Blogging and Storytelling
Britt Bravo
WeAreMedia Webinar: September 23, 2009
Big Vision ConsultingRealize your big vision
Be a powerful force for good
• Strategic Consulting• Social Web
Empowerment• Blogging• Podcasting• Career Coaching
www.brittbravo.com
Blogging & Storytelling
• 11 ways nonprofits can use blogs to tell their story
• What should we write about?
• How do we find readers?
• How do we track impact?
• Most important tip . . .
11 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Blogs to Tell Their Story
1. Share Your Expertise
2. Share breaking news in your field
3. Share the story behind your brand
4. Share your readers' opinions & content
5. Share notes, photos & presentations from events
6. Share notes & photos from the field
7. Interview Experts
8. Share Organizational News as It Happens
9. Share Your Press
10. Ask for Feedback
11. Call Your Readers to Action
What should we write about?
Questions to ask when choosing topics
• What goal are we trying to achieve?• What audience are we trying to reach?• Who else is writing about these topics?• What is our “niche”?• What tone will we use?• Who will write the posts?• How much time do we have to blog?• What are we excited to write about?
How do we find readers?
Find Blogs
• Google Blog Search• http://blogsearch.google.com/
• Technorati• http://technorati.com/
• Alltop• http://alltop.com/
• Blogrolls• (i.e. http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/)
• Twitter Search• http://search.twitter.com/
Read & Comment
• Read Blogs– Google Reader
• http://www.google.com/reader– Bloglines
• http://www.bloglines.com
• Comment
• Buy an egg timer
Make it Easy to Share & Subscribe
• Place a “subscribe” prompt in the top right corner
• Allow subscription via rss and email using Feedburner
• Put the blog’s URL in your email signature
• Place AddThis or ShareThis buttons on each post
• Share posts on Twitter with bit.ly
• Add to your Facebook feed with the Notes application
• Add to your Facebook feed with the Twitter application
Participate & Engage
• Link to other bloggers in your posts
• Have a blogroll
• Ask questions
• Ask for feedback
• Ask for content (i.e. ideas, photos, video)
• Be opinionated
• Make it easy to comment
• Hold contests and giveaways
• Participate in memes and blog carnivals
Write Useful Content
• How to
• Lists (10 Ways to . . .)
• Roundups of blogs posts about your topic
• Title posts with words people are searching for
• Write short posts (200-300 words)
• Include images with every post
• Use white space, bolding and bulleted lists
• Mix personal and professional tone
How do we track impact?
Impact Metrics
____Subscribers____Visits____Page views____Links and referrals____Comments____Content contributed by the community (i.e. videos)____New donors, or members____Donations____Press____Relationships
Tools to Measure Impact
Google Analyticshttp://www.google.com/analytics/
Site Meterhttp://www.sitemeter.com/
Twitter Searchhttp://search.twitter.com/
PostRankhttp://www.postrank.com/
WhosTalkinhttp://www.whostalkin.com/
Social Mentionhttp://www.socialmention.com/
Technoratihttp://technorati.com/
Most important tip . . .
Have Fun! It’s not called social media for nothin’
Questions?
Britt Bravo
www.brittbravo.com
(510) 757-9684
Twitter: @bbravo
Skype: bebravo
http://www.facebook.com/britt.bravo
http://www.slideshare.net/Bbravo
Top Related