Blogging for Nonprofits

Blogging for Nonprofits A hands-on workshop from the We Are Media Project: The Social Media Starter Kit for Nonprofits Shirley Sexton Director, Interactive Marketing and Fundraising

Training sponsored by See3 Communications We Are Media Project Web Design & resources about social Development media strategies and tools for nonprofits Video Production Curated by NTEN Interactive Marketing www.wearemedia.org www.see3.net Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 4/26/09 2

Agenda Should we blog? How do we blog? What is it? Choosing Your Topic The Obstacles Identity Your Team The Benefits Reading & Commenting Building Your Blog Writing and Publishing Using Graphics Measuring Progress Resources Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 4/26/09 3

Elements of a blog Opinion Links Feed Tags Comments Blogroll

Should We blog? What is it? All blogs feature common elements  Opinion  Chronological Posts  Comments  Blogroll  Tags  Ways to subscribe to content feed  Links 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 5

The Obstacles 4/26/09 6

Should We blog? The Obstacles The Inconvenient Truth (to borrow from Gore)  Significant time investment  Corporate tool  Creates (another) data silo  Loss of brand/message control  Most nonprofits have not mastered other online tactics that will help them more 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 7

The Benefits 4/26/09 8

Should we blog? The Benefits Yes We Can! (to borrow from Obama)  Easy and efficient way to propagate content across the Internet  Improves ranking in search engines  Demonstrates accessibility, transparency, and responsiveness; builds trust  Blogs (or something like it) are becoming mainstream. Best start practicing (if not on a blog, then on Facebook or Twitter) 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 9

Choosing Your Topic 4/26/09 10

Choosing your topic 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 11

Choosing your topic Is there a conflict between your plan to blog and user behavior of your target audience? 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 12

Choosing your topic This activity will help you write your blog title and tags later in the session 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 13

Assembling Your Team 4/26/09 14

Assembling Your Team A blog post is by a person, but an org is by definition more than one. Build a team of voices that represent your org:  Program and subject experts  Strong writers  Board or volunteers with name recognition  Service recipients  Blog manager 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 15

Assembling Your Team Getting it done:  Assign days of the week, # of posts per month or other quantitative commitment  Include responsibility in job descriptions and evaluations  Keep workflow/approval process flat! 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 16

Reading and Commenting 4/26/09 17

Reading and Commenting Ongoing participation by reading and commenting on other blogs will provide you with an influx of fresh ideas and info as well as credibility in the blogosphere.  Define each team member’s “beat” 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 18

Reading and Commenting Using RSS “Really Simple Syndication”  One online location to view all the latest posts from the blogs you subscribe to • Bloglines account Demo: 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 19

Reading and Commenting Best practices for commenting on blogs  Add value  Establish authority and trust  Identify yourself and org  Trackbacks 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 20

Building Your Blog 4/26/09 21

Building Your Blog What to include at launch (static elements)  Layout that does not confuse (visual integration with org’s mail Web site/brand)  Title that attracts search  About page (blog purpose and org mission)  Code of Conduct  Subscription options  Author bios 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 22

Writing and Publishing 4/26/09 23

Writing and Publishing Ready, set, blog!  One online location to view all the latest posts from the blogs you subscribe to • Log-in to Wordpress and create Activity blog post : 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 24

Writing and Publishing What makes a good blog?  Unique opinionated content  Writing style/tone  Focus (one topic, not many)  Frequency  Relevancy  Dialogue 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 25

Writing and Publishing What makes a good blog post?  Search friendly title  Short  Personal (from the “I)  Quotes  Questions  Links! Links! Links! 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 26

Writing and Publishing Great NPO blog content  Opinion on mission-related national or world events  Primary research, resources and stories  Requests (info & referral)  Interviews  Reviews (books, movies, etc.)  Lists 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 27

Writing and Publishing Repurpose content  Use Feedburner to push posts out to org’s Web site, Facebook page and other Web properties  Micro-blog on Twitter with link to blog post 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 28

Writing and Publishing Interacting with your readers  Respond quickly to comments on your posts  Watch out for trolls! 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 29

Using Images 4/26/09 Bernat Casero bernatcasero.com 30

Using Images and Videos Examples to use in blog post  Subject of story  Screen capture of Web page  Logos of orgs/products you’re reviewing  Images to inspire/illustrate point 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 31

Using Images and Videos Where to get images and videos  Take your own  Purchase stock like istockphoto.com  Flickr Creative Commons What is Creative Commons license  Be sure to tag for search engines and screen readers! 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 32

Using Images and Video 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 33

Measuring Progress 4/26/09 34

Measuring Progress What to measure and how  Comments (Commentful)  Ego feeds (Technorati, Google Alerts)  Blog traffic (Google Analytics)  Traffic sent to org Web site from blog  Measure trends over time, what caused spikes 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 35

Resources 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 36

Must-read online resources http://www.wearemedia.org (will include this training) http://howtoblog.wikispaces.com http://nonprofitblogexchange.blogspot.com http://beth.typepad.com Photos in presentation from Flickr http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 37

Must-read books Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformormed by Social Technologies  Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff Media Rules! Master Today’s Technology to Connect with and Keep your Audience  Brian Reich and Dan Solomon The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know  Debbie Weil 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 38

Contact Me Email: shirley@see3.net See3 blog: http://blog.see3.net LinkedIn: http://shirleysexton.com Facebook: http://profile.to/shirleysexton Twitter: http://twitter.com/webbarbie Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/webbarbie 4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009 39

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Blogging for Nonprofits

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