What is a blog?

• a web log,
• provides commentary, news, opinion on any topic the author chooses to blog about
• is authored by a single person, or small group of individuals
• provides the ability for readers to post comments under posts in order to interact
• includes microblogs like Twitter, photoblogs, vlog (videos), linklog, Qlogs (Q & A blog)

How they came about

• First started to appear in the 90s as manually updated pages on websites. The only difference was the type of content – a mix of links, commentary, personal thoughts all rolled into one.
• Blogging platforms soon followed
• Blogs evolved into online journals or diaries, updated regularly, and connecting others with similar interests.
  Example of early blog post
• Were picked up by journalists to publish news more quickly
• As user-friendly blogging tools became available, blogs were adopted by businesses to stay in touch with their clients/customers

Source: Where the heck did blogs come from

Some blogging platforms available:

• WordPress
• b2evolution
• Blogware
• Typepad
• Movable Type
• Expression Engine

Blogging Stats and Demographics:

• Most blogs are abandoned after they are created
• More bloggers are male than female
• Way more bloggers in the USA than other countries
• Most bloggers are in the 20 and over age bracket
• Most bloggers blog for pleasure, followed by those who blog to promote their own business
• by 2008 World wide, 188 million had started a blog.
• 346 million read a blog
• 77% of active internet users read blogs

Source: Technorati – State of the Blogsphere

Pros and Cons of blogging:

Pros:

• Blog content generally picked up quickly by search engines.
• Hot PJ recently did a series of posts prior to Easter about the ‘best hot cross buns’ – totally irrelevant to our business and just a bit of fun. Within days of making the first post of 10 we were on the front page of Google.co.nz. I think we are still there. It just so happened that this was a hot topic in the media too which would have increased interest in the topic.
• Now imagine if instead of being a marketing communications company we  were a charity or not-for-profit, running an Easter campaign to raise money through the sale of Hot Cross Buns.
• Blogging software, like WordPress, can be used to content manage static pages on your website as well as the blog.
• Creates a personal connection between your organisation and its visitors
  For a good example of this see the Metservice blog
• Quick, easy and low cost to set up a blog and to post.

Cons:

• “so, so yesterday and all my friends are on Facebook”
  Some believe blogging has had its day and is less popular than other social media, particularly amongst the under 25s.
• The blogsphere is polluted with ‘sploggers’ (spam blogs) and spam bloggers.
• Takes time to write, manage and promote your blog

What to do:

1. Set a strategy for your blog. What do you want it to achieve?
   • educate new readers about your organisation
   • keep supporters in touch
   • fund raise
   • disseminate up to date info quickly
   • grow supporter numbers
2. Spend time on other blogs that are applicable to your organisation / not-for-profit. Leave comments and links on their blog that link to yours.
3. Visit message boards and forums that relate so you can talk about your blog and organisation.
4. Use your blog to share stories and campaign updates
5. Encourage social bookmarking (RSS feeds  – updates emailed to readers from sites and blogs they are interested in)
6. Llike other social media, let your personality shine through as readers connect more with people, not faceless organisational blogs
7. Befriend other active bloggers so they spread the word for you. You can do this via their blog, through twitter, facebook, etc. Plenty of bloggers are happy to spread the word about their favourite charity. See blog ‘do you blog for charity?

A Not for Profit Blog in Action:

‘Learn As One’ works with local partners and communities in Africa to fund schools.

• Their website has visible link to their blog and visitors can sign up for RSS feeds.
• The blog has link to website donation page
• They encourage interaction with their readers by inviting questions
• They linked into other social media – Twitter

Learn As One blog

Blogging Campaign Ideas:

1. Leverage your blog using other social media sites Facebook and twitter
2. If you don’t like blogging, find someone in your organisation who does. Don’t do it if you don’t enjoy it.
3. Encourage your supporters and your sponsors to blog, but give them guidelines.
4. Befriend other Bloggers, find a popular blogger who has a connection with your organisation/cause and get them to blog about you.
   You may remember Telethon, well now there are Blogathons where bloggers blog for 24 hours raising funds for charities.
5. Don’t think you have time to write a blog? Look at what you already have, i.e newsletters, support material (how to brochures), stories from your supporters/clients, and don’t be afraid to reuse the content on your blog. One of our clients writes regularly for his local paper, these are then posted on his blog.
6. Put in place some way of measuring the success of your blog (traffic plug-in, ask readers to leave a comment on your post).

Posted on June 2nd, 2009 by Wendy Riley-Biddle
Filed under: Marketing, Social Media for Not-for-Profits