Heal: Living Well after Cancer--Blog

The new magazine, Heal: Living Well after Cancer has brought forth the idea of setting up a blog to help spread information as well as spread the word on the magazine. It will be set up as a place for those who have had cancer, as well as those who have not, to learn how to live well after surviving cancer. The magazine is a spin off of Cure Magazine, a publication focused on informing and communicating with those who are currently battling cancer. Neither of the two magazines currently has a working blog nor any way for readers to create a forum for conversation about cancer and its effects. This blog must be set up simply to allow the average blogger to respond and give their opinions or insights on cancer research, treatment and or the life of a cancer patient in remission. Additionally, this blog can be a leeway into other blogs or sites dealing with the same issues. While this blog will act as a community forum for anyone to discuss or share ideas about cancer, it needs to make sure that it is not simply an advertisement for Heal or Cure. This is vital because people trust other people, not companies that they see are out to earn more money through indirect advertising.

The blog should be set up in a way that the readers and bloggers can not only easily access the sidebars; they need to also make it easy to access other blogs and sites that are focused on cancer. The sidebars are the key element to this blog because it will direct traffic to areas the blogger wants to focus on. One possible side bar could be something called “The Doctor’s Corner,” where bloggers can ask questions to an MD and receive well informed answers. This sidebar could be updated weekly by a doctor with tips and facts on living well post cancer with certain questions answered each week. If possible, a well known doctor will draw much attention to this sidebar adding to its credibility. The next possible sidebar topic could be called “The Mind, Body and Spirit,” where an expert could chime in with tips on how to maintain an all around healthy lifestyle. I think this sidebar should be split into two groups, one for women and another for men giving each gender an equal opportunity to learn and share facts that only pertain to their situation. This sidebar can also act as the spiritual aspect adding to the mental and physical health elements. I believe the site should have more than three sidebars for gathering and sharing information, but my suggestion for the next side bar would be a link called “Testimonials.” This sidebar will allow anyone to share their stories about being in remission and how it has affected their lives. This may be the most important aspect to the blog because as I stated before, people will listen to others who have shared a similar experience.

The goal of this site should be to help those who are in remission, but they also need to align themselves with some other sites in order to create awareness and more insightful information. To visit Heal Magazine go to http://healtoday.com. Here is a list of other blogs that could fill this role (and by no means is this exhaustive):
- www.BlogForACure.com
- www.Thecancerblog.com
- www.Stop-cancer.blogspot.com
- www.Medicineworld.org/cancer/cancer-blogs-list.html
- www.Scotthousehold.com
- www.Cancer-news-watch.com/2005/11/03/debuting-a-few-new-blogs/

Blogging as the New PR Tool

Blogging is defined as "a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links" according to marketingterms.com. It is most clearly understood as a mixture of one's personal thoughts and current events or reactions to certain happenings on the web. These blogs offer personal reference on these events and invite others to respond to the bloggings. It seems to be a more effective way of information dissemination through word of mouth where bloggers who trust each other can learn and react to others.

The emergence of blogging as a tool for public relations is a new and effective way for companies to reach the public on an individual basis. Before blogging became a norm, the old public relations strategies seem more or less barbaric. Meaning, reaching the public was an impersonal experience where these large firms used other large firms to inform the public of products and information. This old form consisted of press releases where someone would produce a highly scrutinized piece of information and send it out to newspapers just hoping that a reporter would pick up on the event or news worthy story. The Internet has produced a new and effective way of displaying and transferring information for every individual. While there are countless ways in which the Internet can produce this vital information, blogging is one of those ways and is something that is growing at a rapid pace. The website www.searchenginejournal.com has put it best by saying that blogging is this "new form of communication is an oxymoron; mass intimacy." Essentially, blogging is "mass intimacy" because it is an individual's personal idea or thought displayed for anyone with Internet access to view.

A good example of how the old trend of press releases has seen its match was when Google hired Vint Cerf as Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist in 2005. The day of the hiring Google could have very easily sent out a mass press release to every major newspaper in the world with a guarantee that it would have been reported on. However, they went a very different way and Cerf himself posted on a blog about his position and his excitement about the job. While 2005 was not too long ago, it was still early in the era of blogging and Vint Cerf put the Google bloggings on the map (by the way the blogging post was called Cerf's Up at Google!)

Companies are not just using blogging to introduce new CEOs, CFOs and the like, these companies are also using blogs to announce new products as well as acting as spin doctors on certain issues. Yahoo has been using their blog, the Yahoo Search Blog, to announce new aspects to their search engine website such as Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Search. The idea behind using these bloggings as opposed to the traditional press releases is that once someone sees the new tool on the Yahoo Search Blog they can go to it right from the website without having to change websites (even though typing in a new URL does not seem hard, we Americans like things easy and Yahoo has certainly been aiding us with that). Additionally, Yahoo has been using their blog to respond to some criticism over certain aspects of their site. Instead of directly responding to these criticisms, Yahoo has been posting about what they are doing to improve their quality and development of new ideas. This way the company can guide the readers and use it as another tool for Public Relations.

This new concept is the latest in the Public Relations field and is something that everyone involved in the PR industry should learn about. In fact, it is just another way in which the PR world can reach the American public and may also be a more reliable source for consumers. The idea that someone can learn about an event or product from someone with firsthand experience helps with dependability. As this is such a new concept, it is fun that we are all learning about this great new tool together.

Welcome

The idea of media and public relations is seeing a complete change in our world of the internt and the ability to be in constant contact with someone else no matter where in the world they are. With the easy-to-use internet publishing tools, constant connections and powerful mobil devices, the online spectators have become the active participants and even the source for news and information. The idea of this blog is to disseminate that information and produce suggestions for improving ones ability to find and use public relations information for the future.