Writing for blogs workshop

Devin SmithAmeriCorps Ambassador of Mentoring

Social Media Outreach CoordinatorBoston Partners in Educationdevinsmith1987@gmail.com

Writing for Blogs Workshop

Agenda

• What is a blog?• How to Write a Blog Post

– Choosing a topic– Writing your post– Picking a title– Simple ways to improve your post– Using live links in your post

• BPE process for editing/publishing Blog Post

• Q & A• Plus/Delta Devin Smith

AmeriCorps Ambassador of MentoringSocial Media Outreach Coordinator

Boston Partners in Educationdevinsmith1987@gmail.com

• “A blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.” –Darren Rowse, problogger.net

• http://bit.ly/170yk Devin SmithAmeriCorps Ambassador of Mentoring

How to write a blog post:

Choose a Topic:

Something you are passionate about

Climate Ark

Blog about climate change activism

http://www.climateark.org/blog/

Something you are not too sensitive about and wouldn’t

mind debating or thinking about in new ways

Architecture +Morality

Blog exploring connections between architecture, politics and religion

http://architectureandmorality.blogspot.com/

Something you are interesting in

researching and discussing with other

people

Racialicious

Blog about the intersections of race and pop culture

http://www.racialicious.comDevin Smith

AmeriCorps Ambassador of MentoringSocial Media Outreach Coordinator

Boston Partners in Educationdevinsmith1987@gmail.com

One topic per post

Writing your post

Make Content Scan-able

● Get to the point

●Use Headings and Sub-Headings to organize your thoughts

●Create bulleted lists

●highlight your main points -People may want to skim to get an idea of what you’re saying and go back later to read the whole post

Great Example of Scannable Content: Beth Kanter’s Blog:

http://www.bethkanter.org/connected-citizens/

• Reread your writing out loud to hear how it flows• Be personal and honest• Don’t write posts that are essentially reposts of other

people’s material• Avoid the passive voice and use a consistent tense

throughout

The title matters

• The title is the first thing people see• Ask a question• State a strong opinion• Make a personal statement• Be funny• Keep it succint

Simple Ways to Improve Your Post

• Photos• Infographics• Video

• Use examples• Add your opinion or an opposing view point• Suggest further reading or sources of

information on a topic• Add quotes

• Spell Check!• Re-read your post for punctuation/grammar• Have someone else read your post• Avoid passive voice• Keep the same tense throughout

Links, Links, Links!

• Use links to provide more info or support a point

• Highlight an important person, organization, tool or service

• Make sure links are RELAVENT to your post and APPROPRIATE for the Boston Partners Blog

Including full links in your post where you want them

Anyone can become an active and engaged volunteer in their community, all you need is the ability to think creatively about the resources you have available, and what you can do with them to help others. Take Alex Ullman for example. Alex is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a second semester student at Berklee College of Music (link: http://www.berklee.edu/ ). He’s a nice guy, well-educated and musically inclined. He has been a volunteer in Boston Partners in Education’s ( link: http://www.bostonpartners.org/ )Aim High Program at the Boston Community Leadership Academy (link: http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/school/boston-community-leadership-academy ) (BLCA) for the past few months, tutoring ELL students in English. Once a week he travels from downtown Boston to the Brighton campus of BCLA to work one-on-one with students that are learning English as a second language. He’s a musician that plays the horn, so to save an extra trip downtown, he frequently brings his instrument to his tutoring sessions.

Blog post from start to finish

• Concept– Author will work with Jess to come up with and

expand upon an idea for a blog post. They will also work together to agree upon a deadline for the first and final drafts

• 1st draft– Author will write the first draft, check for

spelling/grammar and find any photos or links they will be using in the post

• Editing– Erin will review the draft for content/grammar/spelling

and go over her suggested edits with the Author

• 2nd Draft– Author will make any necessary edits or changes and

review with Erin

• Final Approval– Pamela will read over final written draft and give

approval on all content

• Post– Jess will format the finalized blog post with

pictures and links, then post it live to the blog

• Share– Everyone will be encouraged (not required) to

share blog posts vie their networks to increase readership

Good Blog/Bad Blog

• http://blog.redcross.org/• http://smilesmentoring.blogspot.com/• http://cityyearblog.org/• http://baghabit.blogspot.com/• http://www.homeincorg.blogspot.com/• http://www.generationsinc.org/blog/• http://www.rabbitblog.com/

Plus/Delta

• http://www.problogger.ne• http://weblogs.about.com• http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo/10-ways-nonprofits-can-

use-blogs• http://nonprofit.about.com/od/blogs/Blogs_We_Recommend.htm• http://www.networkedblogs.com/topic/nonprofits• http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/07/21/how-to-write-a-blog-post/• http://outspokenmedia.com/blogging/how-to-write-a-blog-post/

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