A presentation for Community Media Workshop's Making Media Connections Conference created with Stephen Franklin. Steve's a spiritual guy, thus the presentation name change to Nirvana. :) He provides lots of great examples of nonprofit blogs. The technical insights come from me. :)
3. Today’s goals
1. Explore what makes compelling blog content
2. Learn technical best practices
3. Discover new strategies, tools to engage the
audience
4. Discuss pitfalls, how to avoid/address them
4. WHY Blog?
• More content on the web
– Improve search engine rankings
– Fosters awareness of your cause
– Positions you as a thought leader
10. This is more than just typing
• http://chicagoistheworld.org
• http://chicagoistheworld/org/notalone/
• http://Stevebey.wordpress.com
• http://newmediamarissa.wordpress.com
13. Some basic basics basically
• Post often. Daily, yes. But not too often
• Think visually. Words and photos and videos
• Write for the eye –
• STAGGER GRAPHS-LONG, SHORT-QUESTIONS-
AVOID TYPE TYPE TYPE
• USE SUB HEADS
• KEY ISSUES UP HIGH
• SUMMARIZE QUICKLY
• WRITE TIGHTLY – COUNT YOUR WORDS
14. MORE BASICS BASICALLY
• Avoid jargon. Avoid legalese. Avoid being
boring
• Write – think positively, not passively
• Don’t explain everything thing – focus on your
issues
• Change voices – you tense, we tense, I am
thinking
• Experiment. Break these foolish rules
16. Imaginative
• Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bababaBlah blah
blah blah blah blah blah bababa
• Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bababa
• Don’t Stop. It gets better!
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bababa
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bababa
• We are almost to the Good Part.
• Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bababa
• Here’s the main point, finally
• Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bababa
17. You are multi-media too
• Change your approach. Think music, videos
– http://oxfam.org.uk/blogs/2012/05/emily-rose-
barnes-video
• Think literature:
– http://blr.med.nyu.edu/
• Think story-telling
– http://www.edwize.org/
18. Talk to me – Diga mi
• beg, plead, encourage comments-moderate
lightly-don’t fear controversy-don’t enrage for no
purpose
• invite guests to post
• run ‘projects’ – nuestrascommunidades
• thank followers, ask their thoughts
• using polls and surveys
• inviting readers to email
suggestions/questions/photos/videos/audios
• stay flexible
19. Telling your story
• You are a voice that is
trusted, respected, complete….But how?
• Give all sides, including negative views and those
you don’t believe. Explain why you don’t believe
them.
• Avoid gossip. Avoid innuendo. Avoid incomplete
explanations.
• Perform in a timely way
• Offer links, resources, don’t violate copyright
20. Speaking from your heart
• Bloggers Without Borders...
Syria is a beautiful country- at least I think it is. I say “I think”
because while I perceive it to be beautiful, I sometimes wonder if I
mistake safety, security and normalcy for ‘beauty’. In so many
ways, Damascus is like Baghdad before the war- bustling
streets, occasional traffic jams, markets seemingly always full of
shoppers… And in so many ways it’s different. The buildings are
higher, the streets are generally narrower and there’s a
mountain, Qasiyoun, that looms in the distance.
21. Let your story unwind
• http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/lif
e-interrupted-the-beat-goes-on/
• Other times, you hear nothing at all. In some ways, the
diverse noises of a hospital — however annoying —
remind us that the hospital “machine” is in healthy
operation. It’s the silent moments, the hollow sounds of
quiet suffering, that can be most frightening.
22. Words Can Bury us
• We want eyes to move and they do on a blog.
They skip and they scan. Keep that in mind
• What do we think about this blog?
• http://www.whydev.org/should-aid-workers-
live-comfortable-lives/
•
23. We’ll come back to these. Maybe
• Notice the use of art and space. What else do
you like about this blog?
• http://www.ccmu.org/
• So what’s missing here?
http://blog.feedingamerica.org/
•
24. Inspiring
• Almost there?
http://bloom-
parentingkidswithdisabilities.blogspot.com/
What do we know about this blog?
Please focus on this picture. Is this better? Why?
ttp://blog.worldvision.org/
25. Many faces and stories
• Introducing different voices
• http://www.ssireview.org/blog/category/inter
view
• Notice the links and resources
• http://www.citizenorange.com/orange/
• Innovative?
