It’s good to have goals. It’s good to have objectives. But it’s absolutely essential to have dreams. When you dream, dream BIG dreams. That’s what I’m doing – I’m dreaming big time. Yes, this is going to be an article falling into the category of “bucket list” posts. Without further ado, here we go.

TOP 3 things to do before I turn 25

1. Enroll into and successfully finish MA studies
2. Do PR and marketing on the side of the client
3. Create a memorable marketing campaign

Long-term planning

• Find a marcomms-related job outside of the Czech Republic
• Profile myself in financial services industry, should I stay in CZ
• Leave CZ for a while to gain experience in PR and marketing communications somewhere else

Do you ever wonder why people fill the Internet with this crap? All right, since you made it through the post all the way here, you deserve an explanation.

It’s all about public commitment – stating your goals publicly will help you to achieve them. Given that more people know about them and might hold you accountable for achieving them, you will work harder and focus more attentively. The trick works even if the people you tell this to are hidden behind computer screens and thousands of miles away from you. Ruining your public image by seeming inconsistent is a good enough incentive to work very hard and achieve the set of goals you have had created.

Thus, the reason why people post these things is to motivate themselves. The very thought that someone could in the future hold you accountable does the trick.

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Right off the bat: let me invite you to Social Marketers Summit. It is a conference about social media taking place in Prague on 9 September, 2010 at Slovanský Dům (Na Příkopě 859/22, 110 00 Prague 1).

No matter in what city or country you live in, a conference or a workshop dedicated to online PR and social media is bound to happen near you. Most of them are average at best and remind the visitors of pre-ordained kabuki. A local icon or a social media guru comes on stage and starts going on and on about “the challenges facing the marketing and PR industry in the age of new media and user-generated content”, while boring the audience to sleep. This summit isn’t going to be like that.

As every conference depends on the people who organise it, I believe this one is set up for success. Behind the scenes are Pavel Hacker from Viral Booster and Jakub Svoboda from tyinternety.cz, the Czech equivalent of Mashable. Both are very industrious and open-minded individuals. Besides, they have been to a countless number of boring conferences, so they know what to avoid.

It’s not only about the organizers, though. Social Marketers Summit will have a plenty of interesting people who will feed our minds with interesting topics. I’m looking forward to these three speakers. I am sure there will be more

Erica Swallow, an Editorial Assistant at Mashable: Community projects on the rise we have not heard about much yet. I have no idea what I should imagine under the title of this presentation, but it sounds intriguing.

Marek Prchal, a freelance idea maker: PR and social media in commercial sector. This man is a Czech social media trailblazer and it would be very interesting to hear about the thought processes and assumptions that have led to his innovative campaings.

Josef Slerka, the chief of R&D at Ataxo Interactive: Seeing is believing, measuring is knowing. The social media, and especially online PR is suffering from the lack of clear and objective measurement. Josef’s talk isn’t likely to bring anything new into the discussion, but I am hoping to learn how to set the objectives in a way, so they can be tracked and measured.

Update: Josef will not talk about measurement and analytics – I misunderstood what he is going to talk about. The speech bears the title of Selling users is good business. As far as I know, the speech should be geared towards utilising data mined from the social media.

I hope that I gave you enough of reasons for visiting the conference. For more information, look at www.socialsummit.cz or their Facebook page.

Based originally on Darren Rowse’s idea and Eliška Hutníková’s call for localisation, I have decided to take on the seven link challenge.  It’s really simple – dig into your blogging history, share with us your jewels of blogging and follow the hashtag #7linksCZ on Twitter. The international version of the hashtag is #7links.

• My first post – I still like those topics I came up with, by the way.
• A post I enjoyed writing the most – The Consitency Problem
• A post which had a great discussion – Did You Get My Press Release?
• A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – 5 ways not to handle reputation management by Ian Lurie
• Your most helpful post – That wasn’t a post, that was a series about job hunt
• A post with a title that you are proud of – The PR Talent Pool Could Use Some Chlorine
• A post that you wish more people had read – In Praise of Thoughtful Communication

If you are interested what some other Czech bloggers came up with, take a look at Eikasia blog by Honza Páv.

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I upgraded to WordPress 3.0 last night. Even though, I deliberately missed on the beta, I am very pleased with the new version of my favourite CMS. There is a new look, new style and new functionality I don’t fully understand.

There was no need for me to run WordPress on multiple sites or to use pre-formatted post types. I haven’t used any custom menus either. On the other hand, chances are that now, as it is built in, I might start doing just that.

One way or another, I owe a big “Thank you!” to the developers who are making the evolution of WordPress happen.

Matt and his team have prepared a short presentation video outlining the new features and qualities of the version 3.0.

Time to delve into the depths of this cool system and explore them in detail.

We often get preoccupied too much with questions like “Is my copy readable?”, “Did I write it well enough?” or “Are my headlines describing what happens later in the text?”. However, we seldom pay attentions to images accompanying the copy. They are often very powerful when it comes to conveying the information. Jonathan Klein who heads Getty Images knows about that. See what he has to say.

