And we're back.

So I had taken a long, unplanned hiatus from blogging, and now I know how incredibly difficult it is to keep up a blog while having a job, family obligations, vacation, wedding planning and the various other things that pop up in our every day lives. I just about decided to scrap the whole thing until I attended Eric Schwartzman's New Media Bootcamp at the PRSA Conference in Philadelphia this weekend. A lot of our counsel recently has centered around new media issues: internet rumors, activist web sites, blogging strategy, etc. Eric covered everything from podcasting and online newsrooms to RSS and SEO, and he hit a chord when he mentioned the principle of active participation. To be taken seriously in the blogosphere, or on Wiki, or on web forms, PR people need to (as Eric put it) "play in the sandbox". We need to engage. If we're going to give good counsel, we should be part of the online discussion and there is no reason that if we are able dedicate just a little bit of time to participating (blogging, podcasting or simply commenting on an interesting blog post) we should do so both for our benefit and our clients'.

I have a renewed commitment to post to this blog on regular intervals and to increase my participation in the "sandbox". I'm looking forward to getting back to the bread and butter of this site - Analyzing the who what and why of how various communication strategies work to build and break down reputation.