Don’t blink – the brave new world of social media is no longer restricted to the traditional B2B marketplace; it’s now quickly making similar inroads with more conservative government thought leaders. By any measure, the business impact of the blogosphere has clearly transcended that of the rogue blogger venting about a company’s or CEO’s perceived failings. Over the past several years, blogging has become an increasingly effective vehicle for business and non-profit executives to comment on industrydevelopments and pressing issues. CEO’s and other corporate thought leaders are now extending their thought leadership to government forums not customarily considered part of the blogosphere. Executives are finding blogs to be an indispensable complement to traditional earned media and other PR tactics for securing a share of voice on key issues impacting their industries. In addition, blogging communities of interest have emerged with the larger goal of better connecting people seeking to have a meaningful dialogue with their peers. Strategic Communications Group recently partnered with Altron Inc. President Mike Zaramba to launch his “Perspective” blog (http://altroninc.blogspot.com). The new blog focuses on the diverse issues and trends that drive the small business federal contracting community. Perspective has truly broken new ground as the first known C-level blog in the government services industry, and there are some sound best practices that can help enhance visibility, credibility and longevity for any such initiative.

• Identify the most visible and widely-read bloggers in your industry segment, and make a point to respond to their own postings to establish a dialogue. You can use blog directories, or aggregators, like Technorati or RSS (really simple syndication) tools like Google Reader or Feedburner for this purpose.
• Promote your blog and reinforce your personal brand within your email signatures, company boilerplate and on your website to drive additional traffic and potential lead-generation with business prospects.
• Register and cross-list your blog for maximum viral marketing impact on online social bookmarking sites like Digg and Del.icio.us to help drive “eyeball” traffic.

Benchmarking readership is a key element of measuring the impact of your blog. With the help of the tools noted above and the use of keyword descriptors for search engine optimization, you can monitor awareness and response to your postings at regular intervals through frequency and click-throughs to your website, for example. Remember that awareness and credibility take time to develop, especially with public sector decision-makers. But don’t despair if your first foray into the blogosphere isn’t ultimately deemed a success by these criteria. A blogging campaign is a low-risk, low-cost endeavor that can be fine-tuned and, worst-case, simply put on hiatus or discontinued as business circumstances warrant.