The document provides tips and guidelines for effective blogging and using social media. It reminds bloggers that posts remain searchable indefinitely, to consider their tone and transparency. It also lists questions to consider when responding to negative posts. The document then discusses using RSS feeds to follow blogs and lists several corporate, CSR, news and fashion blogs as good examples to follow.

1. Symposium, April 26th, 2010 Atlanta
Retail / Consumer Products Breakout Session
End the Pain! Make Social Media Work!
Blogging Tips
Reminders about the basics:
• Posts live forever in search engines
• Envision your comment on the cover of the New York Times
• Don’t practice “astroturfing” (glossing over reality, whitewashing or green washing)
• Silence isn’t always golden, but sometimes it is
• Communities are self correcting
• Censorship stinks
Questions to ask yourself when responding to a negative post:
• Am I offering opinions and invitations - not just information?
• Am I including visuals?
• Am I relating the content to my audience?
• Am I giving credit where it’s due (for original thoughts, photos, news, and so on)?
• Am I linking to content that should be associated with our brand?
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2. Reading Social Media
(courtesy of Edelman Digital PR Agency)
Using RSS to Get Tailored Blog Feeds
• Step one: Register for a reader, for example www.google.com/reader
• Step two: On a favorite blog, click on this sign to obtain and copy the URL for its RSS feed
• Step three: Click on the “Add a subscription” button on your Google Reader and enter
the URL for your favorite blog’s RSS feed
Social Media sites that panelists currently support:
• http:/s/forums.nike.com/category.jspa?categoryID=3
• http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikerunning_news-en_US/
• http://www.twitter.com/MacysInc
• http://www.facebook.com/Macys
• http://getsatisfaction.com/levis
• http://www.facebook.com/Levis
• http://www.jockey.com/en-US/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?
CS_ProductID=8351&CS_Category=T-Shirts&CS_Catalog=Men&List=15#PRtab
• http://blog.jockey.com/
• http://www.facebook.com/Jockey
• http://twitter.com/jockey
• http://www.facebook.com/gillyhicks
• http://www.facebook.com/hollister
• http://www.facebook.com/abercrombie
Good Blogs to Read:
• Exemplary corporate blogs
• http://www.blogsouthwest.com/- Southwest’s corporate blog
• http://blog.us.playstation.com/ - Playstation’s corporate blog
• http://www.thefordstory.com/ - Ford’s corporate blog
• http://www.energytomorrow.org/ - API’s corporate blog
• http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ - Google corporate blog
• http://ebayinkblog.com/ - eBay’s corporate blog
• http://1000words.kodak.com/ - Kodak’s corporate blog
• http://boeingblogs.com/randy/ - Boeing’s corporate blog
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3. • CSR/sustainability blogs
• http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/ - NYT Green Inc. blog
• http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/csr.html - McDonald’s CSR blog
• http://www.celsias.com/- sustainability blog
• http://www.ecogeek.org/ - sustainability blog
• http://earthkeeper.com/blog/ - sustainability blog
• http://www.good.is/series/blog - Good Magazine’s sustainability blog
• http://www.inhabitat.com/ - sustainability blog
• http://www.treehugger.com/ - sustainability blog
• News and thought leadership blogs
• http://www.fastcompany.com/ - Fast Company
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ - Huffington Post
• http://blog.ted.com/ - Ted blog
• Fashion/lifestyle blogs
• http://www.wwd.com/fashion-blogs/?module=tn – WWD blogs
• http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ - fashion blog
• http://www.denimology.co.uk/ - fashion blog
• http://blog.urbanoutfitters.com/ - Urban Outfitters’ blog
• http://universalmusic.tumblr.com/ - Universal Music’s blog
• http://www.americanapparel.net/presscenter/dailyupdate/ - American Apparel’s blog
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