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I thought I would use this post to note some tips for one of my favorite social media arenas – blogs.  Blogs encourage participants to create a genuine and trustworthy presence online. Here are three things to consider when it comes to transparency and authenticity in blogging.

- Identification – who are you and why are you blogging?
- Community – with whom can you build trust and relationships?
- Valuable Content – this means not just chatting about how great things are going in a carefully constructed message (triple checked by PR and board members) but being open and honest and offering something new and insightful to readers.

I wrote about the importance of identification in a previous post, so i will move on to community. Blogging involves becoming part of a community. There are millions of blogs out there, and it is an opportunity to connect. It’s called the World Wide Web for a reason. Check out Turkey Hill’s unlikely ice cream blog and their blogroll. Links include the dairy industry, ice cream photographers, recipes, ice cream shops, and even vegan ice cream fans. Establishing relationships with other bloggers over time creates credibility.  For Larry Weber’s book Marketing to the Social Web, he interviews Halley Suitt, blogging pioneer, whose advice includes exercising strong involvement in reading and engaging other blogs. It’s not enough to post your own blog and sit back and wait. Suitt insists the best method is to research who is blogging and what they are blogging about.

Valuable content – Annie Teich, writing for the publishing industry in Using Company Blogs to Win Over Decision Makers, makes some excellent suggestions on creating content with your audience in mind. Blogs are not the place for puff pieces or pushing products. They are an opportunity to build relationships and perhaps create customers who will later be advocates for your business.

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