We Are Media: Blogging

Presented by

Dawn CrawfordCommunications Director at Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition &

Social Media Strategist at BC/DC&

Laura WhiteheadWeb and print designer and consultant in online digital media

at Popokatea

What Do You Want Out of This Session?

Agenda

• Blogging Overview• Learn from Others• Challenging Fears

– Commenting– Setting Up a Blog– That First Post

• Class Time

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

– Leo Tolstoy

Why Blog?

http://nibiryukov.narod.ru/nb_pinacoteca/nb_pinacoteca_painting/nb_pinacoteca_gay_portrait_of_leo_tolstoy.jpg

• Share your amazing story• Thank volunteers, board members,

staff & supporters• Give supporters a behind-the-scenes

look• Give staff an creative outlet• Further your cause

All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.

- Ernest Hemingway

Rules??!!

http://blog.syracuse.com/shelflife/2008/07/hemingway.jpg

Okay, there are no rules, but here are some guidelines

• Update on a schedule• Grammatically correct• Write with substance• Link to other information

It's a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.

- Harriet Beecher

Stowe

What to Write About

http://webpage.pace.edu/kculkin/files/mariachild.jpg

• Pick a niche – talk about your cause• Outstanding donations• Classes/Education• Success Stories• Clients• News that affects your cause• Get others to guest post

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal. - Jane Austen

Picking A Platform

http://lib.utexas.edu/exhibits/portraits/images/23.jpg

• Wordpress– http://laura.popokatea.co.uk/ – http://www.bcdcideas.wordpress.com– http://www.coloradomom2mom.com

• Typepad– http://beth.typepad.com/

• Blogger• Make your own

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.

- Ayn Rand

Getting Started

http://drx.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/09/03/ayn_rand_4.jpg

• Read other blogs• Create a strategy• Pick a platform• Make your blog pretty

• Link to other favorite blogs• Assemble your team• Link to your other collateral• Take the plunge

Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Finding Readers

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/fitzreading.jpg

• Include blog address on all your collateral

• Include a teaser article in newsletters• List your blog on blog directories

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.

- Harper Lee

Ways to Blog Without a Blog

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• Guest posts on other blogs• Twitter or/and Facebook• Posterous or Tumblr

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build & nobody wants to do maintenance.

- Kurt Vonnegut

Measuring Your Success

http://www.theblacklaser.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/vonnegut2.jpg

• Page views• Comments• Links• Employee, donor engagement

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

- John Steinbeck

Who To Read

http://fansinaflashbulb.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/steinbeck.jpg

• Museum of Life and Science – Department focused blogs written by employees– http://www.lifeandscience.org – http://mlsanimaldepartment.blogspot.com/2010/03/get-g

ood-look-now.html– http://blogs.ncmls.org/greg-dodge/2010/03/11/snakes/

• National Wildlife Foundation – Mission blogging– http://blogs.nwf.org/

• Colorado Health Foundation – Organizational blogging, lots of event blogging– http://coloradohealth.typepad.com/health_relay/

• Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition – Mom talking to moms about a cause– http://www.coloradomom2mom.com

• We Are Media - http://www.wearemedia.org/ • Pod Nosh - http://podnosh.com/social-media-help/ • Beth’s NPO Social Media Blog – http://beth.typepad.com/ • Kivi’s NPO Communications Blog -

http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog • Donor Power Blog - http://www.donorpowerblog.com • Socialize Your Cause – Top 12 Blogs -

http://www.socializeyourcause.org/top-12-nonprofit-blogs/blog/

• Just for fun:– http://www.cuteoverload.com – http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/– http://www.dooce.com/– http://CrapIMake.Wordpress.com

Now Get Writing!

Dawn A Crawford• dawnacrawford@yahoo.com • 720-231-1930• http://bcdcideas.wordpress.com• @SocMediaRckStr • http://www.Facebook.com/Dawn.A.Crawford • http://www.childrensimmunization.org • http://crapimake.wordpress.com

Laura Whitehead•laura@popokatea.co.uk

• 011-44-180-814068 (UK)• http://laura.popokatea.co.uk• @littlelaura• http://www.facebook.com/laura.popokatea• http://www.popokatea.co.uk