each other leads, introduced each other to new members, and built their networks based on needs, knowledge and expertise.

If you are a woman in business, in a job, or looking for connections, look for an e-Women chapter near you. I was very impressed.

I promised I’d post a couple of great tools for finding blogs of interest. Here they are:

Technorati describes itself as “the leading blog search engine and most comprehensive source of information on the blogosphere…we index more than 1.5 million new blog posts in real time and introduce millions of readers to blog and social media content.” This is a great tool to search for the topics you are interested in.

Google Reader is another great way to search for blogs, and it allows you to bookmark or subscribe to your favourites. Rather than having to sort through tons of bookmarks in my Internet browser, I have them all in Google Reader and I can read all my fave blogs at once.

There are lots more tools – please feel free to post your favourites. If you were at the talk tonight and have any questions, post them here and I promise to answer.

Top five things clients can do to help their PR agency succeed

1. Keep your PR company informed of business developments, HR successes and just about everything else. They will likely see opportunities you may overlook.

2. Be upfront about your expectations for PR. What do you want your PR campaign to help you accomplish? This will ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.

3. Understand that no PR campaign can be successful if it its claims are unfounded. A dishonest campaign, or one that “spins” the truth will only discredit your company.

4. Be open to new ideas and methods. A good PR firm will have reasons for their ideas and you should seriously consider them.

5. Understand that building or managing a company or product’s reputation takes time. Give your PR firm adequate time so they can do their work right.