There's been a lot of talk lately about "leveraging" blogs for public relations -- a risky business unless you're already an active participant in the so-called blogosphere.
But it can work, if you're careful -- and upfront about your intentions.
I just received an email from someone I can only assume works for the man in the dollar-sign suit, Matthew Lesko. I'll reprint it here:
Hey, have you seen yet that your favorite blogger, Matthew Lesko, is running a blog contest?$500 for the winner. Submissions are put in comments. Pretty cool, actually.Keep up the great blogging!Rick
Clever. Rick obviously checked ML's trackbacks and saw that we linked to him. Then he emailed us the above link, hoping we'd include it in our blog (as we have).
I would have been happier if Rick had admitted upfront that he worked with Lesko -- in which case I would have just printed the link, instead of expounding upon and reprinting his email.
But it is a good example of what's becoming an effective new trend in online PR!
Aimee...While on the subject of being careful what you try to do with weblogs, I listened to an interesting Podcast the other day on "professional blogging." It touches not only on writing on-line to make a living, but also on the pitfalls of shilling for those willing to pay you to blog about their products or services.
You can find the PodCast at http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail429.html -- on the IT Conversations site, a wide ranging collection of interviews, lectures, and panel discussions for your iPod or other mp3 player.
(By the way, one of IT Conversation's offerings that's on my iPod, but yet to be listened to is on the subject of "Search is a Platform: Where is it Going?", found at http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail319.html )
Posted by: Frank Patrick | March 15, 2005 at 01:23 PM