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
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4/26/09

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
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4/26/09

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

The Obstacles
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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
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

The Benefits
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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) 9
4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

Choosing Your Topic
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Choosing your topic
• write your org’s mission on index
card
Activity:
• Based on mission, write org’s 3
most critical audiences on 3 cards
Activity: (e.g. donors, activists, volunteers)
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

Choosing your topic
• Build a profile of your target
audience for blog at
Activity: www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html
• View how your target audience
uses social technologies at
Activity: www.forrester.com/Groundswell/ladder.html
Is there a conflict between your plan to blog
and user behavior of your target audience?
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

Choosing your topic
• Write your chosen topic (one) on
the center of an index card
Activity:
• Around your topic, write as many
related words as you can think
Activity: of, be sloppy!
This activity will help you write your blog
title and tags later in the session
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

Assembling Your Team
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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
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

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

Reading and Commenting
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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”
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

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

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

Building
Your Blog
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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
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

Writing and Publishing
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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
blog post
Activity:
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

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

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

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

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

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

Using Images
Bernat Casero bernatcasero.com 30
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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
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

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

Using Images and Video
• Search for image in Flickr with CC
license related to your blog post
Activity: and download to desktop
• Add image to your blog
post, including alt tag
Activity:
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

Measuring Progress
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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
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4/26/09 Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications | Nonprofit Technology Conference 2009

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

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

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

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