Global PR Blog Week 1.0

All the Basics in One Place

How Non-Profit Organizations and Local Governments Can Use Blogs to Communicate with the Public -- Part Two
Avoid Bad Websites!

If you visit a random group of websites in either of our categories, you shouldn’t be surprised to find a number of them that haven’t been updated in months, or even years. I think at some time everybody’s been stymied in their quest for information by a website that is either poorly designed, has wrong or outdated info, or just plain doesn’t work.

The website for a non-profit, or local government is often the neglected stepchild of the IT department. It’s the last thing on the list of priorities, because those in charge of computer or internet-related things have more pressing concerns.

They’ve got to consider the details of keeping the day-to-day operations up and functioning, making sure their databases are secure, keeping viruses out, even training users on working with their systems. Because until now, the website has been a complex issue, requiring specialized training and abilities to produce it. This is not to mention writing content for the thing and/or coordinating the efforts of several individuals, which often requires more time than anyone has to spare.

Maybe you don’t even have an IT department; you’ve got one staff member or volunteer charged with producing the website, among other functions.

Meanwhile, the life of the real world org goes on. There are new projects, new campaigns or fundraisers, staff changes, even changes in location. Left unattended for too long, a website can become a real liability when it doesn’t reflect a true picture of the organization.

Wouldn’t it be great if the website could become a simple, functional, and productive part of your organization’s communications with the world? Wouldn’t it be great if it could be managed by almost anyone with the time and inclination?

This can happen if you use a blog.

Basic Blogging

While I’m not sure than any individual “invented” blogging, I do know that Dave Winer developed Radio Userland software around 1997, and Pyra Labs developed what we now know as Blogger, the hosted blog service, in 1999. Other software packages and hosted products evolved from there. There are now dozens of hosted services and software products available.

Most of the original blogs were either maintained by tech professionals or people wanting to keep a diary or personal journal. That is why many who are aware of blogging mistakenly believe a blog must be a personal journal, and/or that you need to be a ‘puter geek to have one. (This could not be farther from the truth. A blog is simply a content management system. The content is entirely determined by the user. I maintain seven blogs on a variety of subject matter, and not one is a personal diary. I’m no ‘puter geek, either – without Homestead for my static websites, and the blog hosts I use, I wouldn’t have an online presence at all.)

For several years after blogs arrived in cyberspace, they were few and far between. When the Eatonweb portal was established in 1999, there were only a few dozen blogs, mostly maintained by individuals. Those that were most widely-read tended to focus on current events, political commentary, or tech issues. When the September 11 disaster occurred, those who were used to getting their news online turned to blogs for the latest updates, since traditional news sites were overwhelmed with traffic and sometimes inaccessible. In March 2003, the war in Iraq sent even more people to blogs to help them better understand current events.

From there, more people became interested in blogging and developed other uses for them, to the point where we now have about 3 million blogs, or likely even more. In the summer of 2004, blogs are used for a number of practical purposes, with daily journaling only one use. By this time next year I expect blogs for other purposes to far outnumber the journals/diaries.

Think of a Blog as an Instant Website

What makes a blog different from a traditional static website is that it can easily be set up and maintained by anyone who can comfortably use a word processing program such as MSWord, send e-mail and surf the internet. The IT department of your organization need not be involved in the project at all.

Just Add Content!

A blog can be updated often, or not -- as you choose. It can be an in-house product, not accessible by the general public, or it can be available to anyone online. It can serve as a purely informational tool, as a hard-copy newsletter would be, or it can be used for discussion, instead of an e-mail discussion group.

A blog can have one author or many. A large group could have many blogs all appearing to emanate from the same location.

A blog or group of blogs can either reside on your server, or with a host.

A blog can be maintained from any location with internet access – for example, you may sometimes find it more convenient to post to a blog from home rather than the office, or vice versa. Laptop and handheld computers, even mobile phones can all be used to maintain a blog from remote locations.

Make Your Website Speak for Itself

The thing that makes a blog live instead of static is the RSS or Atom feed. This extends the mobility and accessibility of a blog to your readers. They can of course also read your blog on all the same devices you use to maintain it.

To keep track of a number of blogs readers can use an aggregator, sometimes called a news reader. This is either software on your computer or a website online. The RSS feed alerts the aggregator of updates to your blog; and your readers/participants may either visit the blog directly or read the text (and sometimes view photos) in the aggregator. This way your readers are always informed of updates, without the need to add to their already-overwhelming mass of e-mail. These alerts stay on the aggregator until the material is read, making it far less likely that any reader would miss an update.

If you list your blog with directories, people looking for whatever you do can find you.

Yes, this is within your budget!

A full-featured, hosted blog ranges from $1.99 to $14.95 per month or even higher. Because the idea of blogs is relatively new, the adage that “you get what you pay for” does not apply here. Pricing for these services is still quite arbitrary – the price does not reflect either the amount or quality of service at this time. The various services are still figuring out what their customers want, in terms of features and variety of uses.

There are free options, either as a pared-down version of a paid service, or an entirely free service. But these are not full-featured, and will most likely not suit the needs of business, government, or non-profit use.

What is a full-featured blog?

