Creating Effective Blog Content
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This document provides tips for creating and sharing effective blog content. It discusses the importance of blogging for search engine optimization and positioning as a thought leader. It offers advice on knowing your audience, writing engaging content through storytelling and multimedia, maintaining relationships with followers, and tracking analytics to measure return on investment from blogging efforts. Tips include developing a content workflow, using keywords and tags, and curating related content from other sources. The overall message is that an organization's blog can foster awareness if content is created and shared consistently in an audience-focused manner.
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Creating Effective Blog Content
- 1. Creating and Sharing Blog Content Effectively Marissa Wasseluk New Media Associate
- 2. Today’s goals! • The importance of incorporating blogging into your communications planning • How to include multi-media into your blog • How to generate and manage blog content • Tips and tricks to publicize your organization’s blog
- 4. WHY Blog? • More content on the web – Improve search engine rankings – Fosters awareness of your cause – Positions you as a thought leader
- 5. What’s important? Form Content
- 6. Content tips • Know your audience – Who can make a difference on your issue? – Who will donate money? – Who can impact policy? – Who will get involved? This “Who” is your audience.
- 7. Content tips • Write to engage your audience – Write pieces with intent that encourage curiosity and invite action. – Use “loaded” words – Ask questions
- 8. Engaging your audience • Use Social media, i.e. Facebook, Twitter • Read other blogs & comment • Try paper.li, Tumblr • Segment your blog • Pitch other bloggers • Invite guest bloggers • Develop media partnerships
- 9. Content tips • Connect with like-minded bloggers • Highlight expertise, partners
- 11. Content tips • Share your unique perspective • Break news • Eradicate nonprofit speak, jargon • Use multimedia
- 12. Incorporate multimedia tools and platforms. Integrate content into your blog. Drive traffic back to your site.
- 13. Content tips • Tell stories
- 14. Power of stories
- 15. Six elements of a great story • A relatable protagonist • Scene-setting • Conflict • Solution • Change • Call to action
- 16. Storytelling exercise 1. Think of the biggest thing your organization is doing right now. 2. Take five minutes to imagine it as a story, for instance as if it is a movie. 3. Share!
- 17. The nitty gritty stuff matters • Keyword-rich headlines • Internal/external links • Tags
- 18. Form: Types of Blogs • Photoblogging • Vlogging • Microblogging • Liveblogging • Content Aggregation
- 19. Where to blog • Wordpress • Tumblr • Posterous • Twitter • LiveType
- 20. Anatomy of an Optimized Blog Post
- 21. Anatomy of an Optimized Blog Post
- 22. Anatomy of an Optimized Blog Post Title / Header Lead Share Buttons
- 23. SEO Best Practices • Create content consistently and often • Use keywords, tags and metadata • Keep your site and content organized • Be social and share your content
- 24. Keywords • Always use appropriate and relevant tags and keywords to a post or page. – Find your keywords!
- 25. Keywords • Add alternative titles, tags and descriptions to photos and other multimedia content embedded on a page. – Cat, kitten, lolcat, icanha zcheesburger cat, funny cat picture, cat cheeseburger meme
- 26. Keywords If possible, write descriptions for metadata tags on your pages.
- 27. Workflow 1. Keep a log of content ideas 2. Keep a posting schedule 3. Dictate your posts 4. Use multimedia elements (think visually!) 5. Invite others to join in! 6. Re-purpose older content
- 28. Workflow • Curating content – Find related content by following other blogs’ RSS feeds – Search for Keywords – Google Alerts – Twitter lists
- 29. ROI How can I tell if my efforts are working? • Analytics • Level of Engagement
- 30. Creating and Sharing Blog Content Effectively Marissa Wasseluk New Media Associate
Editor's Notes
- Oftentimes nonprofits say they want to reach the general public in their communications campaigns. The “general public” is not an audience! Most nonprofits would not have the resources to reach the general public any way! The most successful blogs concentrate on their niche.Know who you’re trying to reach!
- Mandy intro
- Blog-rollGuest bloggers
- Who knows this story?What modern stories have been based on this story? The Philistine army had gathered for war against Israel. Goliath was the Philistine’s heavy, and even Saul, King of Israel, was terrified of him. David was just a teenager, but he was not afraid of Goliath because he felt like had a greater power on his side – God. So David volunteered to fight Goliath. With a shepherd’s staff, slingshot and a pouch full of stones, David approached Goliath. His first shot went through a hole in Goliath’s armor, felling the giant. Then David then took Goliath's own sword, killed him and then cut off his head.
- Go through elements of storytelling handout and then transition to 15-minute exercise
- What was hard? How do we overcome those obstacles?
- Now that we have our content, let’s talk about FORM
- TumblrYoutubeTwitterUstream, CoveritLivePaper.li
- Most popular blogging sites are relatively easy to use & intuitive. Visit the “about” section of the third party blogging sites you intend to use and see what interface you think you will be most comfortable using.
- Draw your readers in with a headline - Leaving readers wanting more by not giving too much away in the headline. For example, instead of saying, “The iPhone 5 is Hard to Come By Because It’s Hard to Make,” you could say, “Here’s Why You Can’t Get Your Hands on an iPhone 5.”Refer to worksheet
- Phase 2
- Phase 2 Metadata is essentially Data about data
- Phase 2 Keyword exercise
- Phase 2
- Phase 2 Description meta tags are important because Google might use them as snippets for your pages. Note that we say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query.
- 1. A journal of “story ideas” whether physical or digital will shave away that writer’s block when the time to sit & blog comes around2. Stick to your schedule! Not only are you training your avid readers to look for new content at certain times, you are also training yourself! Blogging is a job and you have to wary of your time - or lose track of it completely, and control of your blog!The pomodoro technique helps – 20 minutes of writing is rewarded with 5 minutes of play. This allows you 15 minutes of downtime per hour and is a good way to break up the day and stay on track with work. 3. If possible, use software that writes as you dictate – I use Dragon Dictation on my iPhone (it’s $199 in stores) ; All you have to do is go in & edit, copy, paste & post.4. If that’s not a possibility, use multimedia elements – sometimes posting pictures is quicker than posting 1,000 words.5. Rely on the kindness of guest bloggers and readers. - but also remember the importance of speaking in your own voice, and give your contributors guidelines to follow.6. Chances are you have content already on your site, or in your newsletter. Re-purpose that content for the blog platform. OR point back to an old post you did; make it relevant for issues you’re facing today.