Your PR Architect

On the day I wrote this post, bloggers were creating and posting more than 2.2 million new posts. On a Sunday afternoon. Ready to enter the long tunnel of blogging? You want a presence in the blogosphere. You know social media can reach new customers and prospects. But, creating and maintaining a business blog isn't easy. A well-written blog can help build your brand and visibility. The downside: you need to refresh a blog consistently with meaningful, persuasive content that your customers and followers will find engaging. And you need to get them to read it. And come back to it again and again. That's how you build awareness and a relationship. It can seem like you're entering a long tunnel, without knowing where the journey may lead. Steamfeed.com recently shared a concise article about business blogging. The most useful tip: planning ahead, and developing a steady flow of topics and stories that resonate with your customers. That's a tall order. You

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that an "institution is the lengthened shadow of a man." Biographers sometimes use the phrase to describe titans of 20th century industry -- George Eastman, Henry Ford, etc. -- whose personal imprint lived on in their companies after they passed. Today, viewed through a PR lens, I view your personal brand online  as your lengthened shadow. Like a shadow, it follows you and says things about you that you don't verbalize. This is especially true when you create a Facebook or Twitter account -- and do nothing with it. Twice this week, I've looked up executives' pages on Facebook to try to learn more about them. Yes, I know -- I should be finding them on LinkedIn, where business connections override social contacts. But Facebook garners the most traffic of social media sites. And people often share opinions and stories on Facebook that offer some insights on their interests. Plus, I was curious to see how these women, both recognizable i

My budget won't permit me to join the PRSA conference in New York City in Apri l. You could learn a few good techniques there. But I may be able to save you a few dollars, the joy of air travel, and the challenge of reading notes on a whiteboard with these media relations practices that seem to work for me: Get to know the reporters and editors you want to reach . Many still cover beats, such as education, crime, health care, personal finance, and more. You wouldn't pitch a health care story to a sports reporter, so do a Google search on a reporter's byline. If she covers biotech topics and your client has some expertise, there's a potential match. Twitter's real value in public relations? You can listen to anybody. Many journalists tweet about the stories they cover, and when they're in need of an interview subject. Don't 'stalk' a reporter, but do listen. Tie in with a trend.  Media gatekeepers think in terms of rating periods and packages.

Sailor. Skipper. Cruiser. Crew. A man for all seasides. Disney Wonder, at port in Nassau, Bahamas A few personal nicknames, all reflecting my interest in nautical pursuits. None of these, however, makes me an expert on cruise lines. Experience on watercraft provides only modest preparation for events that can threaten even the most casual of seagoing experiences: I've taken two commercial cruises on those giant floating hotels masquerading as "ocean liners." The Disney Cruise Lines ' crew on the Disney Wonder did a better job than Norwegian Cruise Lines' Norwegian Dawn. Both were mostly trouble-free but I helped prevent a potential shipboard fire on one trip. I sailed the Abacos with a Boy Scout troop aboard a 20-year-old Beneteau whose skipper struck a submerged rock on our first night at sea. We limped through the rest of the week-long cruise. I've skippered a small sailboat and a powerboat, wrecking the powerboat engine's prop on a semi-subme