There are a handful of personal blogs that I read pretty faithfully.  They give a birds-eye view of an individual, a family and the situations they deal with.

Some are a daily script of their everyday life and others have been given special circumstances to deal with like this young mom, Morgan, whose son was born with Downs Syndrome.  The blog, Learning From Bear, is a transparent account of dealing with issues relating to their son and sharing what they learn.

Their story is a positive testimony from a committed and focused couple.

Do you have any favorite personal blogs that you can share along with the reasons that you like them?

A wine guy from New Jersey provides the template for how potential public relations nightmares can be turned into a positive through the use of social media, including blogs, and by being transparent and truthful.

Gary Vaynerchuk who has brought wine appreciation to the masses with his Wine Library TV podcast and who has grown a family wine store into a $60 million business faced a potential PR disaster when his community wine review site-Cork’d-was hacked by an adult site.

In this video, he describes his response.  It serves as a real life pattern for anybody dealing with touchy situations that could go sour with plenty of backwash and potential for damage.  Those who could benefit would be politicians, pastors, business people and anybody else in the public eye.

Notice how he jumped on the problem and got his wine community informed and how they mobilized to help him deal with the problem.

Are you on Twitter?

Thinking about getting on Twitter?

Looking for Twitter connections?

For an example of a business person who’s providing good information to a growing national network, check out my friend David Porter, a retired mortgage broker, who has been coaching mortgage brokers trying to build and rebuild their businesses in this challenged economy.

He’s a person of integrity and set the bar high for ethics when he had his mortgage practice here in mid-Michigan.

His Twitter address: http://twitter.com/MtgBrokerCoach

I really like the blog written by Eden Prairie (MN) City Manager Scott Neal. He has been consistent in keeping his residents informed.  Because I live a few states away, I wonder if the locals find his blog useful.

In our city, we don’t have a city manager, but we have a full-time mayor.  I wish he would write a blog with the same level of transparency and news.

What about the city council members of Eden Prairie?  Do any of them blog?

Are there other examples of city managers or city council members around the country blogging?

UPDATED:  Because I feel Scott Neal’s blog is worth follow as an example of good blogging, I’ve linked to it in the right margin under the category Blog Examples.

In the blog and social media world, building a community has become a buzzword.

What does this mean for the average person who just wants to start a blog for any of a number of reasons? It could be a classroom teacher, a pastor, a state legislator, a auto repair shop owner, a local real estate agent, a mortgage broker or a lobbyist at the state capitol.

Move away from the computer for a few minutes and think about the people involved in your world.  For instance, you are a state legislator.  Who would those people be?  Homeowners.  Senior citizens.  Teachers.  Young parents.  Grandparents.  Auto workers.  Bankers.  Local officials.  You get the drift.

Another way of thinking about it: I have a friend on the east side of our state who is a community leader.  He’s a former city council member and a former state legislator.  When he walked into one of the local coffeeshops, he would need an hour to get to the front door to pay for his hamburg and chili.

He would be stopped going from booth to booth and table to table with people who knew him making comments and asking questions.  There was some real communication taking place.  He would take some notes as would the people he would be talking with.

This was his community or part of it.

The same applies to your blog.  You intentionally use it to build your community.  You’re sharing the same things that would share going through the local coffeeshop.

You would let your community know that you have the blog and invite them to visit it and to leave comments.  And when they did you would comment back.  Pretty soon your community expands.

Now this is an over simplification.  What if your community is nationwide?  What if your community is real estate agents around the country?

I share more thoughts down the line.