Mw2008 Blog Workshop Issues

the issues
Before you get started
Getting started
Gaining momentum
Keeping your momentum!
Stopping

before you get started
Be rigorous asking the questions:
“ why do we want a blog?”
would it be better done some other way?
are we doing this just because we can ?
...or because someone told us to...?
Think about developing a pilot:
a project-based blog with limited lifetime
no / low commitment
Be clear about ownership
Work at the right “radar level”...

Develop a policy (if this fits with your organisation)
Think about moderation: the BBC model is good
Have a workflow, preferably minimal:
Write, check and publish  I like this one 
Write, send to colleague, check and publish
Write, circulate, sign-off, publish
Write, circulate, send to committee, wait three months, get sign-off from everyone apart from the Director who is away on holiday, spend time re-developing blogging guidelines, get sign-off from Director who says “blog? what’s that?”, publish just as you reach retirement
before you get started #2

getting started
Choose your platform
Buy a domain name if you want..
..or extend your existing one (blog. or /blog)
Do what you can to publicise:
link from your main website
link to other blogs
send a newsletter
tell your friends and colleagues

gaining momentum
Participate: embed yourself in the community
identify and follow other blogs
get a great feed reader like Google Reader
Link, a lot , especially to other blogs
Comment, and use your URL when you do
Be fairly shameless in self-promoting:
“ I like what you’re saying but over on our some museum blog we’ve taken a different approach..”
Spread the URL around

keeping momentum
Use your stats to support what you do
Use Technorati, Google Blog search, etc
Start to embed these in people’s lives by reporting
Make sure you post regularly, and with high quality:
Don’t post because you haven’t done one in a while...
Do post because you’ve got something to say
If you’re losing momentum, maybe there’s a reason?
Do some evaluation of your blog: ask readers
Look for co-authors. You may be surprised!

if it’s getting stale, try some alternative approaches:
interviews
podcasts
video or other media embedding
live blogging!
surveys or polls
...be creative, and copy other people
keeping momentum #2

stopping
develop an exit strategy
be very clear with your readership: if they are loyal and you have a community, then think about the impact:
communicate how and why
talk about the successes
be positive!
make sure (see getting started ) that you can extract all your content (if you want it!)

thanks
any questions...?

Mw2008 Blog Workshop Issues

by Mike Ellis on Apr 18, 2008

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Mw2008 Blog Workshop Issues — Presentation Transcript