Writing for blogs induction given to Amnesty CC's and Network volunteers at Amnesty UK

1. Writing for blogs
Blogging for human rights
impact

2. Why blog?
Expected & understood format
Up-to-date
Matches our content
Easy to use
Personal & Flexible
Provides a space for supporters to
feedback
Can be more personal
Another way to reach and educate our
audiences

3. Some inspiration

4. Some inspiration

5. Quiz time
Blog, press release or news article?

6. 100 Major Charities Launch Joint Campaign To Tackle
Hunger Trap
Hunger and malnutrition in childhood will trap almost a billion young people in
poverty by 2025, according to a major new campaign, launched today by Britain’s
leading development charities and faith groups. ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF’ is
the largest coalition of its kind in the UK since Make Poverty History in 2005.
What if… a little goes a long way
In spite of the cold January evening, hundreds people came to Somerset House last
night to help launch the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign. I was there.
I’m familiar with the campaign, and this wasn’t the first event of this kind I’d been to.
Yet last night, I felt more excited about what we could achieve by working with other
charities, and because of people who might get involved in a campaign like this for
the first time.
Anti-hunger campaign 'If' launches with call for G8 to act
A coalition of 100 UK development charities and faith groups will on Wednesday
launch a major campaign to lobby David Cameron, the prime minister, to use
Britain's presidency of the G8 to leverage action on ending global hunger.

7. Blogging – make it current

8. Blogging – make it current

9. Blogging – tell a story

10. Blogging – it’s OK to have a little fun!

11. Blogging is now a key part of our
campaigns

12. Writing: the basics
• Short – about 500 words
• Concise, active language
– ‘a hit b’, not ‘B was hit by A’
• Personal – blogging should show a personality
• A jargon-free zone
• Break up text – consider subheadings or bullets
and use short paragraphs
• Clear title
• Don’t be coy about calls to action
• Images and videos are great!

13. Writing: make it easy to read
• DON’T WRITE TITLES OR SECTIONS IN ALL-CAPS
• Copy newspapers in their approach
– A clear, simple title
– Get your key points across in the top paragraphs
– Go into more detail further down
• Don’t use internal jargon (Amnesty not AI)
• Speak to your reader directly (hundreds of you
wrote… not Amnesty members wrote…)
• Put yourself in the readers’ shoes – what inspires you
to read about subjects you’re not an expert in?

14. Writing: links in your blog
• Link to other sources often
– Other blogs on the subject – written by you, us or others.
– News items
– Background on the AIUK or IS website
– Actions
• Link the important phrases:
– Join our call for clemency not
we’re calling for clemency, click here to take action.
• Avoid linking general phrases
– Click here
– Read this
– Find out more

15. Blog titles
• Keep titles clear, concise and interesting
• Make it findable – use words in your title that people
might use in Google to search:
– 20,674 reasons to bring Shaker Aamer home from
Guantanamo
– The secret world of Uganda’s LGBT activists
– California remains on death row
• Be careful with puns
Search engines won’t understand them, and readers scan
things very quickly – they might not get it.

16. Check your working!
• Stay credible – check your grammar and spelling
– No Americanizations
– It’s easy to lose flow as you edit your post, read it back and
check
– Get someone else to proof-read, it’s very hard to spot your
own mistakes
• Aim to use 50% of your time to write 90% of the post,
and 50% to polish it
• Check again – is it engaging?

17. Amnesty International
Try it yourselves
Can you write a short, interesting blog about…?
In your groups:
- Plan out your blog – what will you cover?
- Write an opening paragraph
- Identify the jargon you’d need to explain
- And lastly, think of a title

18. Get your story out: social media

19. Social media
Short word limits
You can’t post the full story – treat
social media as ‘headline’ space
Be generous
Post blogs from the IS, US, etc,
news stories and blogs from
Networks/other CCs
Have a conversation!
Reply to people that ask you
questions or post comments
Pass people to us if you can’t
answer

20. Get your story out
Make sure your logo is
understandable
Retweet other
respected accounts
Repy to users – or refer
them to us
Share AIUK updates

21. • Zeke Johnson, AI USA
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/author/zeke-johnson/
• C4 Factcheck blog
http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck
• 1 Crown Office Row HR blog
http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/
• Amnesty USA Country Specialist blogs
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/
• The Buffer blog
http://blog.bufferapp.com/
Blogging inspiration

22. • Contact Jeni & Emerson with your
blogging ideas
• We’ll help with suggestions on your first
few blog
• We’ll publish your first blogs on your
behalf
• After you’ve written 2-3 blogs, and feel
comfortable publishing yourself, we’ll
give you access to blog directly.
Start blogging