Scientific outreach and grant writing are skills that will be essential throughout the career of is a researcher. This course is designed to provide tips for scientific outreach to, and more importantly, beyond the scientific community, and also to introduce the subject of grant writing for various formats of grant applications. This powerpoint presentation contains Part 4 of the course which focusses on blogging for scientific outreach. The lectures were delivered as part of an optional discipline module at the Institute of Biology, Federal University of Bahia in October-November 2018.

2. BLOG (your own)
- One of the best ways to establish an authentic
online presence
- YOU ARE THE PUBLISHER!!!
- High satisfaction value

3. BLOG (your own) – contd
• So many advantages
• Builds your empire
• Advertises you!
• Helps you organize your thoughts
• A platform for the world to connect with you
• Can be posted on other social media
• Can post other media types (e.g. vídeos)
• Blog posts are Citable!!!

4. BLOG (your own) – contd
• Press the “Post” button enough times and you will
overcome any fear of writing – even for your
scientific writing!
• IDEA: Blog when you are experiencing a writers block
in your scientific writing or when you are
procrastinating writing your paper

5. BLOG (your own) – contd
• You define the scope
• But I recommend to keep the topics within your blog
somewhat related to your overall professional interests
• E.g. I blog about plants

6. Source:
http://www.fromthelabbench.com/from-the-lab-bench-science-blog/2018/3/25/why-we-scientists-do-instagram
A summary
of
WHY BLOG

7. Examples of blog with a wide
scope
• A blog on teaching, science writing and many other stats
and ecology-related things
• You can make it broad themed to fit your broad interests

8. Example of a themed blog with private
URL
• A themed blog on roadside ecology and life as a
researcher

9. Another themed blog on ecology
• Themed blog on ecology, macroecology, dynamic ecology

10. Example of a themed blog
• Blog posts was material in a book the author (an anthropologist) published
• Blog was also a marketing site

11. • AT THE VERY LEAST,
all Early career researchers should have a website
showing:
• What you do
• Who you are
• Contact details!
https://chrissiepainting.com/2017/01/19/the-importance-of-having-a-strong-web-
presence-for-ecrs/

12. • Tenured academics usually have a web profile hosted on the uni-website
• But why should you wait till you get to that stage of your career – Make
one yourself

13. SETTING UP
YOUR BLOG
- Various vehicles –
- Wordpress
- Blogger
- Livejournal
- Wix
- & others
- We will use wordpress
- Because it is open source
- Easy to learn
- Easy to customize

14. THINK OF A NAME
FOR YOUR CREATION!
• Time to choose a
name for your URL
• PREFERABLY call it
your own name
• Or A catchy name that
represents the broad
topic

15. Setting up your blog

16. • Put in a title for your blog
• You can change this anytime later

17. • Your preferred URL may be taken
Nao quero esse
negocio

18. • So try variations of what I want until I get
something without the numbers

20. • Confirm your blog in your email

21. • You can now start creating Pages and Blog posts
• But first, let’s Select a Theme for your site

22. Select a theme
• Let’s use the Lovecraft theme
• Easy to customize
You can search for the theme here
Click to have a closer
look at the theme

23. Select a theme
Click to Activate the theme
It has a sidebar
It has a top Menu
• You now have a preview
Looks great in all devices

24. Making an “About” page (or any static page)
• Take your time to develop this.
• It will change over time as you develop your blog

25. • So Close the page and go to back to your “My Sites”
page
Making an “About” page (or any static page)
• You need your page to have a category link in the menu

26. Now go to Personalize, and then Customize, and click Themes
Customizing Pages

27. Customizing Pages
• Then click on Menu

28. • Click the arrow
at the right of
the “Primary”
• Click “Add
Items”
Customizing Pages
• Now you can add the
page you made earlier
to the Menu

29. • Do not forget to press “Publish”
• Then Close (Press the X on the top left) to go back to your “My Sites” page
• Your new page
title shows up
on the Menu
now
Customizing Pages

30. Ok if you are going to blog - time
to build content

31. Building up content
• Don’t blog only when you have a publication to
blog about
• Blog about anything you find interesting within the
general scope of your topic

32. Building up content
• Some ideas for blog topics
• Organize and blog things interesting in your own
research notes!
• Opinions about some trend in your field
You do not have to be afraid of people stealing your
ideas

33. Writing a blog post
• Click New post

34. Writing blog posts – some
guidelines
Strategy
• Often good to start with the main message/question
then go into detail
• Present the problem in a relatable way
• Then present the solution.
• Encourage interaction – ask people to leave comments

35. Writing blog posts – some
guidelines
Style
• Paragraphs should be short – often a sentence is a
paragraph
• Write informally and personally
• NO JARGON – or limit it and explain clearly when
you need to use it

36. Writing blog posts – some
guidelines (Contd)
Organization and optimization
• Subheadings are good
• Pictures are ideal
• Tag your own or other blog posts
• Link out to own or other work

37. Writing blog posts – an example
Use images
Short paragraphs
Start with main
issue/question
(recommended)
Use subheadings
To insert
images Click
“Add”
Note! Try to cut down the dimensions of your images before you load it
Or embed it from other photo hosting sites (e.g FLICKR)

38. Invite your readers to comment
Create links to
other of your
posts or outside
links

39. After writing your blog post
• Edit for errors
• Place it under categories
• Create tags for your post (very important!!)

40. Tagging and categorize your posts
• Go to the right bar and select “Categories and Tags”

41. Integrating your other social media
feeds
• Go to Personalize –
• then click Customize,
• Select widgets
• Then enter the details of your Twitter,
Tumblr, Flickr, etc

42. Outreaching your posts to your
other social media platforms
• Go to Sharing, then connect your other social media
platforms
• Your blog posts will automatically be publicised on those
platforms

43. Checking your stats
• You can check your stats per year, month or day

44. DO NOT BECOME OBSSESSED
WITH VIEWS!
• Do not get discouraged if initially views are low
• Or if comments are low
• Comments on your blog posts often take place in
Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn (If you outreach your
blog post there)

45. Get an understanding of where
your traffic is coming from
• Important for you to refine your blogging efforts

46. One note on blogging
• Keep your content going
• If you need, reblog or modify old posts and put it
up
• If you need to stop, write a post to say so

47. Getting serious?
• Host your own blog on your personal domain
Some amazing examples of academics who have
taken it to this level
https://chrissiepainting.com/

48. Beyond your blog
• Do guest blogging
• Help your lab set up a blog or blog at your lab blog
• Blog in a team (e.g Dynamic Ecology blog)

49. Summary
• YOU NEED A WEBSITE, even if you do
not choose to blog
But if you choose to blog
• Blog to unBlock!!!
• Blog to teach
• Blog to learn
• Blog to outreach