Blogger Stories

Blogger Stories: Carol Krishner

Carol Krishner's story reinforces that bloggers are the nicest people. From the friend who  encouraged Carol to blog to the bloggers who generously offered advice to a new member of the blogosphere to Carol's giving back to start-up bloggers and the blog community .. it's all about the people along the way. It's also a tale about taking a risk and not worrying (too much) about the Cheeto dust on your keyboard.

Blogger Story Teller: Carol Krishner, Driving In Traffic, Psychiatric Resource Forum

The tag line for Lay's Potato chips is "You can't eat just one!" Well, I could take or leave potato chips, but the cheesy, orange-finger goodness of Cheetos is one I just can't refuse. There is no way for me to eat just one Cheeto--- see, the name doesn't even lend itself to a singular form. Blogging is a lot like that for me. I can't have just one!

In late October 2005, I launched my company's blog: Psychiatric Resource Forum after the gentle prodding and support of a very close friend, Teresa Caro.  Being a consummate marketer extraordinaire, she told me of the benefits of blogs, how it could help boost search engine position and how it could help us interact with our customers and be seen as a value added service.

Blogger Stories: Nick Jacobs

Not only did Nick Jacobs find his muse through blogging but as the "blogging" President and CEO of Windber Medical Center he is setting the gold standard for social media strategies within the healthcare profession.

I loved Nick Jacobs' response to my request about telling his blog story, "Happy to work with you on this fishing trip." Blogger Stories is rather like a fishing trip .. never know what you'll catch!

Blogger Story Teller: Nick Jacobs or Google search name: F. Nicholas Jacobs, Nick's Blog

As President and CEO of two very unique organizations, our challenge is enormous. The hospital, a unique, urban hospital 7.5 miles away from a sophisticated tertiary center in a very geographically restricted market is almost totally dependent on the local newspaper and primary television station to tell a story that is typically lost in the advertising and PR of the neighboring, larger trauma center.  Their overall annual budget is nearly a billion dollars, ours is around thirty million. 

Our other non-profit corporation is a five year old, start up research institute that is NOT connected to any major deep-pocket medical school, university or large donor.  When you combine these two organizations, their world lives at about an 80% plus failure rate with negative bottom lines and almost no opportunity to gain access through the traditional "good old boy" grant sources.  Consequently, after trying every PR and marketing tactic, the weblog presented itself as an opportunity to get the story out internationally.

One of my best friends, a very savvy octogenarian, public relations genius, Zane Knauss, former PR director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, called me last year and asked, "Why aren't you doing a blog?" Then we called our webmaster, Mike Russell at Planet Russell and asked him if he could add pictures, do the occasional edit, and put some meat to the bones of some of our stories.  He agreed, and the price was right. 

The rest, as they say, is blogstory.  We are celebrating our first anniversary this month, and, although it has taken a while to find our voice, we are finally getting a few thousand readers.