It’s not the blog, It's the conversation
Jeff Jarvis says the corporate Blog Council misses the whole point, it's not the blog, it's the conversation that's key.
When I was in London, I sat with folks from the BBC in an afternoon devoted to blogging, and the woman next to me was troubled, bearing weight on her shoulders from having to fill her blog and manage her blog. To her, the blog was a thing, a beast that needed to be fed, a never-ending sheet of blank paper. I turned to her and said she should see past the blog. It’s not a show with a rundown that, without feeding, turns into dead air. Indeed, if you look at it that way, you’ll probably write crappy blog posts. I’ve said before that if I think I need to write a post just because I haven’t written one, I inevitably come out with something forced and bad. Instead, I blog when I find something interesting that I’ve seen and I think, ‘I have to tell my friends about that.’ You’re the friends. So yes, I said, it’s just a conversation. And reading — hearing what others are saying — is every bit as important as writing. It was as if scales were lifted from her eyes and weight from her back: She’s just talking with people.
Mom always said 'God gave you two ears and one mouth and he did it for a reason. We are supposed to listen twice as much as we speak.'
With Jeff, 'It’s not about them writing blog posts. It as much about them reading everybody else’s blog posts.'
Thanks for the comment Richard and following the blog. Spread the word - there's a growing army of blogging legal professionals.
No question you're going to help fellow legal administrators. Like Jeff says, just find that stuff that's too good not to pass on to others. There's not that many legal admin blogs out there so you're going to pick up a following.
If you're picking up this conversation thing already, you aren't doing half bad. Took me until about November, 2005 - and I started blogging in November, 2003.
By the way, Summit Law was legal counsel for my first start up here in Seattle - Prairielaw.com. Did everything - original set up of corp, funding docs, stock option agreement, and buy/sell agreement with LexisNexis. Selected the firm over 3 others I interviewed because of its innovation bent.
Now when we going to get one of the lawyers at Summit to join the conversation? ;)
Hi Kevin, I heard about you from the Association of Legal Administrators teleconference a month or so ago and have started reading some of your blog postings. I really like what you've said here. I've started a blog focused on Legal Administrators with hopes I can help out some of my fellow managers. I think the piece of "value" I'm missing so far really is that this is a conversation.
Very good point! Thanks!