To refer to your comment about groundrules…I’m not really looking to set groundrules but rather policies, which might be splitting hairs a bit, but hear me out. These policies will speak to how I will conduct my own postings and the criteria in which I accept comments. The idea is that people can look to these policies to understand what they can expect from me, and, if they post something and it doesn’t go up, they will be able to understand why.

As an example, one critical policy that I will put up is that the opinions that I express are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer, Trillium Corporate Communications, or its clients. This is to distinguish that this is a Josh Turner blog, not a Trillium blog, and for people to not be confused between the two.

One set of blogging policies that I will use as a reference in constructing my own is written by PR blogger David Jones and his blog prworks.ca. He has graciously allowed me use portions of his policy but I will be looking over others for inspiration. The policy page of his blog is http://www.prworks.ca/index.php/my-blog-policies/.

One comment: I’m not sure how well laying out groundrules is going to fly.

For one thing, if you post it early, it will not be viewable by future readers unless they scroll back. If you post it as a link, not everyone will read it. For those who do see it — If you give people rules, people will want to break them.

More importantly: People are generally pretty respectful. I expect that the kinds of people who will be reading your blog will be intelligent ones.

Besides, with the ability to approve comments, it’s a moot point.

The bigger concern will be spammers. Again – you’ll be approving the comments.

It was funny because David told me that he posted something so I went to the blog and saw nothing there. So I waited…and waited…and hit refresh…and hit refresh again. I was starting to wonder if David was playing a cruel joke on me!

But then I went to my inbox and saw that I had comments to approve. I didn’t know that I could approve something!!! It was kind of like…yes, I grant you permission to comment. I guess I sort of thought of blogging like being at a bar…you say something and then someone can say whatever they want. Having a blog makes me realize that I can have a real say on how things go around here…like I can set the tone. Very cool stuff.

Oh dear…I think I have a new addiction. My poor wife and child.

Josh

Welcome to PR blog world. Good to have your voice joining in and sharing your views.

You’ve made a good start. Nice post. I might just share this with my students as a good way to initially write in their blogs.

I like how you recognize social media (or one form if it) as “one tool” and how it “*can* add a new dimension to communication plans”. This tells me that you haven’t sipped the koolaid, and that’s a good thing.

Keep up the blogging. Looking forward to reading your ideas.

All the best.

Robert

Dave

Enjoy the ride. I’ll add you to the Feedburner PR Network too.