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Did you know that there are more than a dozen inudstry “Twitter chats” that focus on PR, social media, marketing and blogging? You may participate in one or two of these conversations, but it’s impossible to find time to chime in on all of them, right?

Until now.

You’re invited to join us for the ultimate chat mixer, taking place this Tuesday, March 9, starting at 8 p.m. EST. Justin Goldsborough, Valerie Simon and I are hosting this party to help people interested in PR and social media forge new connections and build their network. Read the rest of this entry »

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As you might have heard, Cision recently announced its new agreement with Sarah Evans, new media consultant and founder/moderator of the increasingly popular #journchat.

According to the press release “Cision will provide transcripts of every #journchat, the lively weekly Twitter chat for PR professionals, journalists and bloggers… It will work with her to produce white papers, webinars, conference and seminar discussions, and other thought leadership initiatives that explore the impact of online communications and new media.”

If you aren’t familiar with #journchat, every week on Twitter, the media and PR community come together via the hashtag #journchat, to openly discuss a number of topics and share ideas with each other. Read the rest of this entry »

ShareBlogging now, party of one If you had come to me a month ago and asked about my blogging experience, I would have sheepishly admitted to merely reading blogs and been quick to point out that I did not comment on them, despite an often overwhelming temptation to do so. Fast forward a month and I’m blogging for the #PRBC and for Co-Communications (http://cocommunications.wordpress.com/).  So why the drastic change? Some conversations cannot be restricted to 140 characters.  While one could conceivably labor over dissecting their message into multiple 140 character tweets, it isn’t the same as a carefully drafted, thorough response.  Blogging affords the opportunity to leverage media placements, visuals, multimedia and commentary in a cohesive message that is carefully packaged to best illustrate a point. In part, this is why the #PRBC is blogging—because all of our perspectives, experiences and tips can’t be crammed into 140 characters . . . and because we know that some topics warrant an in-depth conversation. Some points needn’t be explained . . . and so we call them tweets! While it only takes seconds to craft a tweet, it can’t always carry an entire message.  So we stick to the messages that can be effectively delivered in 140 characters.  Examples of such include links to interesting articles with a couple of words stating your opinion on same, reactions to an event or experience, small talk, tips, and witty banter. It doesn’t take a blog post, or blog comment, to communicate the basics or point others in the direction of valuable content.  And in many instances, we just want to encourage others to look at something—form their own opinions—and pass the content along.  All of which are effectively and succinctly communicated through tweets and retweets. Point . . . Counterpoint While Brown’s examples of #journchat (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23journchat) and #blogchat (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23blogchat) (and to which I will add the recent #prstudchat (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23prstudchat)) have effectively sustained dialogues on Twitter, I firmly believe it’s the nature of the content that allows these forums to succeed on such a concise medium.  With #journchat and #blogchat, it’s the strength of a question and answer format that allows them to thrive in a 140 character format.  For #prstudchat, it’s the question and answer format coupled with the fact that most answers come in the form of tips. Inversely, were #prstudchat to pose questions which asked for both tips/advice and illustrations of the importance of each, it would be better suited to a blog dialogue, where messages could be conveyed in comprehensive responses, not bound by a 140 character limit. Speaking of points . . . . So after all of those examples and comments, I must have a point, right?  (At least we hope I do!) Blog comments and tweets aren’t competitors.  They are merely different models for delivering a message, each of which has its own merits.  So what’s your next step?  Comment on this post if you want to have a dialogue with me, or start what could become an in-depth debate.  If you just want to say you read it or share a tip with your tweeps, package it inside a tweet.

After reading Danny Brown’s recent post ‘Is Twitter Killing Blog Comments’ I couldn’t resist answering the last question he posed – ‘What’s your take?’

While I could go on for paragraphs rallying in support of Twitter and defending its merits as my social media platform of choice, I’ll spare you the cheering and keep it simple: Blogs are for dialogues.  Twitter is for snippets!

Blogging now, party of one

If you had come to me a month ago and asked about my blogging experience, I would have sheepishly admitted to merely reading blogs and been quick to point out that I did not comment on them, despite an often overwhelming temptation to do so.

Read the rest of this entry »