Raymond Culpepper is Blogging

Posted on January 17, 2009 by travjohnson
Raymond Culpepper is a blogger. I dont know that hes posting from his Blackberry or anything. But, he is in the blogosphere. And, thats killer.
Ive got Dr. Culpepper listed on the left side of the MissionalCOG blog. His RSS feed should keep things updated nicely here. You can also subscribe to his blog and track him in an RSS reader. My favorite is Google Reader. It aggregates all of your blogs in one place so you dont have to skip all over the internet to see whats new. While youre at it, make sure you are subscribed to the MissionalCOG blog.
Anyway, this is a great thing…hope it shows some good heart and opens up some good interactive communication from a good leader. As of this moments, comments arent open. I think that would be a great thing if they were. But, life is busy. If the comments arent open, it will simply push discussion out into the blogosphere, which would be a good thing as well. Both types of blogs are common. Check out how these guys do it:
LEADERS WHO BLOG AND HOW THEY DO IT
Seth Godin blogs. Comments are off. Discussion takes place elsewhere with trackbacks to him. Hes responded to things Ive written in my blog. But, he doesnt leave or accept comments on his own.
Jack Hayford blogs with comments closed. They used to be open. Its generally a boss blog…not super personal…though it has been at times. As far as I know, Jack Hayford was the first denominational leader who blogged. Im impressed.
Ed Stetzer blogs. His comments are wide open. He interacts. Its personal. Hes amassing significant relational leadership currency on a broad level.
Mark Driscoll blogs. Comments used to be on. When they were, comments were moderated. Now, theyre off. Generally, whenever Mark blogs, the blogosphere goes up in flames with liberal theology guys/gals (when you can tell the difference between the two) going into anaphylactic shock.
Mark Cuban blogs. As you can see by this open letter to JR Smith, comments are wide open. 🙂 Its quite the leadership blog.
Jonathan Schwartz blogs. Schwartz is the CEO of Sun Micro Systems. Comments are open. This is considered to be one of the top CEO blogs around.
THOUGHTS ABOUT LEADERSHIP BLOGS
These are just my thoughts and dont reflect any type of research. But, if Im a leader, I would make sure I would do the following. These thoughts are certainly not only aimed toward the efforts in Cleveland to move Dr. Culpepper into the blogosphere. BUT, they are also directed at every leader that blogs or is considering it.
Influence is the new currency. If you arent influencing, you arent leading. If you arent blogging, you may not be leveraging the opportunities to do so which are so easily available to you. With that said, here are some bulleted thoughts on leadership blogs:
— Know your audience. Write to them primarily.
— Dont be a bulletin board for events. People read calendars for event planning, not blogs. If youre writing about the event, share your heart about what is meaningful about the event instead of being a cheerleader.
— Be human. Write like a human. Remove the polish and let people see your soul.
— Link to others. The blogosphere is as much about community as it is about having a platform to communicate. Its more of a conversation than it is a missive.
— Interact. While it appears that Seth Godin does his thing on his blog without giving people an opportunity to interact, he is actually pulling other articles in and commenting on other blogs. The exchange is exceptional, unexpected, and priceless.
— Break the facade. Dont show off your dirty laundry. But, do show that you are more than being about the business. When you are leading, you run the risk of putting on a face that is always advancing the cause. Let people see behind the curtain and you will win a piece of their heart.
Now, on winning the heart, I would say that Dr. Culpeppers simple move of starting a blog has already won a little piece of mine.
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