Blogging 101
Blogging for a cause
A Sprou t! Wor k sh op

A short intro
Kenneth Pinto
in
an arts & so cia l sc ien ce s graduate , trai ne d in th e media, wor ki ng
tage wal ks
an educ at ion al te ch no log y de pa rt men t, w ho gu ide s he ri
hy?
an d st rugg les w ith th e eter na l ques tio n: w

How about you?

Do you blog?

What do you use to blog?
Blogger
LiveJournal
WordPress
Multiply
Something else

Who has used...?
Facebook
Flickr
Twitter
YouTube
Firefox

Reconceptualizing blogs
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What is a blog?

Medium not genre
Dr da n a h b oyd , S oc ia l Media Res ea rch er

Diary
Personal publishing

Why blog?
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Simple to administer

Google Juice

You have something
important to share

Personal archive,
public resource

Considerations
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Occasional post on
personal blog
or
Topical blog

Which blog engine?

Blogger or WordPress
(both have great Google Juice)

Which blog engine?
Blogger WordPress
Easiest Static Pages
Most popular Categories & tags
Most flexible

Choosing a layout or
theme

Simple is best
Good or Bad?

Can be fancy but...
It’s all about readability
Fonts
Font size
Colour combinations
Each post must have its own page

Important bits
and pieces
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Important parts
Title
Permalink
Date
Archives - Categories/Tags/Keywords
Archives - Date
Search field
Blogroll
RSS Feed

Writing a post
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Who is the audience?

Dedicated posts on
personal blogs

Broad or narrow scope?

Man bites dog:
the importance
of a good title

Grab attention!
Catchy
Meaningful
Evaluate these:
My trip to Sungei Buloh
Surprising Sungei Buloh
Guess what I saw at Sungei Buloh
The crocodile looked me in the eye

Fleshing out the post:
5 Ws 1 H

1000 words

Photos and videos
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Take your own
Colleen aka Damselfly
will cover photography later

Or use other people’s
photos and videos

Did he just say,
“Use other people’s
photos and videos?”

Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/budak/

http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/

Contribute
your photos and videos
for others’ use too!

Not just about
producing content
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Reading others’ blogs

Commenting on
others’ blogs
(provide encouragement and give information)

Highlighting and linking
to others’ content

Credibility & Community
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Networking: both
realspace and online

Provide accurate and
timely information

Look out for events and
invite others for walks

Other bloggers will
highlight you if you are
credible

Social Media Ecosystem
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Facebook, Twitter,
Posterous

Blog Sustainability
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How frequent
should I post?

Blogging takes effort -
pace yourself

Lazy?
Save drafts for later

Blog fatigue - hiatus
doesn’t mean stop
everything

Three takeaways
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No blog is an island

Google is your friend

Maintain a presence