Dominic Foster

The Power of Blogging

I’ve just spent the whole day ad Microsoft TechEd - which is an annual conference that Microsoft puts on for IT professionals - and was fortunate enough to be able to attend a session called The Power of Blogging given by Betsy Akoi - who is the Microsoft Community Program Manager in Redmond and is responsible for the blogs.msdn.com and blogs.technet.com sites and the ongoing rejuvenation of www.gotdotnet.com.

Betsy talked a fair bit about Community Server (Since it is a Microsoft Event) - The components that it is made of and it’s development history. She then went on to discuss her philosophy of Blogging and some tips from herself and her colleague Robert Scoble.

So I picked up my pen and started to scribble furiously. Unfortunately, there was a lot to cover, and Betsy gave the PowerPoint presentation a hammering! Here’s what I did manage to get down before deciding to ask Betsy for the presentation file after her talk:

1. Build Momentum
• Find about 50 Blogs to read and get a feel for your topic - study the Blogrolls of those Bloggers
• Comment on their Blogging - and if relevant - link back
2. Promote
• Use Blog Search Engines such as Technorati, Feedster, PubSub. Spend a month absorbing what goes on in these sites.
• Create credibility
3. Other Stuff
• Fight comment spam.
• Think about what you are posting.
• Look for your typos and spelling miskates.

Apologies for this looking a bit stark and garbled but I can only just read the shocking notes that I made during the session (I’m now dreading next weeks development meeting when I have to report back to my colleagues about everything I have learned at TechEd).

I promise that when I get the PowerPoint presentation from Betsy that I will blog about it in more detail!

So thanks for the great presentation Betsy - and.. err.. sorry - I’m afraid I don’t use Community Server.

Related Posts:
Day 29 - Roundup
favicon.ico - Typo
Gerald Celente in New Zealand
Purpose of Blogging
Day 31 - The End