ILRI Comms project insight 2014:
Blogging
Paul Karaimu
CKM Team Meeting
Addis Ababa, 2-4 February 2015

About this project or activity
1. Why is it important
• Key for publishing stories about ILRI research to wider audiences
• Gives updates on projects, people, products and events at ILRI
2. What is it
• We use WordPress to publish articles about ILRI research and
livestock-relate/development news related to ILRI’s work
3. What we want to achieve
• Cover on blogs all ‘significant’ ILRI projects, research and events
• Ensure regular postings to keep blogs updated
• On-going support within CKM to achieve these

Our activities
1. What we did
• Starting mid 2014, Paul started supporting editorial checks across
ILRI blogs
2. What we did
• Contributed to blogging of ILRI40 materials starting Oct and
editorial checks to more than 70 articles by end of 2014
3. What we plan
• Continue engagement with CKM writers/other bloggers so they
keep to editorial standards from the start. Especially for new CKM
staff.
4. What we plan
• Have/share workflows for writing and editing processes
• Explore use of new tools such as Storify in blogging

What we learned
1. learning
• Generally good writing from across the team. Some more confident
than others
• Bloggers to understand/use ILRI style guide
2. Learning
• Not re-writing. Editorial reviews allow for different writers styles
• Some delays in informing on drafts to needing review
3. Learning
• For project blogs with external writers (e.g. LIVES) need for main
bloggers to check consistently articles submitted and inform
consultants of ILRI standards
• Use of photos in blogs not standardized, except for two main blogs

The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.
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