Find out how a higher ed executive, UF’s Joe Hice, has ignited conversations with his blog, Gator Grotto

First, let me start by a quick disclaimer, I might be a bit partial on this topic for 2 reasons:

• I’ve known and collaborated for almost 3 years on different projects (conferences, webinars, etc. including the upcoming “Saving Big” Webinars for which registration ends tonight by the way) with the blogger behind this blog – Joe Hice, AVP of Public Relations and Marketing at the University of Florida.
• I’ve shared a few pointers about blogging (including my 12-step plan for better blogging) with Joe when he decided to start his blog last Fall.

Now that Joe’s blog, Gator Grotto: A refuge from hastly jugdment, has a few posts behind its (crocodile?) belt, I really see a great institutional yet conversational – and sometimes even controversial – blog in the making.

Joe is a seasoned communication professional, a great presenter and writer (he worked as a journalist earlier in his career) with a unique voice and it really shows on his blog.

While the blog has been live for just a few weeks – close to 2 months, it has already managed to develop a readership of about 300 regular readers, mainly based in Gainsville where UF is based.

Dealing with topics as diverse as an old myth around the place of birth of the famous Gatorade, budget cuts, rankings or research, Gator Grotto is a refreshing take on the executive’s blog genre.

In an email exchange we had last week, Joe shared a few behind-the-scenes comments about the whole process. I’m publishing below a few excerpts of this email with his permission.

After 2 months blogging, what can you say about this experience?

We’re still trying to find our voice as we move forward. Our president has endorsed and supported the blog, so we are a point of contact with UF. That’s good, but it also means we’ve got to take the University’s official position into consideration with everything we post. That has kept me in check, somewhat, and I think it’s the right way to go.
[…]
It is more challenging than I anticipated. It’s easy to just cut and paste things, but when you start including your thoughts and comments, taking into account UF’s position on issues, trying to provoke discussion, etc., it’s quite a task. For UF, and me especially, it has been a great learning experience. I’m certainly no expert, but feel more confident every day. I can also manage WordPress pretty well.

Any blogging success story yet to share?

I was proud to help uncover some previously unknown, or at least, unsubstantiated facts in the development of Gatorade. People have said from time to time that FSU had a sports-related drink in development several years before Gatorade. That was actually posted as fact on national television during the Florida State vs. Florida football game. Well, a number of people were offended and I did a post about Gatorade being the original. It was actually the first post we did on the blog.

Literally hours after the post went up someone sent us a pdf of a news story that appeared in the Tampa Tribune about three years before Gatorade was launched. In the story, the writer referenced Seminole Firewater. That created a stir and I posted the update along with a picture of the old article. That interested the Florida Alligator newspaper in the story and the reporter actually tracked down a few members of the FSU football team who had supposedly been drinking Seminole Firewater. But the best was yet to come. One of those team members was T.K. Wetherell, the president of Florida State University. He did say that the team give them something to drink, but it was nothing more than a Cool-Ade flavored drink accompanied by an orange slice, ice and salt tablets. The Seminole Firewater myth was exposed by the president of FSU. Pretty cool, I thought, and the Gator Grotto blog played a part in the discovery. It was a great way to launch the blog.

Does your VP or president have a very original take on blogging? Should they? What do you think?
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