One of the truly brilliant aspects of blogging is the ability to put humans into a place where previously no humans existed. I bet that if you ask practically any average traveler today whether or not there are actual humans working at the TSA, most of them will say “probably not.”
In several months, that number will be lower. Jake McKee, an outstanding community guy and a speaker at our last Web Community Forum conference, posted about the TSA blog’s launch today.
He has some good advice for the budding bloggers over at the TSA:
Introduce the team and the objective
A blog is a conversation and the first step in a conversation is an introduction. Before you jump into the content, introduce the concept of the blog, introduce the team members we’ll be hearing from. What do they do? Where do they work? What’s their background? Why is the blog titled “Evolution of Security”?
This is a really good point. I think that a lot of what the TSA is trying to do with this blog is get some sort of a human connection between travelers and what has traditionally been a faceless government entity with terrible marketing.
In order to accomplish that, they’re going to need to make sure we know who’s blogging. Some of that should certainly be some introductory posts.
I disagree with Jake about jumping into the content - I generally don’t think there’s any reason to hold out on good content if you’ve got it ready to go, but there’s no reason you can’t sprinkle the blog with some self-reflection.
A blog isn’t going to fix everything of course - people are still going to have bad experiences at the airport, and not every TSA employee is going to be nice to every passenger, but if the blog helps travelers walk into the security line with a more tolerant attitude, it could make things go more smoothly for everyone.
In any case, it’s good that the TSA is blogging. I’m sure they’ll learn quickly.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Jake McKee 02.05.08 at 7:00 pm
Jason, thanks for the linkage.
To the point of disagreement, I don’t actually think we’re disagreeing. Yes, certainly you can and should sprinkle self-reflection, as you put it. And I certainly think you can jump right ino the content.
These aren’t either/or choices, it’s an issue of refinement. Any good conversation starts with an introduction. Who am I talking to, where are they coming from, why do they want to talk to me. This takes just a few minutes, but can set the tone in a vastly better way than simply jumping into the content without context or clarity of direction.
Julie, writer surefirewealth.com 02.06.08 at 1:50 am
It’s amazing how humanizing blogs can be. I think this is a good move for the department of transportation because blogs enable them to reach out quicker and more effectively. Of course, this also allows the people to reach back just as efficiently. Maybe more organizations and companies should try taking the blog route. It is the year 2008 after all.
Jason Preston 02.06.08 at 12:12 pm
True, Jake. I retract them fightin’ words