10 Reasons Your Company Shouldn't Blog

After reading B.l. Ochman's article titled, 10 Reasons Your Company Shouldn't Blog, I realized that I do not agree with her. I agree with her points, but disagree more of the title of the article. I agree that most companies blogs are boring and should not be a blog promoting your business. However, the article's titled should be 10 Things to Think About When Your Company Blogs.

I believe that if a CEO wants to blog about their company, then do it and hopefully they do it well. If the blog they create happens to be boring and does not create the following they wish then that is alright. I think it is alright because if you have 20 followers then that is 20 more people that are getting to know your company and hopefully you. Even though I think this is alright I think companies need to do different things in order to create the following they believe the blog deserves.

I believe that a blog needs to create "buzz" and having a blog that people consider boring will not create that. A CEO needs to be creative and inventive when writing a blog. Do something different. A CEO could easily write about something that has nothing to do with their company and I think that is great. Even though you are not promoting your business or product, the people that read the blog will know that you are a CEO of a company and will be more likely to research your company if they like you. By writing something completely "off topic" you will be creating more "buzz" and in turn you will actually be promoting your company.

I think Ochman's article is great. I do not think she should push people away from blogging. As the class has learned blogging can be a very important part of public relations. I think her article should invite companies to blog, but to caution them on how they blog.

YouTube

Last Monday my PR class watched a video about the website YouTube. It was very interesting to see how in months the number of videos posted on this website. It is truely a tool for public relations professionals.

PR professionals could use YouTube to promote their company and/or event. I believe they should be careful however, what and how they promote their organization. YouTube's biggest audience are, if I recall, ages 18 - 35. If you are a company that promotes a product for senior citizens, this channel may not be a good one to choose. Also, with so many spoofs of YouTube's vidoes, the organization needs to be careful what product they show on YouTube. In the video we watched in class there was a car company that promoted their new SUV on YouTube. There was a spoof made about how this SUV is destroying the Earth by how much gasoline it takes. Being able to promote your companies ideas, values and products on YouTube could benefit the company greatly. However, being careful about what and how you promote these ideas, values and products will only help.

If I had a client that was promoting a product for ages 18 - 35 I would have to do something unique to catch the eye of millions. The whole idea of producing a video for YouTube is to get as many people to watch the video as possible. Thinking outside the box and not doing the same thing over and over can only help. Depending on the product you are trying to promote a PR professional could make the video touching, look like a home video, funny, amusing and/or make a music video. Having a commercial like someone would see on television will not do that great on YouTube, but thinking outside the box and doing something different will make an impact on the product you are promoting.

PR professionals need to realize that a website like YouTube can be very helpful when promoting a product. However, they need to realize that it could potentially back fire and harm they companies image. Planning, research and preparation are key to producing a video for YouTube.

My Dreams After School

Lets first start off by telling you why I decided to go to graduate school. When I was about ready to graduate from Northwest Missouri State University I had my mind set on getting a job and making money. Like most college students, who had been going to school for 3/4 of their life, I was tired. Tired of going to class, studying, reading and taking the dreaded midterm and final. I wanted a job!!!

I started to look for a job. I was getting a degree in public relations and speech communication and wanted for a job that I could use my skills in. With the economy going down the drain, there were few jobs out there for someone who wanted to go into pr with little experience. I wanted to do something I would be happy with, not something I would dread. I looked and looked and looked, but could not find anything I would be with so I turned into a new direction which was looking at graduate schools.

I ended up coming to Missouri State, which I believe is a good decision. After two years of graduate school and hopefully earning my masters I will be able to get a job I will be happy with. I would love to do public relations/media relations for a professional sports team. I know that certain field is very hard to get into and luckily I have another interest. I am very interested in crisis communication and would love my internship this summer to be in that field. I'm interested in crisis communication because I believe it would be very challenging. Every day it would be something different which I would love.

After graduating I will be on the job hunt again. Hopefully this time I will find something I would to do.

Blogging for class

I set up this blog in class. We'll see how many postings will be on here by the end of the semester.