Blogging\'s Not for Space-filling

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Blogging's Not for Space-filling

By: Doug Bedell

We're wondering how you feel about this; we don't like it. We were checking out the website of JoTo Extreme PR, a seemingly lively PR firm in Clearwater, FL, and went to the blog of Karla Jo Helms, JoTo's CEO. There we saw a post we wrote about yesterday, only then it was by Ira Kalb on BNET. Sure enough, when we got to the bottom of the post we found a note from Karla Jo stating that "This is a fantastic article by Ira Kalb on BNET - which I would recommend becoming a member of...great articles, great advice. This one on the GE backfire of not having their own Crisis Management plan in place."

Well, gee, was it a slow day, or conversely, an extra busy one at JoTo that Karla Jo couldn't post in her own name? Or if she thought a post by someone else was of special merit, couldn't she have linked to it, or included her "editor's note" at the top of the piece, not the bottom? By then a reader might have assumed it was her's. True, at the top "BNET" was shown after the headline, and the text is in italics. But to the unwary, the post could still seem to be from JoTo Extreme PR. At least that's what we first thought.

Blogging is for original content, unless clearly identified as being otherwise. Or Karla Jo could have discussed the Kalb piece, giving it her own slant. But blogging isn't for space-filling on a busy day and ought not to be presented in that manner. It's not good PR to be confusing.

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About the Author

Doug Bedell has a background in journalism and PR and is the owner of Resource Relations LLC in Central PA, focusing on organizational and crisis communication. He’s the community manager of SimplyFair.net, a social network on fairness. On the Web, Doug’s at www.ResourceRelations.com. On Twitter, he’s @DougBeetle.

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