Why Blog?

I 've heard a lot of negatives on blogging by people who, honestly, aren't very involved in interactive online communications. I think they are really missing out.

Blogging is one method of gaining an online presence if you set up your own web log, but also is a way to connect with anyone else in the world on any subject to get an answer - whether you have your own or not. It is a way to reach out to get referrals and advice - very much like on LinkedIn. It can be one-way discussion - and also the beginning of very dynamic communications.

Before I had my own blog, I used technical and other interest group blogs to find solutions. For example, we needed a better answer to how we managed our online commerce - we were getting many online distribution outlets, none of which followed the same branding for our materials, and all of which were independently and separately managed by our product and web teams to be sure each of their commerce pages had the latest information to display.

By searching the blogs for an answer, I was referred to John Keunen in Amsterdam, owner of TIE Commerce, who analyzed my situation (through email and Skype calls) and showed me his business could solve our problems, then connected me with a senior sales person in the U.S., Mark Rideneau, who was geographically closer to my company.

As I said before, Debbie Weil is a great reference for getting started in and maintaining effective business blogging. And, frankly, so are most of the major business resources and journals out there - take for example the recent article in BusinessWeek...Blogging Will Change Your Business

So, tell me again, why aren't you blogging?

Who, What, Why, When...

Here we go with another stream of thought added to the blogosphere.

As to who I am - you can check out the side bar on my blog for some data and links...or simply stay tuned. You can also check out my profile on LinkedIn.com

For you and for me, I want to lay out the purpose and direction - the what and why - because that is the soul of me. These are my passions - teaching, learning, strategic marketing, being a good steward in terms of lining up what we are doing against a performance measure that is sound. "Finding the upside" is about finding the positive -- reaching out in our communities to grow ourselves, our businesses, our ability to make a positive difference in a strategic way.

As to when...well, the plan, like all bloggers, is to do this each week, or several times a week. Set this up on your list of RSS feeds, and you'll get the latest and greatest!