Hurstville City Council Library, Museum & Gallery Blog Training - 1st Dec 2011

Hurstville City Council
Library, Museum & Gallery
Blog Training 1 st Dec 2011

Neerav Bhatt - Who Am I?
Started blogging 2004.
Previously worked as Web Designer, Programmer and SEO/Marketing consultant.
Multiple simultaneous industries (Journalist, Photographer, Research Librarian and Professional Blogger).
UWS B Business (Computing & E-Business) plus UTS Grad Dip (Information Management).

Technology changes, Humans dont
Social Media and Blogging are only the latest iterations of ways to tell stories and communicate.
They are not new. Before Twitter was SMS, before that was letters, before that was telegrams and Morse code.
http://www.gapingvoid.com

Continuous Learning
Try to learn principles as well as specific tools, technologies and software.
“ In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
- Philosopher Eric Hoffer
Photo credit: Rich13 http ://flic.kr/p/4ZUiB4

Current Blog Isn’t Part of LMG Site
Institutional Blogs are about News & Events.
Possible to blog there instead to increase visibility?

Micro, Photo and Video Blogging
Blogging isn’t just about writing words on a website. It’s also the quality of micro blogging (Facebook, Twitter etc), photos and videos.

Be Relevant To Community ARIA Awards blog is a perfect example of writing about current events. Also address issues re common life stage experiences shared by groups in community Eg: resources at Hurstville LMG that can help people pass drivers tests and learn to be a safer driver

Shorter Blogs Are Better
Who, What, Where, When, Why
Use “What’s On” to only show upcoming events during next 8 weeks, not permanent listing like
“ November 25, 2011 to June 30, 2012”. Keep it fresh.
Use descriptive titles eg: “Otaku Club Meetings – Anime, Manga & Comics”

Regarding Images
1 good photo per blog minimum. First paragraph, then photo/s, then rest of text.
You can legally use photos taken by LMG staff plus Flickr Creative Commons (CC) is a good source www.flickr.com/search/advanced/
If using Flickr CC you MUST credit photographer and link to original photo

Example Flickr Creative Commons Photo: Highway Patrol Images http://flic.kr/p/7VCaHR

Making Magazine Blog Interesting Display 3-4 most interesting new issue magazine covers each month. Underneath / next to each cover list 3-4 fascinating, helpful or controversial articles in that issue http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/25/1039957/-STUNNING:-Comparing-US-World-Covers-for-TIME-Magazine

Encouraging People To Look At Blog / Catching Attention ?
Target specific audience: eg parents with babies/toddlers.
Content: Next Event details, display photos from previous Joey Tales, 2-3 sentences feedback from parents/carers about why it was fun and educational for their children
Photo: Neerav Bhatt http ://flic.kr/p/96xKBr

How Do People Find Blogs A blog is merely a way of communicating information People don’t search for “blogs”. They look for local art exhibitions, holiday activities for children, a cool place to read during summer … Search engines and social media are two key areas they will find you via.

10 Million+ Aus Are Active On FB
Increase Facebook activity: ask LMG visitors to “Check In” when visiting

Collaborative Blogging “Personal Voice”
Good example of a timely blog about a current event
Use name especially if writing in first person eg: John Lewis (Youth Librarian)
List half a dozen related books and link directly to catalouge entries

Importing Material Normal copyright rules apply. You shouldn’t copy and paste a whole article into the LMG blog. Publishers are happy for you to quote ~10% of the words and link to the article http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-best-books-of-2010-20101210-18sn7.html

Tagging
“ Can we put Sydney Morning Herald as a tag if we are referring to their book reviews in our blog ”
You can use however many tags, with whatever words you want. However tags are not considered useful for navigation anymore.
It’s more important to use words within the blog that people are likely to search for on Google etc

Multi Person Blogging Software / Closed Blogging Community
Wordpress blogging software has supported multiple person and multiple blog management from version 3.0 onwards
Closed blogging community – ask Oliver for more details about his question

Patience Grasshopper
most people want to get everything done now. They want to start from nothing and they expect to be ranking highly in Google or popular on Twitter etc within six weeks. It doesn’t really work that way. Because it takes time to build up a genuine profile and for people to trust you and know what you’re on about, unless you’ve got a huge profile already, you can’t just parachute in and expect to dominate search results if people put your name into a search engine
– Neerav Bhatt on Future Tense, ABC Radio National, 5th May 2011

Examples of Australian LMG Blogs
Leichhardt Library http://localnotes.net.au/
Mosman Library http://www.mosmanlibraryblogs.com/
Townsville Library http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/facilities/libraries/programs/Pages/default.aspx
Blue Mountains City Library http:// readersinthemist.wordpress.com /
Powerhouse Museum http:// www.powerhousemuseum.com /collection/blog/
Australian National Maritime Museum http:// anmm.wordpress.com /

More Information
www.neeravbhatt.com
www.bhatt.id.au/blog
www.roadlesstravelled.com.au
www.flickr.com/photos/neeravbhatt/sets/
www.twitter.com/neerav

http://www.bhatt.id.au	292
http://feeds.bhatt.id.au	2
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Hurstville City Council Library, Museum & Gallery Blog Training - 1st Dec 2011

by Neerav Bhatt on Nov 30, 2011

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Hurstville City Council Library, Museum & Gallery Blog Training - 1st Dec 2011 — Presentation Transcript