[Ask the Experts, Feb 20 2006]
Blogging’s all the rage these days. What’s up with green blogging? Is blogging useful for business? How do I get started? What should I read?
Gil: What a perfectly timed question! I just moderated a green bloggers panel at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco a couple weeks ago. Our panel: Nick Aster, TriplePundit; Jamais Cascio pinch-hitting for Alex Steffen, WorldChanging; Graham Hill, TreeHugger; and Siel, Green LA Girl.
Eric Corey Freed, who put the event together, introduced the event this way:
In recent years, the art of web-logs, or ‘blogs’ has risen in importance in the fields of journalism, politics and art. As sustainability reaches a ‘tipping point’ in our culture, several bloggers have emerged at the forefront of this movement… this distinguished panel of leading bloggers reporting on the fast changing world of environmental responsibility… will discuss current issues, trends and milestones in environment, ecology, and sustainability. These bloggers are often the first to break a story on significant developments in the environmental field.
You can find coverage of the event — from bloggers of course! — by Green LA girl, sustainablog, TriplePundit, and IvanEnviroMan. There may be a podcast or public radio broadcast, too.
(There are lots more environmental blogs, of course, more than I can list here. Start my checking the blogrolls at those sites, my blog and GreenBiz founder Joel Makower’s widely read Two Steps Forward.)
Are you just getting going in blogging, or looking to improve how you’re doing it? Here’s a quick start list from Seth Godin’s beta startup, Squiddo.
Useful for business? Unquestionably — in two ways, in my experience: First, its an unprecedented way for readers to maintain a fast, up-to-date scan on topics of interest, often well ahead of traditional media (use a good RSS reader to streamline that process). Second, it’s an unmatched way for bloggers to bring your customers and community a piece of your mind, in the very best sense of the term — what you’re doing, what you think and why you think that — essential for businesses that depend on building trust in the midst of globalized, corporatized economy.
People argue about corporate blogs — see Jeneane Sessum on Why CEOs Should Blog — and the conflict between maintaining the official line and delivering the personal voice that good blogs require. Nonetheless, there are a growing number of CEO blogs (though you’ll notice that the smaller/younger companies dominate).
Send your questions about environmental management issues to [email protected].
And visit the “Ask the Experts” archive.