using my head

How to keep your blog going

This is the final installment of the ‘How to start blogging’ series, based on the advice, ideas and tips from the London NetSquared Meetup group - a rather nice bunch of bloggers, tech peeps, blog-hopefuls and others who are interested in harnessing the social web for good causes. I’ve also thrown in a couple of my own tips based on my experience getting the folks at NESTA blogging.

Writing tips

If you don’t feel the love, don’t write

The world is not going to fall apart if you don’t post in a few days. And if you force yourself to write, you may end up feeling it’s more a chore than a pleasure. Instead, you might consider one of these ideas for keeping your blog busy, without having to write yourself:

Invite guest authors & experts to post on your blog

If one of your colleagues or peers has a great way with words, perhaps they could pen a post or two. Make sure their topic is relevant to your blog, and be sure to give credits and link-love.

Use your del.icio.us bookmarks as blog posts

This can be a quick & easy way to ensure there are no tumbleweeds on your blog. Here’s instructions: for WordPress, for TypePad, for Movable Type and for Blogger.

UPDATE: If you use WordPress, you can use Postalicious to post your bookmarks from mag.nolia, Google Reader, Reddit or del.icio.us to your blog. You can also customise how the post will appear, the tags, and more.

Publish your Twitter tweets as blog posts

If you use Twitter and WordPress, you can integrate the two services, so your tweets appear as blog postings, and your blog postings get automatically posted to Twitter. You can do it all using Twitter Tools.

Tools to make your blogging life easier

Use Netvibes as a blogging ‘dashboard’

I am a huge Netvibes fan. I use it for everything from planning trips to viewing my website analytics charts. I also find Netvibes to be a great way of keeping track of blogs and ideas for blog posts. I have several Netvibes tabs set up with RSS feeds from my favourite blogs, one tab for each of my areas of interest. I also add Netvibes webnotes to each of these tabs, so I can quickly jot down any ideas and paste links to posts that I want to write about.

Use a shortcut blogging tool instead of logging into your blog admin panel

If you can’t be bothered logging in to your blog admin panel, maybe placing your blogging interface closer to your ‘usual hangout’ will encourage you to blog more. If you spend all your time in Facebook, you can install a blogging app so you can post directly from Facebook. There are loads of apps for all the major blog platforms. Another cool tool is ScribeFire, a Firefox plugin that allows you to post from wherever you are on the web in seconds. (Hat tip to Farhan for pointing me to ScribeFire.)

Monitor, Measure, Rinse & Repeat

Monitor the volume & value of authors on multi-user blogs

If you are looking after blogs at your organisation, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on how the different authors are doing. If things are looking stale, boring or empty, you may want to step in with some advice, or run a blog authoring workshop to help your authors get back on track. If someone has posted once & that’s it, you may want to remove them from the author list to make room for more dedicated bloggers.

Measure the impact of your blog

It goes without saying that it’s a good idea to set up a monthly report on your blog activity (number of visitors, page views, posts, comments & pingbacks), but there are also other areas that can be watched. If you link to your organisation’s website from your blog, make sure you check your website analytics referrals section for visitors who clicked through from the blog to the website. Also look for ’softer’ measures, such as people mentioning your blog in person, or spikes in traffic to your blog after mentioning it at a conference or event.

If you have set goals for your blog, or if your blog is part of a larger communication strategy, make sure you are evaluating your success against those goals.

Celebrate milestones

Have you just had your 100th post? Your 20th comment? Your 50th pingback? Why not take a moment to pat yourself on the back, and invite others to celebrate with you. Any excuse for cake, really.

That’s it as far as tips from the NetSquared group, but I’d love to hear others if you have your own tips.

Many of the folks who came up with these tips have been blogging a lot longer and more frequently than me, so take their word for it… I will certainly be incorporating some of these ideas myself, as I could do with a bit of help keeping my own blog fresh & up-to-date. Life’s so busy sometimes!

If you feel comfortable with the stuff covered in Part 1 of How to start blogging at work, now we get onto the meaty bits: setting up your blog, getting it going & keeping it going.

Preparing to blog

Get your manager’s approval

Make sure your manager is OK with what you are going to do… and make sure any other potential bloggers in your organisation do the same. Seems pretty obvious, but some people seem to forget this part! Managers need to be prepared and accept that you will be spending time blogging as part of your job. If you have a set of personal goals at work, the ideal scenario is to factor blogging into them. At the bare minimum, you need to feel empowered to blog, and not feel guilty about spending time on blogging. It’s important for managers to understand that blogging can become a valuable part of your work, not something you do outside or on top of your ‘real work’. One way to get managers on board is to…

Present/tell people about blogging

Just like anything else you do in business, you’ve gotta have a business case for blogging. Put together a presentation or report for management to consider. It should include:

• why you will be blogging, what your goals are, what the desired outcomes will be, and how you’ll measure success
• benefits of blogging in general, and the potential benefits for your organisation
• relevant case studies, specific to your market/industry/area
• links/snippets of other blogs in your niche, to show the kind of thing they can expect

If you’re presenting to senior people such as the CEO, it never hurts to provide examples and statistics for CEO blogs. There are hundreds of CEOs and senior execs who blog. Here’s a handy wiki page of Fortune 500 blogs, and here’s a growing list of charity blogs in the UK.

