When Worlds Collide

Marydee Ojala — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:33:04 +0000

Since I do a fair amount of conference program planning, I read Meetings & Conventions magazine. Imagine my surprise when I found the opening sentence of the January 2009 cover story, "Blogged Down," to be all about a librarian blogging the 2008 ALA annual conference! She was "stunned and appalled" to pick up a pamphlet in an ALA session room selling diet pills, with the sales contact person being the wife of the speaker. The article then goes on to quote Jenny Levine, as a representative of ALA, on what conference organizers should do when a blogger posts negative comments. Never did I think I’d be reading about Jenny — or about a national library conference — in the non-library trade press. Very cool! And the advice given in the article is excellent, including how to respond to a negative post, where to track your reputation in the blogosphere, and why conference planners should pay attention to bloggers and, now, microbloggers on Twitter. I particularly liked the quote from Kenny Lauer, director of digital technologies for George P.Johnson, who said, "You lose control if you’re not listening, if you’re not joining the conversation, if you’re not present." Very true.

Online Insider » reputation management

When Worlds Collide