A full-featured blog gives you everything you need to maintain your blog, and function in the online community. You should not need to add elements from other sources, or have any knowledge of HTML or other coding.

The basic features you need are:
• Ability to add a blogroll, or links off to the side, which can lead either to other blogs or websites, or to entries within the blog you want to always appear up front.
• Permalinks for each entry. This gives each entry a unique link you can use to point to specific articles or posts, saving readers the need to wade thru archives.
• Archives. Each entry is saved by date and/or time. Readers should be able to access any post made during the life of the blog. Some hosts offer the option of archiving by category as well.
• Availability of an RSS or Atom feed.
• Trackback feature. Other blogs use this to alert you that they’ve linked back to you, or mentioned something at your blog.
• Visitor tracking. Businesses especially need to be able to track how many visitors they have, as well as the dates and times of visits. A referrer log shows which other sites are linking to you, and how many visits come from those locations. It’s also helpful to know what browsers your visitors are using, as well as the number of visits to specific posts.
• Comment feature available. While the choice to enable this feature is yours, this can provide a means of two-way communication between you and your readers. This is especially important if the blog is to be used for discussion.
• Flexible editing that allows you to use either a word-processor style editor, or a straight HTML system.
• Ability to add graphics or photos.

What to do With It Once You’ve Got it

1. Post on it.
2. Promote it.
3. Repeat.
I launched my first blog last year as a replacement for an e-mailed activist newsletter that was pretty much dead in the water. At first, I tried to keep to the same publishing schedule established before, but after a while I recognized that there were things worth posting that wouldn’t have the same effect if I waited for my old deadline. So I started posting things whenever they came in (I worked with some submissions from other people) and used news items I saw in addition to my own work to keep content rolling. It wasn’t long before there were times when I’d post every single day, and sometimes more often than that.

This won’t apply to everyone. It’s really not necessary to post something every day, especially if you’re aiming for a long-term publication for a well-defined readership. Some who are new to blogs find themselves reaching beyond the original focus of the blog just to keep posting. The result is a mishmash of unrelated material that can be confusing to readers and dilute the original message. After you’ve done it for awhile, you’ll find the level of frequency and content that’s right for you and your readers.

The world is full of material that will apply to your situation. There are current events, both inside and outside your organization, and subjects that need to be discussed. In the early days, it’s a good idea to learn the habit of checking not only your e-mail, but your aggregator to see what others in your field may be talking about.

For non-profits and governments, it’s not as critical to work toward a high profile in the blogosphere, but keeping informed certainly can’t hurt. Right now there aren’t many blogs related to your field, but that number will grow as time goes on. I’ve got some examples of topic-specific blogs in the appropriate sections.

I’ve got an article on promoting a blog in more detail here at my WOLves blog. It is directed mainly toward individuals, but the concepts are the same.

I’ve also established a blog for the purpose of sharing stories about things that worked for groups and orgs. There are all kinds of tools for blogging, strategies for using blogs, helpful people and etcetera. Tell the world what works for you, and help build a better blogosphere!

Some Recommended Hosts, and etc.

There are many hosts, aggregators, and all kinds of tools and helps. Much of what is now available in terms of hosting is quite useful for those keeping personal journals, but not for business, non-profit, or government uses.

It almost goes without saying that you’d want to avoid any hosting service with the words “diary” or “journal” incorporated in their name.

Although the best-known hosts, Blogger and Type Pad, are used by many, they are not recommended for this use. Blogger works best for individuals with some experience in website building, as it is not a full-featured service and requires add-ons for the blog to function completely. Type Pad is best directed toward a small audience. Type Pad’s visitor tracking becomes cumbersome over about 100 visits per day, only provides partial tracking info, and is sometimes inaccurate. At $4.95 per month for one limited-service blog (it has a three-tier pricing system) it starts out at about double the price of other full-featured blog hosts.

These are things I have used often and found them to be helpful:

The best host in my opinion, is Blog City. They also have a branded blog option for organizations wishing to establish a number of blogs.

Another good one is tBlog. Both have active communities for help and information, and include all of the features mentioned above.

Best aggregator is Bloglines, especially if you’re looking for something that does not require a download.

About.com has an informative section on Weblogs, and a forum where you can ask questions and see how others use their blogs.

Technorati has been the best for tracking the popularity of blogs and discussions, but as of this writing it looks like Feedster may be soon giving them a run for their money.

Also coming soon is a magazine devoted to blogs.

Links for sections of this series:
Pt. 1 Introduction
Pt. 2 All the Basics in One Place
Pt. 3 Blogs for Government
Pt. 4 Blogs for Non-profit Orgs

Author: Trudy W. Schuett | Jul 13, 04 | Permalink | 0 comments
Category: @ Trudy W. Schuett | Topic 2 Corporate Blogging

 

 

About

The Global PR Blog Week 1.0 is an online event that will engage PR, marketing and business bloggers from around the globe in a discussion about blogging and communications. The event is scheduled for July 12 - 16, 2004.

Links

The New PR Wiki

Recent Entries

Looking forward to 2.0

Site Statistics and Trends

A participant’s final thoughts

Traditional PR is dead - Long Live DIY PR

Quiet is the new loud

Recent Comments

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