Image credit: Shermee

WordPress has gone off the chain. According to yesterday’s official statement, the project has launched a beta version 3.0 and announced merging the regular .ORG mutation with WordPress MU. Reasons for that are more or less obvious. I would assume the WP MU didn’t manage to get out of the professional community and reach the masses. Even though more complex sites like TheNextWeb are running it as a primary engine, the MU platform probably didn’t get as much attention as its creators were hoping for.

Instead of beating a dead horse and trying to revive the MU, the programmers integrated a multiple blogs management system into the regular version. This feature, still in the state of development and testing, helps the content creators to centralise and simplify their blog management.

Another modification for the better is a new default theme bundled with the WordPress package. The developers have decided to use Twenty Ten. Looks neat, doesn’t it?

The next revolutionary change is creating Custom Post Type function that will turn WP into a more user-friendly content management system. By using templates for each post type, you can only focus on the content you want to share instead of the publishing itself. Once you define the type template, you are set. It looks so subtle, so what is so revolutionary about it?

Let’s say that WordPress has been regarded as a blogging platform. Some users utilised its full potential and used it as a full-fledged CMS to power their e-shops or vlogs but most people did not. Now, as the option has been added to the basic interface, we will see the increase of more versatile web sites and e-shops powered by WordPress. This move has positioned Matt’s product a step closer to a universal content management system.

Rolling out one feature after another, WordPress is still going strong, even though the critics are foretelling the doom of blogging and the shift of the audience towards social networks. The million dollar question is whether WordPress is rolling out features because it is popular software or because the amount of people blogging is declining.

Image credit: herzogbr

Summary: I suggest you don’t start building community around your blog from the scratch. Instead, there are better alternatives, like becoming a member of another community and by gaining credibility, laying foundations of your own community faster.

Driving traffic to your blog isn’t easy and it takes much harder work when you are trying to build a brand new community around your work. However, there are ways to increase the traffic from the beginning of your blogging career. As Amber Naslund likes to say, “it’s all about a community.”

You know the feeling when you’re staring at the Google Analytics screen and thinking “I worked my butt off to get this post right and it brought me only 12 new unique visitors! Yeah, 12, not 1,200 or 12,000, just 12! What’s wrong with this?” Then you delve into the analysis of those 12 new leads you managed to attract and work out a plan how to keep them around for as long as possible with your next post.

That’s the scenario you are intimately familiar with when you have a blog on your own domain, less so when you are blogging on servers like WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Quite a few self-made bloggers start like that utilising with this exquisitely wrong approach. What is wrong with it? It’s killing your time and the effort you use up to break through the clutter could be used somewhere else for maximum efficiency.

What should you do then? Think about it for a second. As a blogger, you are after influence and reach. To be an influential blogger, you need to have readers, just like leaders need followers. How do you get them? Turning them over from competition would be a great idea, right? There is one simple advice that I can give when it comes to attracting readership. Go where your prospective readers are instead of forcing them away from their communities to read your blog.

Oh, you were expecting something more profound? Sorry to disappoint. You wouldn’t believe how many authors get this simple rule wrong. They start their own blog on their domain and hope for a miracle instead of determining their target audience first and starting their presence where the readers are. Let’s charge on how it should be done step by step.

Determine who your readers are

Critically important, this one. If you don’t know who you are writing for, don’t bother at all. Try to find out about your target audience as much as you can – what they like, how they think, where they go on the Internet, what are their browsing habits and what do they like for breakfast. Focus on behavioral targeting and the VALS (Values and Lifestyle) instead of the classic demographic-based targeting.

Find out what communities your readers belong to

When you know who they are, you have to find out where the members of your audience spend their time. Statistics tracking visitor counts at various servers and blogs help a lot and media kits from the big media are also quite helpful. If you’re not sure how to approach this analysis when it comes to bloggers, the most direct route is to ask them about their readership straight away. Besides, this data will come in handy when you will want to advertise on their sites.

Contribute to the community

The next step is to start participating in conversation – commenting and reacting to various issues the community has set on to discuss. It’s good to have your own blog (your own domain or not) at this point and extend there on the issues the members of the community care about. It’s also good to disagree with some of the authors because controversy and polarisation create interest. On the other hand, make sure you oppose others based on merit and attack only their arguments. Ad hominem arguments are a no-no!

Lure the readers to your site

There is, in my opinion, nothing with wrong with starting in a community A and then converting it to a community B. As long as the readers care about your blog and you are somehow adding value to their lives, both communities can only enrich their audiences. If the content is good, the readers would be happy, no matter where the discourse is taking place. For the record, I welcome discussion about ethics at this point.

Endure

Once you start getting traffic from other servers and your little community starts building up around you, the most difficult task is still ahead of you. Sustaining the interest of your readers is very important in the later stages. Voila, you have a full-time job as a community manager. Don’t worry, as long as you keep the content interesting, the traffic will keep steadily increasing.

