We have asked some of our friends and colleagues who attended technology and new media conference South By Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) to share their highlights and takeaways from the conference, which wrapped up earlier this week.

Today we share the second part (of four) by guest correspondent Susan Bratton:

Blogging and Reputation Tracking:

Blogging was a core conversation with Rohit Bhargava, Henry Jenkins and Dave Taylor, who all consider it tremendously important in the corporate social sphere.

Dave’s tips on how to stay current in the blogosphere are particularly helpful:

• First, he uses an online reputation keyword tracking tool called Filtrbox. [I use Trackur.] Many simply use Google Alerts. If a blogger is writing about one of Dave’s key areas of focus, he comments on the blog to “stay active in conversations.”
• Secondly, he recommends bookmarking http://search.twitter.com in your browser, so that each time you visit the page, perhaps once a week, it displays updated search results for all the keywords you track. Dave builds a search query into the search box that integrates all of his key phrases. He suggests using quotes around each of the words or phrases you want to track. Then he encourages you to incorporate capital O, capital R, as an ‘OR’ statement — you have to use it in CAPS. This accurately delivers results for the conversations about which you want your perspective included. See who’s saying what and jump into the fray.

Rohit Bhargava underscored the importance of having a corporate blog that is contributed to by many voices from within the organization. It showcases the range of [your company’s] expertise, and keeps the blog fresh – a vital attribute for keeping an audience coming back for more.

Dave Taylor also cautioned against relying on one person to consider diversifying – remember when Scoble left Microsoft? Now who do you associate with MSFT? Can you name anyone?

And instead of assuming your corporate communications person should “own” your company’s social persona, Rohit counsels his clients to award the opportunity to people within the organization who are passionate about social media. Creating a communication platform is a marathon, not a sprint, so make sure those responsible for “radiating the conversation” have the appetite (and endurance) to do so, for a very long time.

MIT’s Henry Jenkins, being a prolific thinker and writer, also lauded blogging as “the best platform for communicating deep discussion,” and uses it to “stay relevant” between publication of his books. (He has nine and counting.)

In the next installment, we’ll look at what the experts have to say about social networks and online communities.

Guest correspondent Susan Bratton is the CEO of the Personal Life Media network. I know her through the time I spent on the board of the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM), where Susan is Vice-President of the organization. She was also instrumental in setting internet advertising standards in helping create the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Susan’s interviews will also be blogged by Aaron Strout, CMO of Powered here.