It’s officially 2010! And with a new year comes new goals for everyone, whether they come in the form of resolutions or not. One of my resolutions is to learn everything I can in this upcoming year, because I want to be smarter. Not just smarter at trivia or random questions, but smarter in my job, my life and especially smarter in my blog.
The good news is that blogging actually makes you smarter. Just ask Bill Powers, President of the University of Texas. Ever since I was a student Powers has sent out an email to students, alumni and faculty calling attention to important topics regarding life at Texas. This one-way method of communication worked out great for Powers, but it didn’t really make him any smarter about what his community was thinking. He said his piece and then he was done, but he was wasting his time.
Which is why I was so excited on December 20th to see that Powers was going to move from email to a blog called Tower Talk.
Powers wrote his first post, a happy holidays letter, and received 65 comments. The comments were not wishing him a great holiday season, but every single one was asking for an explanation about why Mack Brown got a huge pay raise at the end of this season.
Did Powers even know that his community wanted him to explain himself? Probably not, because they did not have any way to communicate with him before his blog. Powers had not idea what he was supposed to be talking about, but blogging has made him smarter.
Three days later Power’s next post was on a self-sustaining athletics program. He defended Mack Brown’s raise, and explained how athletics works at UT. And the best part? His last line, “Thank you for your input. Dialogue is what this blog is all about.”
Being President of a University, especially one as large as Texas, requires that you be perfectly in tune with your entire community of supporters and critics. Blogging makes you smarter and helps you listen to and respond to your community. It may not be a detailed social media plan where Powers listens and responds to every person who has a comment, but it’s definitely a start. Blogging will make Powers smarter in 2010, and I hope my blog will do the same for me.
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