If you read collegewebeditor.com on a regular basis, chances are you’ve also come across Dan Karleen’s blog, “Thomson Peterson’s Syndication for Higher Ed” as I often mention his blog posts or his presentation podcasts (and, no I’m not on any secret “pay-per-mention” blogger program from Thomson Peterson’s ;-).
Director of New Media and Web Syndication products, Dan Karleen has become his company’s voice in the higher ed blogosphere by posting about “RSS, podcasting, and blogging on Higher Ed websites.” He recently admitted that collegewebeditor.com gave him the inspiration to start his own blog. So, I guess you can say that flattery might get you interviewed on this blog (although chocolates are probably a better bet ;-)
1) You’ve been blogging for about 6 months at “Syndication for Higher Ed”, Thomson Peterson’s blog about emerging practice in RSS, podcasting, and blogging on Higher Ed websites. Why did you decide to blog at that time and how did you convince your VP it was a good idea?
Before launching SHE, I was keeping an internal blog covering many of the subjects I cover today on the public blog. At a certain point, it began to make sense to take a version of that blog pubic, and to begin to interact with the community that was using tools such as blogs and podcasts. Some of our clients had begun experimenting, and others were considering it. So we thought that providing an open resource like SHE could be a benefit. We also knew that we were going to launch a directory of college and university feeds, and that we were going to begin integrating syndicated offerings from colleges and universities into our main websites, so it made sense to launch a blog to help tie all those initiatives together.
2) As a corporate blogger, do you have to comply with a specific set of blogging guidelines? Can you or would you blog about anything? How do you decide what’s blogging material and what’s not?
There is a Thomson Code of Ethics that applies to what I do as a blogger for Thomson Peterson’s. I don’t blog about company strategy or finances. I don’t blog about what’s going on in my area of the company (product development) unless it involves initiatives relating to the subject of the blog. I tend not to blog about anything personal unless it somehow supports the overall objective of SHE. For example, if I’m giving a conference talk on blogging or podcasting, I may highlight it.
How do I decide what’s blogging material? The goal of SHE is to be the go-to source for information, links, and conversation about developments in new media in higher education, particularly in the area of content syndication. There’s plenty going on in this area, so there’s rarely a shortage of material. At the same time, I try not to duplicate information readers may have encountered on another blog or website. I also look for ways to highlight Thomson initiatives relating to blogging, podcasting, RSS, and so on.
3) What kind of feedback have you received from your target audience? Does Peterson’s see your blog as a public relations platform?
The response from the community has surpassed my expectations. A number of posts, including those about University of Michigan’s iTunes dental school podcasts, have generated interest on social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us and Digg, the technology news site. We’ve received encouraging comments on the blog and via email and phone from individuals at many different kinds of colleges and universities around the world—individuals who enjoy reading the blog and seem to be learning from it. I continue to be surprised by the variety of places SHE is being blog-rolled, not only on IT, marketing, and library blogs in English, but also on blogs in Swedish, Spanish, and French.
I don’t think that SHE is viewed as a public relations channel in the conventional sense, but we are really only at the beginning of this effort. I am in close contact with our PR folks on a variety of subjects relating to the blog, and they continue to be excited about some of the interest that it’s generating. One of the curious things about the blogosphere is that, as a blog author, you can’t always predict what sorts of readers may be interested. And so, in a way, as more readers move to blogs, blogging today entails an aspect of figuring out what PR may mean for your company in the future.
