To Blog or Not to Blog

Thank you to those who have given me feedback on my blogging.  I've never done this blogging stuff before, but I decided to give it a try because I'd like to

• keep in touch with my good friends from the past
• keep in touch with my professional colleagues too
• entice everyone to go and take a class in something they truly enjoy
• provide an outlet for my new friends and colleagues to learn more about me
• keep my own log of my adventures into college in my 40s

I had the opportunity to take a couple classes in blogging and social networking, believe it or not, there are some do's and don'ts to this.  The most important take-aways from my study on social networking and blogging are

• social networking is really a required part of your professional life now, get used to it.
• be yourself, both on your personal and professional social networking.
• don't say anything negative, just don't.  Nobody really wants to hear it anyway.
• successful bloggers provide anecdotes on both their personal and professional lives, after all, we're all human; and it makes the blog more interesting

Some of the most successful and interesting blogs I've noted are by

• my friend Paula
• the Lotus Notes design blog
• the Geek Dr.

My friend Paula has been blogging for quite some time, even before there she had a blogging website. She moved to and lived in Slovakia  and emailed me each and every day, her form of blogging at the time.  I found her ordinary life in Slovakia quite fascinating, and Paula is a good writer.  She is one of my inspiration for getting into this blogging activity. I met Paula while I lived in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area.  You can find her blog here:

http://paula-livingontheedge.blogspot.com/

Another good blog is by Mary Beth Raven at IBM, she blogs on Lotus Notes Design.  I'll confess I went to one of her presentations on 'how to blog successfully', and you can find her blog here:


http://www.notesdesignblog.com/


A blog I read regularly is "Life as a Healthcare CIO" by John Halamka, MD, it is very interesting to me, as the content typically relates to healthcare and informatics, you can find his blog here:

http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your blogs,

Erin