How to make an interesting blog postIt’s not just about writing!
Sanjana Hattotuwa
TED FellowArchitect and co-curator, Groundviews
youtube alone
• 48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day
• Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day
• Users upload the equivalent of 240,000 full-length films every week
• More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years
time is your enemy
think of design, style & technology
1. Title: Simple, short, captivating, SEO friendly (issue, region, country, actor) keywords, spend some time
2. Post: Use sections, block-quotes, use categories or tags, images and photography (attribute!), link to other sites, embed social media, be focussed, add to conversation
3. Other post hooks: Call to action, petition or poll
4. Language: Clear, concise, captivating, challenge creatively
5. Style: Prose and satire to poetry and haiku
6. iOS & technology: No Flash, publish and design for mobile
7. Strategy: Time publication (and republication on social media, e.g. for SL and US audiences), reference older posts and output
think of social media ecosystem
• Think of social media ecosystem and pitch the story accordingly:
1.Reach: Blog, RSS
2.Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, MailChimp
3.Added value: Google Maps, TimeToast, Bundlr or Storify, Wordle
4.Tie ins: Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo
leverage social networking twitter
twitter as a storyhttp://groundviews.org/2012/04/18/the-questions-unanswered-by-amb-robert-blake-mapping-us-engagement-in-and-concerns-over-sri-lanka
leverage social networking via facebook850 million+ users
more people spend time on facebook
augment reach via facebook
example of social media appealgroundviews.org/2012/04/23/bigoted-monks-and-militant-mobs-is-this-buddhism-in-sri-lanka-today/
readers across media, under 24 hours
• Facebook : 426*234 = 99,864
• Twitter : 44*126 = 5,544
• Blog post : 3,991
complement & connect
google maps, flickr, timelines
even more beautiful timelineshttp://timeline.verite.co/#
bundling social media, adding value through curationhttp://www.bundlr.com & http://www.storify.com
word cloudshttp://groundviews.org/2010/01/15/visualising-mahinda-chintanaya-2010-the-presidents-election-manifesto
Sarath FonsekaMahinda Rajapaksa
use email for greater retentionhttp://mailchimp.com
create an app for greater reachhttp://www.theappbuilder.com
take home
take home
• Think beyond text. Online is not print.
• Think beyond prose. Online can be satire, verse, haiku!
• Think of photos, audio, video. Rich media tells stories, adds context.
• Think of crowd-sourcing & open journalism - the audience are the producers.
• Don’t suggest you know everything. Use the community to add value to story.
• Link to other stories online, they add value.
• Use new platforms to connect, deliver, archive, present.
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