This week's Blogger of the Week, Skip Reardon, blogs at our MyVenturepad community, which focuses on issues that concern small and midsized companies. (Check it out and if your stuff fits, add your feed.  Same login and password you use here.)   A graduate of Bowling Green Univeristy, which upset mighty Pittsburgh in the season opener on Saturday, Skip has been a senior software executive for nearly 30 years--the past three years as Director of Public Relations and Branding for Six Disciplines Corp., developer of the first complete strategy execution program for small and midsized businesses.  Before that he was responsible for industry analyst relations with a little company called Microsoft.  When it comes to social media, he's a believer.

“Blogging is no longer a fad – it’s truly a great communication tool – not just from a public relations perspective, but from a two-way marketing research perspective as well.  It’s a great way to create buzz for new products and services, and the relationships you can build in the blogging community are some of the strongest you can have – even though many times, they’re only ‘virtual.’

Skip authors and moderates the popular Be Excellent blog, which offers insights and advice to small business CEOs and leaders on topics of leadership, strategy, execution, accountability, change management, and continual performance improvement. He has been writing this blog since it began operating in July 2005. It now has over 1,400 posts, and has thousands of readers monthly.

"I’d recommend blogging and getting more knowledgeable about social media to all small business marketers – it’s one of the best marketing returns on investment you can get," he says.

When he's not blogging, Skip plays a mean blues guitar.