Blogging Workshop

1. Read my Blog
Workshop: Blogging for Researchers
Graeme Earl, Lisa Harris, Nicole Beale, Fiona
Harvey, Peter Wheeler, Alison Simmance, Hembo Pagi
January 2013

2. Workshop Plan
• Intro to the blogging setup and plans for future
development (Graeme)
• Examples of existing University blogs (Graeme)
• What is blogging and why is it important (Lisa)
• Blogging for researchers (Nicole)
• University blogging rules e.g. posting copyright
material, complaints etc. (Fiona)
• Technical aspects – requesting a blog, signing up
and creating a blog post. This will be a quick
demo and then a hands-on opportunity (Peter)

4. Blogging setup
• Funded by Multidisciplinary initiative, sotonDH and the DE USRG, with support
from iSolutions and Communications and Marketing
• Wordpress (www.wordpress.com)
• “Multi-site”
• Domain blog.soton.ac.uk or custom
• University theme
• Standard plugins e.g. social media, ePrints
• Commenting and trackbacks e.g.
http://www.portusproject.org/blogs/2012/11/rome-what-lies-beneath/
• blog.soton.ac.uk
• Two options:
– The standard blog is provided with a University theme. You can add, manage or remove
content and users, select from a list of pre-installed plugins and request new plugins from
iSolutions but you cannot change the theme
– The custom blog is a empty blog with which you can create your own theme, change the
plugins and manage the blog as a custom site. iSolutions is unable to support you in creating
your own themes. Any theme which is used to represent the University should be approved by
Marketing and Communications

5. Example University blogs
• Events:
– Web Science 2013: http://www.websci13.org/
• Projects:
– Agincourt: http://www.agincourt.soton.ac.uk/blog/
– Slavery and Revolution: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/slaveryandrevolution/
– Portus Project: http://www.portusproject.org/
– LANG-SNAP: http://langsnap.soton.ac.uk/
– Százhalombatta : http://szazhalombattaexcavation.info/
• Research Groups:
– ILC: www.blog.soton.ac.uk/ilc
– ACRG: http://acrg.soton.ac.uk/
– Digital Humanities: http://digitalhumanities.soton.ac.uk/
– Digital Economy: http://digitaleconomy.soton.ac.uk/
– Computational Imaging: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/cii/
– Work Thought Blog: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/wfrc/
– CAHO Seminar series: http://cahoseminars.soton.ac.uk/
• Teaching:
– Languages at Southampton: http://www.languagesatsouthampton.soton.ac.uk/

7. What is a blog?
• ‘conversational scholarship’
or
• ‘writing which makes scholarly work accessible
and accountable to a readership outside the
academy’ (Gregg, 2006 p 147-8)
or
• ‘a discussion or informational site published
online and consisting of discrete entries ("posts")
typically displayed in reverse chronological order
(the most recent post appears first)’ (Wikipedia)

8. http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/12/28/infographic-every-60-seconds-on-the-web/

9. Rationale
• Technology Will Kill…(2 min video by Erik
Qualman)
• Seth Godin and Tom Peters on blogging
• Blogging provides:
– Visibility
– Recognition
– Community and public engagement
– Social capital

10. Dare you Google yourself...?
@lisaharris #CIMbrandyou

11. Blogs v websites
Blogs
• Instantaneous
• Timely
• Posts are time stamped
• Personal and informal
• You “subscribe” to blogs to be updated with new content
• Two-way communications
Websites
• Tend to be static
• Change infrequently
• Who knows how old?
• Generally impersonal even ‘corporate’
• You “bookmark” websites but this is easily forgotten
• One-way communications

12. Various blogging forms
• Personal brand building – see Martin Weller’s EdTechie blog
• A project diary which may be collaboratively produced and
edited – see Guy Poppy’s Assets Malawi Blog
• A reflective diary relating to a specific course – see Maria
Serres’ MSc blog
• A collection of projects within a research group – see Digital
Economy USRG
• Crowdsourcing content/feedback on the writing of draft
book chapters - see Charlene Li’s Open Leadership
• Syndication of relevant content to a range of authors - see
LSE Impact blog

13. Pulling it all together
• Use the blog framework as a central point pulling in your other
social media content:
– Tweets
– LinkedIn
– Flickr
– Vimeo/YouTube
– Slideshare
– Pinterest etc
• You can also embed other social media within individual blog posts
– video content is increasingly important
• Provide sharing buttons so that your readers can share your content
on their own networks
• These activities provide a regular supply of googlejuice to the blog

14. Blogging and search engine
optimisation
Social media shares of a blogpost are the biggest
influence on its search visibility:
1. Facebook shares
2. Facebook comments
3. Facebook likes
4. Tweets
http://www.socialmediastrategist.co.uk/blog/1-
news/175-social-media-seo

15. Practical tips
• Be transparent and authentic
• Build social capital by providing a regular supply of
interesting content
• Use a range of media in each post
• Keep posts short – our attentions spans are getting
ever smal…
• Link and share. Link and share. Did I say link and share?
• Respond to all queries and comments
• Don’t expect instant results…persistence will pay off 

16. “No more disruptive innovation, please”

17. Useful links
How to write a good research blogpost
Blogging: the new research dissemination
strategy
Review of Martin Weller’s book Digital Scholar
The value of academic blogging