"A weblog, which is usually shortened to blog, is a type of website where entries are made (such as in a journal or diary), displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although many focus on photographs, videos or audio. The word blog can also be used as a verb, meaning adding an entry to a blog."

The above is the definition of “blog” as given in wikipedia.org (see full article). But there is a lot more to a blog. In this blog entry I will describe what blogs do and also explain why does the Toastmasters of Lincoln Park club have a blog.

Blogs range from individual diary type pages to well established topical blogs with millions of visitors per month. Some of these blogs are so well established that they get cited in the press and television often. The variety of people who blog is great. Bloggers range from high-school students commenting on the latest video games to GM’s Vice Chairman Bob Lutz (GM Fast Lane Blog - http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/). Blogs are becoming the new and powerful PR channel for both small and large businesses. They are helping small businesses get out there, but also help big businesses, such as Microsoft, get a better image among their customers. To a great extent, because of allowing employees to blog, Microsoft is not viewed as the “borg” any more. These blogs are written by the company’s employees from all ranks. In the case of our club, it will be you – the club members.

There are two key distinctive features of blogs. The first is that they are written by individuals, rather then “the company”, without having the information chewed by numerous editors. The second feature is ability for any reader to post comments to the blog, thus creating a two-way communication, or in other words a conversation. People talking to people vs. the one way communication of press releases and other pushed content in the old-fashioned cold corporate PR way.

Websites were becoming popular and their value was being realized by the masses in the mid 90s. In the same fashion, today blogs are becoming the new way of communication. It may be a little strong to say “Blog or die”, but if a company or an organization does not blog they will definitely be at a disadvantage. I will strongly recommend for anyone to read “Naked Conversations” – a very insightful book, which describes and gives numerous real-life examples of how blogs are changing the way big and small companies communicate with their customers today.

Having said all that, why in the world does Toastmasters of Lincoln Park need this blog? I will summarize the key benefits of having each one of you contributing to our blog:

·        You can give valuable advice to our club members, and other readers on the Internet, by sharing your thoughts, ideas and experiences in public speaking.

·        You may write about other issues that are important to you, that are not related to public speaking – your band, sailing, etc.

·        By having most of our members submit blog entries we can show from our web site that we are one live and creative mix of interesting people.

·        If most of our members post frequently on the this blog, the content on the web site will always be fresh, which will increase our ranking in search engines – this will result in more people finding us and more people linking to the interesting topics on our site.

·        If you blog frequently and interestingly, maybe you can get invited to give speeches. Maybe they’ll pay you. The possibilities are numerous.

There are some questions that you may ask. Here I have answered some of them:

How do I get a blog from Toastmasters of Lincoln Park? – Each of our club’s members can create their own blog on our site. Just log in with your username and password and go to the Blogs page. You will find instructions of how to setup your blog the first time. This should take 10 minutes at the most. After that you can add as many entries as you wish.

What should I write about? – Anything! Tell us about your speech, how you overcame any difficulties, or about that great book you recently read. By anything, I do mean anything appropriate of course (please keep your sex life to yourself). For example I wrote about my experience giving my Ice Breaker speech.

How much should I write? – Your entries can be as short as one paragraph or as long as 10 pages. Sometimes you may just post an interesting link with a comment! It is all up to you. Just write, and write often. I am writing this on my lunch hour and so far it’s taken me only 10 minutes. You don’t have to spend hours.

How often should I post? – As often as you can! Three times a day, once a day, or once a week. Please be serous about your commitment though. Make a realistic promise to yourself of how many minutes you can spend a week adding interesting entries.

Are links important? – Yes. Please link to other articles or pages on the web within your posts. The more you link, the more likely is that other people will link to your blog.

What about writing style? – Be yourself. Write interestingly. There are no “club rules” for the style or formatting of your blog entries. You can even have typos here and there. The only thing I will ask for is to enter something in the description for the blog entry. I usually copy and paste my first paragraph or first few sentences.

Any other questions? – Please feel free to ask them in the comments section below. In fact I ENCOURAGE you to ask questions.

Let’s keep the conversation going!