Back to Reality: Blog/Blog 3

Looks like the holidays took a bit of a toll on our blog. If everyone else has been like me, the new year started out busy and hasn't let up. And it doesn't look like it is easing up any time soon. Lots to do. The March issue of our Physician's Practice Magazine supplement had to get done and we were running late. We needed to get the ad out for our first heart month event, and two presentations, not the least of which the big "Our Blog Test Kitchen" talk at the "Using the New Web 2.0 for Corporate Communications" seminar at Philadelphia University.http://www.prwebfire.com/

Personally, I had a great time and learned a lot. It was also very inspiring. Great company all around. Met some nice people from our friends at Fox Chase and got to see our buddies from Main Line Health. Also present, Mr. Al Paul Lefton, President of one of Philadelphia's premier advertising agencies. I had to tell him how much I respected him as a result of a Philadelphia Business Journal profile a few years back. In it, he talked about how their agency does not participate in awards contests. I can't tell you what a refreshing move that is, especially these days. All of those agency awards are a big scam. It's like kindergarten where everybody winds up with a prize. You pay to enter and are pretty much guaranteed something when you leave at the end of the dinner. Plus, the award winners are not required to demonstrate any ROI for the client. Don't get me started.

Christopher Barger from IBM gave a terrific keynote, with lots of content and good examples, including a mention that some of IBM's 250 bloggers are focused exclusively on healthcare. I checked it out and will be linking some of them, and their links, very soon. IBM has quite a vision as to how blogging fits into the corporate structure, and it was good to hear him end his talk with some tips on when not to blog--which was kind of where I was headed with my presentation. One of his points was not to blog if you don't have a goal in mind.

In preparing my talk, I was thinking about the reasons we became involved in this project, and one of them was that it allowed us to provide a new media outlet to reflect the mission and values of this organization.

The conference offered lots of value-added information. I feel lucky to have been there and that we were given this opportunity. For those who missed what I had to say, here's the cribnote version what I said. I explained:

1. How we got involved


2. Why we got involved (one of them--it was a way for us to reflect our values and mission through new media)


3. The process we used to gain buy in and get it rolling


4. And yeah, we're glad we did it.

I finally figured out how to link files (hooray), and at the conference I got a good explanation of the whole RSS feed thing, so I promise next post I'll add some content.

Also learned one other thing. We need to keep this more regular, so I need to check in with our bloggers. And I think it is time to perhaps search for a few more to lighten the load.