Tag. Am I It?

Zoey has tagged me.

Thank you Zoey. Although I don’t like to talk about myself, your link has given me a reason to break through my writer’s block (At least, I hope I can break it.)

So, here are Zoey’s questions and my answers:

When did you first start blogging and why?

My first blogging experience was on MSN Spaces in early 2005. I played around with a blog that I made available only to the people on my MSN Messenger contact list. Eventually, I decided I needed a more serious blogging platform. After experimenting with several platforms, including WordPress, TypePad and Movable Type, I settled on WordPress as the most flexible and user friendly. I launched the current ProPR blog on November 16, 2005.

I said in my first post:

Through this blog, I hope to have a voice in the discussion surrounding new developments in public relations, communications and marketing.

At my firm, we encourage people to develop to their maximum potential.

Thought leadership is an important goal for all professionals. With this blog, I hope to stimulate others to think about these issues and advance their own thinking.

This is still a pretty good description of why I am blogging.

What don’t you talk about?

I try not to stray off topic on this blog, which is focused on public relations best practices, the development of PR practitioners and what we can do to build the ideal public relations consulting firm. That means that I pretty much don’t talk about things that would be of interest to 99.9% of the population.

Are you and your blogging persona the same person?

Will the real Joe please stand up?

I think my blogging persona is a lot less intense than I am in real life. Blogging is a chance to reflect on what’s important, what’s going on and what to do about it. It is also relaxing. Those who work with me would probably say that I am anything but relaxed.

How do you use blogging to build friendships?

I am constantly impressed with how blogging has enabled me to find people from around the world whose thoughts and opinions interest me and stimulate my own thinking. I try to comment on their blogs and Trackback from my own blog to some of their posts. I hope that over time they see me as part of their community in the same way as I think of them as part of my community.

But like many other bloggers, I seek out those who I have met online and try to meet them in the real world. Because there is still no substitute for eye contact and body language to truly get to know someone. And through this, I’ve met many bloggers who I like and whose company I enjoy. People like Shel Holtz, Shel Israel, David Jones (but we really knew one another before blogging,) Colin McKay, Ed Lee, Donna Papacosta, Chris Clarke, Josh Hallett. And I add to this list whenever I can.

I’m tagging… Terry Fallis. Terry’s really a podcaster. But he has a blog platform for Inside PR. And I’d like him to address these questions on the Inside PR Podcast. And the PR Girlz. Cause I think their answers to these questions will be a lot more interesting than mine were.