Project Blogger : special guest Trevor Young from PR Warrior

“Blogging is the new poetry.” – Unknown

Drum roll: Now on Project Blogger I’m talking to non other than guest-star Trevor Young from one of Australia’s most popular PR Blogs – PR Warrior.

Like Trevor says – when it comes to blogging he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and jump right in. And his blogging success shows how his approach is working! In this GeekChic Project Blogger chat, Trevor has some super hot advice for aspiring bloggers and those looking to take their blog to the next level:

Mel: What gave you the inspiration to set up your blog?

Trevor: I wasn’t inspired by any particular blogger per se but more so a desire to learn more about blogging by diving in and getting my hands dirty. I’d done a lot of research on the subject but I reckon I learnt more in six weeks of actually blogging than from all the reading I had done! Today, I find inspiration all around me. There are so many fantastic bloggers locally and overseas who continue to inspire me with their willingness to share their knowledge, thoughts, ideas and opinions.

M: What does you blog mean to you?

T: My main blog prwarrior.com – it’s essentially a stream of consciousness “from the marketing frontline”; it’s skewed towards PR, communications and social media.

T: I’ve recently launched a second blog called SWEAT EQUITY sweatequity.biz – it’s about what small companies can teach the big guys about marketing, and is forming the basis of a book that I’m currently researching and attempting to write!

PR Warrior has been my window to the world for over three years and was probably the first time I really put myself ‘out there’. Sweat Equity, I’m hoping, will become a lot more of a community of ‘like-minds’ in the areas of entrepreneurship and marketing globally.

M: What do you especially like to post?

T: I tend to focus on PR and marketing communications broadly, often with a skew towards the ever-changing new media landscape and what it means to our profession.

M: Are there certain stories or categories you know will get a great reaction?

T: The two types of posts that in my experience have tended to generate more reaction are:

Topical pieces; if timed right, with a hint of ‘strong opinion’, they’re generally good for getting people retweeting and talking about it. For example, I wrote a post the day before the federal election along the lines of “OPPORTUNITY LOST: Could Social Media have tipped the balance in tomorrow’s Federal election?” written on my work blog: http://bit.ly/bkTG17. This got retweeted something like 59 times.

The other type of post that gets linked to a lot is the ‘list’ post. For example – “8 Things I’d Do If I Was Starting Out in PR Today”. They’re very effective but you wouldn’t want to over-do it.

M: What are your top 5 tips for other bloggers?

T:
1. Write about a space you’re absolutely passionate about. If you don’t love the topic, you’ll probably end up getting bored.

2. Be persistent. Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t get a lot of traffic early. Just keep going!

3. Get involved! By that, I mean participate more fully in the broader social media space – comment on other people’s blogs, become active on Twitter, build a strong Facebook presence, attend social networking events. It’s not just about writing the blog but being part of a broader community (and that’s the fun part).

4. Be active. From experience, the more regularly I blog, the more traffic and comments I get. Think of your blog as a garden. You need to nurture it often otherwise it looks unkempt. The world doesn’t need another blog where the latest post is three months old. I reckon 8-10 posts per month is optimum, unless you’re getting into the professional arena (in which case you’ll need to probably double that output).

5. Think about extending into audio (podcasts) and video. I like writing the most so that’s mainly what I do but I’ve been getting into podcasts more recently http://www.parkyoung.com.au/index.php/podcasts/, which I enjoy. I’ll keep experimenting until I get the right mix, but I know that video is probably not too far away!

M: What is your top tip for someone just starting out?

T: Definitely read plenty of blogs by people in your industry/profession, or area of interest, but also extend your reading more broadly. People like Problogger (Darren Rowse), Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel, Chris Garrett, David Meerman Scott – they’re all in the social media and marketing space and you’ll definitely learn a lot from them. But don’t procrastinate – jump in, you’ll learn by actually doing it. A good trick is to write half a dozen posts but don’t go live with them – just sit on them for a while and get used to the idea that when you post them, you will be a global publisher of content!

M: What are some of your favourite blogs and why?

T: I read stacks of great blogs. Ummm, where to start?

Locally, I like Steve Sammartino’s Start-Up Blog for its short bursts of start-up inspiration and insights

Servant of Chaos by Gavin Heaton

Karalee Evans from justanotherprblog

Matthew Gain

Yvonne Adele’s Ideas Culture blog from ideasculture.com for its focus on creativity and ideas

Overseas blogs I check out regularly include Jonathan Fields – he’s an interesting dude, ex-high flying lawyer who checked out of the profession and wrote a book called ‘Career Renegade’

Web Ink Now by David Meerman Scott, author of ‘The New Rules of Marketing and PR’ among others;

and Valeria Maltoni from the conversationagent.com

M: Would you say blogging is a creative outlet for you/ and if so how?

T: Absolutely! Writing is my schtick, and being able to get instant feedback on something you’ve written is pretty cool. But being able to incorporate images and audio etc just opens up a lot more avenues for the sharing of thoughts and ideas.

M: Has blogging opened up doors for you with new contacts and conversations you may never had otherwise had?

T: Again, absolutely. My blog is the hub, or heartbeat, of all my online efforts. It’s this combination of things – blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – that has grown my network exponentially. The thing is, when you put yourself out there like I have done, and I stress it was quite hard for me to do in the first instance, then you start attracting ‘like-minds’ – people who are interested broadly in the same things as you. There are so many really cool, smart and funny people out there – I’m happy to say I’ve connected with a large number of them since beginning this online social web odyssey (which started with a blog).

M: What’s the thing you like most about your blog?

I truly love the design! Generally I’m a bit hard to please in that respect, but the boys (Aaron & Blaz) from Eleven Media did a fantastic job, especially as they’re WordPress specialists and my blog is on Typepad. I also love the name ‘PR Warrior’, as do a lot of people – I get a lot of positive feedback on that. The scary thing is I’m starting to refer to myself in the third person as the PR Warrior – the blog persona has taken on a life of its own – is this a bad thing?

i don’t think so at all!

Thanks heaps Trevor!!