Philocrites

UUBlogs-PR: The new publicity email list for UU bloggers.

by Philocrites

Update 2.18.08: This service has been discontinued.

Are you a blogger who writes about Unitarian Universalism or for a Unitarian Universalist audience? Are you responsible for publicizing an event, product, or service of interest to Unitarian Universalists? If you fall into either of these categories, UUBlogs-PR may help you connect with resources you haven't had access to before.

UUBlogs-PR is a new Google group — a Web-based email list — for UU bloggers only. Blog authors who focus at least in part on Unitarian Universalism are welcome to join the group at UUBlogs-PR. Publicists may send announcements and press releases to the group. My hope is that a tool like this simplifies the UU publicist's job — helping her locate a wider audience in the UU community — and brings timely and relevant information to blog authors, who may find information they wish to pass along to their readers.

Learn more about UUBlogs-PR below:

How does it work?

UUBlogs-PR is a moderated, announcements-only email list. Event sponsors, book publicists, UUA staff, UUA committee chairs, and other promoters may to the list. (Follow the directions here if the preceding link doesn't open your email program.) When a publicist submits an anouncement of real interest to UU bloggers, the list moderators will approve the announcement for distribution to the group. Publicists will not have direct access to the members' names or email addresses; group members may follow up with publicists at their own discretion and may decide to opt in or out of the service at any time. The moderators will weed out spam and work to preserve the high quality of the service.

How can I join?

If you are the author of a Unitarian Universalism-related blog, you may apply for membership in the UUBlogs-PR group at Google Groups. (You will need a Google account to use this service.) When you sign up, please include the Web address of your blog in the submission form. If you forget to include your blog address, one of the moderators will need to ask you to identify your blog.

Who is moderating the group?

Paul Wilczynski — the host of UUBlogSearch, Unitarian Universalist Audio Sermons, and Paul Wilczynski's Observations — is moderating the group. (He would welcome co-moderators.) The group owner is Chris Walton, host of Philocrites.

Who will have access to my email address?

Only the group moderators will be able to see the email addresses of group members. I developed the idea for this service as a way to allow UU bloggers to be reachable without obliging them to post their contact information publicly. And although I have my own professional interest in being able to send announcements to UU bloggers — disclosure: I edit the UUA's magazine, UU World — I will not harvest your email addresses for use in any other form. I want this to be a service that helps bloggers and publicists alike.

Isn't publicity evil?

Yawn. I'm not asking bloggers to become shills. Blog only what you want to blog. I know from experience, however, that people would like to let UU bloggers know about events, programs, services, and products of interest to Unitarian Universalists, but simply don't know how to reach them. Bloggers will make up their own minds about the merits of announcements they receive, and will hopefully only write about those they consider truly valuable to their own readers.

I need help writing a good press release.

Don't we all! Here's a good article about writing press releases for the Web.

I have other questions.

Go ahead and ask them in the comments below!

Copyright © 2007 by Philocrites | Posted 19 March 2007 at 10:57 PM

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