In planning an integrated PR/blogging campaign this week, I have been thinking about the role that expectations can play in gathering resources and ensuring success.

From almost the start, it's critical that the campaign's bloggers — and their peers within the organisation — have realistic expectations about:

• The time and effort that will be involved
• The level of inspiration that will be required
• How quickly they'll see results
• What those results will be

There's no magic to making this happen, just elbow grease. The first step is to ensure that your own expectations are realistic. The second is to communicate early, clearly and often with both the program's bloggers and their peers within the organisation.