Short case study: Pavel Hacker

Let me share a case study about Pavel Hacker’s social media strategy. When Pavel started blogging, he became a member of the community at respekt.cz, space widely populated by people who consider themselves as intellectuals. The upside is that this community has only a handful of trolls, so the tedious process of reacting on slurry comments is reduced to bare minimum. Given that the respekt.cz is an established media outlet with a steady influx of traffic and that Pavel wrote quality content and investigative analysis, the number of visitors went up steadily.

At the point of time when the number of visitors had reached a plateau, the author analysed the situation and decided to make a switch to his own blog – dvojblog.cz. The basis for the reasoning was simple. The community he was able to attract with his writing has reached a critical mass. So off he went. The question is what did he do to sustain readers’ interest from then on? He keeps supplying us with relevant data about the market and also gives his opinion on the state of affairs of the Czech digital marketing landscape. I wonder how the absolute unique visitors count and his credibility reflected this switch.

Why bother?

The most common objections against starting a blog under the heading of a big media outlet revolve around freedom of choice and control of the visual elements and coding. Perhaps there is a bit of usability ranting involved as well. Notice that none of the objections does not involve content, which is the only thing that can help to attain a bit of credibility and recognition.

Benefits of this strategy, on the other hand, are numerous – large media outlets have a well-established community around them. This creates potential for your content to shine and your voice to be heard. You are also saving time and effort by not having to build the community all by yourself. Another clear benefit is under the heading of quick wins and instant feedback. When the readers find out that you are producing content they care about, they will be active and comment, giving you more ideas for improvement.

All in all, if convenience is your focus, I deem it a good idea to start as a blogger under the heading of a major media outlet and making a switch later. However, if you are a self-made blogger desiring freedom to choose your own visual style and have control over everything from A to Z, then it’s better to download WordPress and start installing.

Image credit:  pict_u_re, elvis_payne

A friend of mine is starting a useful site for all Central Europeans aspiring to get to elite schools, like Harvard, Oxford, MIT or Cambridge. I’m helping him with some technical aspects of the project as well as with some editing.

I fell for this project because of my fondness of Tomas’s unadulterated sense for irony. He also needed a copy editor. So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome this pro bono project with a round of applause and many visits to the site.

Here comes the official news release (read: shameless self-promotion).

A new blog about prestigious education called Aspirations.cz is coming to life. Its content is made up of tips on how to get to the top U.K. and U.S. universities, as well as philosophy of education. The project is headed by Tomas Temer, a recent LSE graduate.

Tomas Temer points out that one of the main reasons for starting this project was a lack of coverage in the mainstream media dedicated to topnotch education.

When I was applying for my LSE master’s degree I couldn’t find any quality source of information relating to Central and Eastern Europe. There is almost no platform for discussion about applying to the top European and U.S. schools.

The aim of the project is to provide motivated students in the CEE region with more information about prestigious schooling. The blog will feature practical information on getting admitted to  esteemed universities and making the most of high-quality education. Commentary on the latest developments in academia will also be present.

The blog will also present theoretical posts on philosophy of western education. According to Tomas Temer, this fulfills the educational role of the blog.

The readers should not act on information without knowing the broader context of the Western style of teaching and learning. The posts filled with theory provide the readers with the necessary breadth and depth.

Great news! After opening the inbox, I have found out that CyberFootprint is going to be featured on Alltop.com. This is not only a proof that I have been doing something right, it also shows that there is a stabile community revolving around this blog. Thank you all for reading and venturing with me to the worlds of PR and career!

Dear readers,

The first year of my blogging came to an end and it is about time to revisit it from a critical perspective. This year brought many changes in my life. I finished my studies and landed a job at Mather Public Relations. Blogging has significantly contributed to this success and it helped me to be more intellectually curious and open-minded person.

When I started with CyberFootprint I had no expectations and at one point of time, ceasing all activities connected to blogging came to question.  Fortunately, I decided against that and will continue running this blog throughout the year of 2010. Without further ado, here’s what is in store for you.

What is coming to you in 2010?

Greater focus on career

As it turns out, many of you visit this blog to find some good advice relating to career. This blog, however, did not offer much of the coveted information in the recent days. It is going to change throughout the course of 2010.

More book reviews

This blog is missing a category of book reviews. I believe it can serve as a platform for opening more discussions on various topics connected to PR and communication. On a more personal note, reading is one of my passions, so I would love to share it with the attentive readers of this blog.

More thematic series

The thematic series about finding a job proved to be a fairly successful idea. For that reason, I have decided to run more of these focused on elementary practices in marketing communication and PR. Coming up at the end of February.

More frequent posts

The employment has taken its toll when it comes to frequency of posting. Hopefully, it will get better in future, as I have already acclimatised myself in the job. That means more time for posting.

Thank you very much for reading CyberFootprint and I hope you will grace this blog with your attention in the coming year of 2010.

Happy New Year!

Image credit: tetraconz