you find visitors coming from blogs, add those sites to your RSS feeds, comment on the blog posts, and develop relationships with the bloggers. There are five steps in social media we always recommend to  new clients who are just beginning to branch out online. They are listen, assess, engage, measure, and refine/improve. The Art and Science of Listening. While each step is important, the foundation to any  online effort is listening. And it’s the one step you can do without any of the others. Before you begin, think about the historically great communicators. First things first. MORE >>

Tuesday, Jan 11 : Edelman rep tells us in a one-line e-mail, “Unfortunately we do not have anyone to comment on this.&#. And, like Ryan says in his apology email, if you can’t provide the information, you explain why, not leave it with “Unfortunately we do not have anyone to comment on this.&# Where I come from, “no comment&# is not allowed. Communication best buy best buy on content marketing Edelman mark ragan no comment Ragan ragan.comUh oh. Edelman is in trouble again…this time over a media request from Ragan about  Best Buy On. MORE >>

Comments on a story – Leaving a thoughtful comment on a reporter’s or blogger’s story, then tweeting it out and spreading the word, may help you get that media attention you’ve been seeking. Guest post by Elena Verlee , founder of Cross Border Communications. If you’ve been on Twitter a while, you’re probably stuck in a rut. We all know we’re supposed to engage, share links to valuable information, and re-tweet others. What else is there? If you want to spice up your Twitter feed, here are 15 ideas to get you going. Do the same for others. MORE >>

If you’re going to PRSA this weekend/next week, leave me a comment so I can say hi! Managing Negative Online Comments originally appeared on Spin Sucks on October 12, 2011. Negative Comments Social Media Arment Dietrich Barry Silver facebook question of the week gini dietrich Negative comments negative reviewsIt’s Facebook question of the week time (clap, clap, clap!). few housekeeping things first. And, Inside PR ( Martin Waxman , Joe Thornley , and I) are hosting a TweetUp on Monday night. If you RSVP online , the first drink is on us! On us. MORE >>

But be creative and read the comments. If someone else has already chosen your trend, you must come up with something else because, if it’s the winning trend, we’ll go with the first person who left it in the comments. Welcome back to the real world! hope everyone had a really good Thanksgiving weekend. To start the last 20 work days of the year, I thought now was a good time to discuss trends for next year. This will get you started on planning and getting everything ready to launch the year on January 2. The contest information is at the end of the post. Social TV Convergence. MORE >>