The Launch of the Blogomarsh

No, you are not hallucinating. You are actually reading MY blog--the blog of Marsha Kelly. Yes, I know, I was the last living Luddite. I clung to my IBM Selectric like a drowning man to Pamela Anderson until 1988, when my good friend and ex-boss, then Minnesota Lt. Gov. Marlene Johnson, pried my desperate fingers from the typewriter and locked me in the basement of her Capitol office until I learned how to produce speeches and news releases on a PC. I resisted cell phones until 1995. I resisted e-mail until 1996. Even as recently as this year, when others tried to "friend" me on Facebook or LinkedIn, I politely declined, citing privacy concerns. Who wanted to be bothered with all those e-mails from strangers? Duh.

Then I started thinking about my clients. The folks who pay me to help them put their best foot (feet??) forward, not just in the traditional mainstream media but, increasingly, on the internet. Every day, it became clearer that my clients were being affected, both positively and negatively, by online communications--blogs, social networks, podcasts, YouTube, etc. I started feeling about as outdated as my white patent leather go-go boots.

So when I received an e-mail from PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) about a March 11-12 conference on social media for communicators, I jumped at the opportunity. And boy, am I glad I did.

I understand so much better now the kind of benefits a strong social media program can offer my clients. This conference, which was co-sponsored by PRSA and Ragan Communications, was a goldmine of information on how to use these new technologies to support their strategic communications objectives. In every session, as I listened, my mind was racing at warp speed (well, warp speed for ME anyway), identifying ways to apply these principles to my clients' business as well as my own. I guess you could say I drank the Kool-Aid.

Now I'm trying to learn something every day about all these amazing new vehicles for communication. I've become a Twitterer (Tweeter? Tweetee? Twit??) I've set up this blog, separate from my business website so that I can cover a broad range of topics. And I'm on my way to Facebook even as we speak.

So welcome to the Blogomarsh...and stay tuned. Hopefully, reading about my evolution from dinosaur to social media wiz will inspire you to get in touch...and I guess that's the bottom line.