best blogs – Pathway Communications

Best Selling Higher Education Author Lynn O’Shaughnessy to Provide Advice on How to Evaluate Colleges #CollegeChat May 15th

Theresa Smith — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:52:23 +0000

O’Shaughnessy to discuss advice from her new book “The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right price (2^nd Edition)

Lynn O’Shaughnessy, a bestselling author and higher education journalist, will share advice from her newly published book The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price (2nd Edition) during #CollegeChat on Twitter, May 15, 2012 at 9 p.m. Eastern.

O’Shaughnessy wrote the second edition of her book “so you too can become an empowered consumer.” During #Collegechat, O’Shaughnessy, https://twitter.com/#!/collegeblogs , will discuss key information parents and students need to know including:

What are the biggest sources of college money.
How can you increase your chances of qualifying for merit scholarships.
How you can evaluate the generosity of a school before applying.
Where to find the best online tools to evaluate colleges.
What do families of divorce need to know about financial aid.
What are a teen’s options if he/she does poorly on the ACT or SAT.
What is the real story behind athletic scholarships.

About Lynn O’Shaughnessy

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is a nationally recognized higher-ed author, journalist, and speaker. She is the author of numerous books including her Amazon bestseller: The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price. She also wrote Shrinking the Cost of College, a workbook available only on her website, that helps families make smart and affordable college choices. O’Shaughnessy writes frequently about college issues for her CBS MoneyWatch column and for her popular college blog TheCollegeSolution.com. O’Shaughnessy is the consulting director of college planning, K-12, at the University of California, San Diego Extension. She is also a frequent speaker on how families can find and afford great schools.

About #CollegeChat

#CollegeChat is a live bi-monthly conversation intended for teens, college students, parents, and higher education experts on Twitter. #CollegeChat takes place on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET. Questions for each #CollegeChat edition can be sent to Theresa Smith, the moderator of #CollegeChat via http://Twitter.com/collegechat, by entering questions online on the CollegeChat Facebook page or by email. More detailed information about signing up for Twitter and participating in #Collegechat can be found at http://pathwaypr.com/how-to-participate-in-a-twitter-chat

Business Insider: Top Social Media Blogs

Theresa Smith — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:06:19 +0000

Who knew Bill Gross has a blog?

Theresa Smith — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:10:44 +0000

photo credit: Bert K

Who knew that Idealab founder Bill Gross has a blog? I didn’t and I have had a technology crush on Gross since he founded Idealab back in 1996 to “create and operate pioneering technology companies.” Gross has been blogging since 2008 and his most current entry “Ted 2010 in 100 Tweets” provides readers with an insider look at the feel of the conference.

This has been a busy week for Gross. On Monday Idealab’s company Tweetup announced a new Twitter marketplace designed to showcase the world’s best tweeters and enable them to grow a highly targeted following. According to Gross:

“Twitter has such tremendous potential as a real-time information network far beyond what has been realized to date. For most people, though, 80% or more of the tweets that fly by them when they’re searching for something are useless noise. For serious tweeters, the task of attracting interested and relevant followers is equally daunting. TweetUp will change all of that.”

TweetUp is just another example of Gross leading with innovation.

Who Makes the List of the Top 20 VC Bloggers

Theresa Smith — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:48:11 +0000

Larry Cheng, a partner of Fidelity Ventures, has been keeping tabs on the top 100 VC bloggers since May, according to TechCrunch writer Erick Schonfeld. Cheng’s methogology is based on how many subscribers each VC has on Google Reader. You can see the entire top 100 VC’s here on Cheng’s blog, Thinking about Thinking. Note–Cheng’s own blog comes in at number 71.

photo credit: deneyterrio

The top 20 VC blogs follow.

Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures, How To Change The World (24,356)
Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, A VC (21,881)
Paul Graham, YCombinator, Paul Graham: Essays (16,721)
Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital, Above The Crowd (8,897)
David Hornik, August Capital, VentureBlog (8,037)
Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Feld Thoughts (7,543)
Marc Andreesen, TBD, Blog.pmarca.com (5,727)
Ed Sim, Dawntreader Ventures, Beyond VC (4,162)
Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital, Redeye VC (4,071)
Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Ventures Partners, LSVP (3,512)
Seth Levine, Foundry Group, VC Adventure (1,569)
David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners, Who Has Time For This? (1,526)
Christopher Allen, Alacrity Ventures, Life With Alacrity (1,419)
Dave McClure, Founders Fund, Master of 500 Hats (1,417)
Multiple Authors, Union Square Ventures, Union Square Ventures Blog (1,365)
Peter Rip, Crosslink Capital, EarlyStageVC (1,107)
Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, The Post Money Value (1,043)
Mike Hirshland, Polaris Venture Partners, VC Mike’s Blog (1,038)
Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Capital Partners, Seeing Both Sides (1,018)
Mendelson/Feld, Foundry Group, Ask The VC (1,017)

Should Your CEO Have a Blog?

Theresa Smith — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:44:45 +0000

One of the central questions to ask when developing a social media strategy is whether the CEO of your company should have a blog. In Klaus Kneale’s article “CEOs Say: how to Be An Executive Blogger” on Forbes.com, Kneale takes a look at the art of CEO blogging and what it takes to get blogging right. The sub heading of Kneale’s article, “The Blogosphere can be a Minefield for Unprepared CEOs”, strikes at the heart of whether your CEO should be blogging.

photo credit: whiteafrican

Kneale writes about Donato Montaro JR., chief executive officer of TradeKing, an online discount brokerage. Monato was an early adopter of blogging and has taken some steps to make sure he is getting his corporate blogging right. One of the steps he has taken was hiring a director of online content whose job is to ensure that “everything on the TradeKing Web site is clean, accurate and consistent with the company’s values. Including her boss’s online persona.”

Kneale reports:

But you’ve got to do it right or you shouldn’t be doing it at all. How do you do it right? It’s an open secret of corporate communications that many e-mails from CEOs aren’t actually written by CEOs. As social media take off in the corporate world, that’s not true only of e-mails. Blogs, too. Montanaro is ahead of the game in this. He has Jude Stewart draft blog posts for him (not all of them), based on meetings they have. Montanaro edits the drafts to make sure they sound like him and to add details Stewart didn’t have.

He’s careful about what he posts, too. His blog contains bits about spearfishing in the Bahamas, but it also is kept in line with the company’s marketing and customer service strategy and any legal regulations. CEOs always have to keep such things in mind when blogging.

If your CEO decides he is interested in starting a blog, there are other items he also needs to consider. Legal for one. The company needs to decide what role legal counsel will play. Will the CEO run all his posts through legal before publishing? Will the CEO coordinate with marketing and public relations about the message? How many hands will actually be involved? How will the company coordinate the publishing of each blog with its overall social media strategy? Will your CEO have an editorial calendar in place that can keep him on track?

Finally, Kneale writes that once everyone is on the same page –what becomes most crucial to the success of your CEOs blog are the headlines. “The best way to get your blog posts spreading to Facebook, Twitter, Digg and e-mail, and ultimately getting read, is by having good headlines.”

Is your CEO blogging?