• http://lauramartinez.wordpress.com/
26. You and everyone together
• http://blogs.volunteermatch.org/engagingvolu
nteers/2012/03/15/how-to-recruit-and-retain-
volunteers-through-blogging/
• Divide responsibilities. Encourage training.
Name correspondents. Divvy up the world.
27. Please sign up
• Do this seem inviting? What else is needed?
• http://www.socialcitizens.org/blog
• What have we encountered here? A summing
uphttp://www.copyblogger.com/create-
content-infographic/
28. Storytelling exercise
1. Think of the biggest thing your organization is
doing right now.
2. Take five minutes to imagine it as a story, for
instance as if it is a movie.
3. Share!
29. Anatomy of a Blog
Title / Header
Lead
Share
Buttons
32. Frequent, Consistent Content
• Make it easy for folks to find your content!
– Accurate page titles
– Title tags
• Photos & videos drive traffic
33. Keywords
• Always use appropriate and relevant tags and
keywords to a post or page.
– Find your keywords!
34. Keywords
• Add alternative
titles, tags and
descriptions to photos
and other multimedia
content embedded on a
page.
– Cat, kitten, lolcat, icanha
zcheesburger cat, funny
cat picture, cat
cheeseburger meme
36. Content Organization
• Plan out your website and consider the
hierarchy of content to be displayed.
• Ensure your site is easy to navigate for your
users
• Consider using categories to organize content.
37. Engaging your audience
• Use Social media, i.e. Facebook, Twitter
• Try paper.li, Tumblr
• Segment your blog
• Pitch other bloggers
• Invite guest bloggers
• Develop media partnerships
• Link!
38. Control Some Control No Control
Website Employees/Staff Competitors
Blog Comments on our Comments on other
blog blogs
Mission
Facebook Page Reviews on other
Brochures sites
Twitter Accounts
Policies Reactions or
Search responses to
… things we services, products or
create in house … things we can brand
participate and have
some influence … things we need to
respond to
39. Tips & Tricks for Effective Blogging
1. Keep a log of content ideas
2. Keep a posting schedule
3. Dictate your posts
4. Use multimedia elements (think visually!)
5. Invite others to join in!
6. Re-purpose older content
7. Always Attribute!
40. ROI
How can I tell if my efforts are working?
• Analytics
• Level of Engagement
41. Exercise
• Design a blog – what kind of blog?
– Photoblog? Vlog? Content aggregator?
• Who will be on your blogroll?
• What are your keywords?
• Give us one headline for one post!
Most popular blogging sites are relatively easy to use & intuitive. Visit the “about” section of the third party blogging sites you intend to use and see what interface you think you will be most comfortable using.
Phase 2
We’ll focus on two of these now, and come back to the others later
What was hard? How do we overcome those obstacles?
Back to Anatomy
10-15m exercise
Phase 2This is kind of ironic, because if you’re googling “worst SEO blog”, this’d be on the front page.
Phase 2 Create concise, unique and accurate page titles that are appropriate for your content. Search engines like Google look at your title and title tags that are used to display in search results
Phase 2 Keyword exercise
Phase 2
Phase 2 Description meta tags are important because Google might use them as snippets for your pages. Note that we say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query.
Phase 2
Mandy intro
1. A journal of “story ideas” whether physical or digital will shave away that writer’s block when the time to sit & blog comes around2. Stick to your schedule! Not only are you training your avid readers to look for new content at certain times, you are also training yourself! Blogging is a job and you have to wary of your time - or lose track of it completely, and control of your blog!The pomodoro technique helps – 20 minutes of writing is rewarded with 5 minutes of play. This allows you 15 minutes of downtime per hour and is a good way to break up the day and stay on track with work. 3. If possible, use software that writes as you dictate – I use Dragon Dictation on my iPhone (it’s $199 in stores) ; All you have to do is go in & edit, copy, paste & post.4. If that’s not a possibility, use multimedia elements – sometimes posting pictures is quicker than posting 1,000 words.5. Rely on the kindness of guest bloggers and readers. - but also remember the importance of speaking in your own voice, and give your contributors guidelines to follow.6. Chances are you have content already on your site, or in your newsletter. Re-purpose that content for the blog platform. OR point back to an old post you did; make it relevant for issues you’re facing today.