(If you feel you need help with this bit, get in touch. I love this kind of thing, and if I’m not the right person to help, I can probably put you in touch with someone who can.)

Find a high-level champion

It always helps to have someone higher up the food chain who supports what you are doing, and blogging is no exception. One way of getting someone senior on board is to consider having him or her blog, even if it’s internally. Done well, internal exec blogs can be a win-win situation, especially in large organisations: it gives the exec a more informal way to converse with his/her staff and share thoughts, and it can also ‘humanise’ someone who may seem distant and disconnected from people on the ground.

Draw up a blogging policy

It’s important to create a blogging policy, not just for legal pitfalls, but equally to make people feel safe & comfortable blogging. The policy should be clear, concise and in Plain English, and should include guidelines for tone and what to do, rather than being a big long mega scary list of don’ts written in legal-ese. Tie your blogging policy to any existing policies about communication and representation of the organisation through email, phone and other means.

Be prepared for the worst… but hope for the best

It’s always a good idea to think about what might go wrong, and make sure you have plans in place for how you would deal with it. This is especially true of organisations that deal with tricky areas. If you already have to handle lots of disgruntled customers or negative press, expect to get this when you open up a blog, too.  Better to be prepared for something that might not happen than to be taken off guard.

Find the right blogging tool

There are loads of options, from things that are run entirely on external websites (called ‘hosted’ versions), to software that you install on your own servers (’installed’). Here’s a previous post outlining how to choose the best tool for your needs.

Practice before you start

Practice makes perfect! Some folks suggest writing things without publishing anything for a month, just to get the feel for it first. Others suggest trying micro-blogging through tools like Twitter or Facebook status updates as a way of getting your feet wet. Another way to get comfortable is to start blogging internally, privately, first. Whatever works for you is fine, but hopefully a little practice will help you discover your voice, and the style, content and tone that works best for you.

Let the business know what to expect and when

When you are nearly there, after you’ve gotten internal buy-in, chosen a tool and tested it, and had a bit of blogging practice, it’s time to set a date for launching your blog. The most important thing is to be sure everyone knows what’s happening, and when. Post it on your intranet, send an email, or just go talk to people - whatever. Just be sure your marketing and PR teams aren’t in for any surprises!

Getting your blog started

Set up your blog

Make sure you fill your blogroll (aka links list) with relevant links to other blogs that are in your niche area. Set up Feedburner to create nice RSS feeds that people can subscribe to. Set up any spam filters (such as Akismet) to keep your comments free of junk. Set up your comments to be moderated before going live, and ensure the email address associated with comment alerts is working and receiving alerts fine.

Write your first post(s)

Write what you know about and/or are passionate about, and write in a tone that is conversational. Be sure to tag your post with keywords, categorise it, and link out to relevant sources.

Invite comments from your friends, family & colleagues

It’s a great idea to let your contacts know about your blog, and ask them to comment. Not only will this help boost your morale, it will also get the comments flowing so you don’t feel you are talking to yourself with no one listening.

Read other author posts & comment

If you have other fellow bloggers in your organisation, make sure you read their posts and comment on each other’s posts if the fancy takes you. It may seem like all you are doing is talking to each other, but soon enough, someone from outside will join in.

Celebrate your launch internally

Book out the conference room and have a bottle of bubbly and a nice bit of cake. If you make positive associations with your blog for your colleagues, they are more likely to have a read, and maybe even think of contributing. If nothing else, people get to associate you & the blog with cake!

Set aside time to blog

Earmark time each week - and block out the time in your calendar. If you don’t, you will always find your time filling up and soon blogging will slip off your radar. Even if you don’t write, make sure you use the time for doing things such as reading or commenting on other blogs.

Monitor your blog

Make sure your spam-catcher is working, and make sure that any valid comments are approved in a timely manner. You should also start keeping an eye on your blog stats, and think about setting up a review schedule.

Start promoting your blog

Once you have a few posts under your belt and are feeling confident that the blog is off to a good start (and that it will continue), start promoting your blog. Link to it from your website. Add a link in your email signature - and get your colleagues to do the same. Promote it in your e-newsletter. If you have an event, make sure the final slide or handout includes a link to the blog, and create a post on your blog where the conversation can continue. Promote the RSS feed - think of ways of getting people to sign up for the feed as an alternative to your e-newsletter.

Set up Google Alerts

You can set up Google Alerts to notify you of topics that are of interest to you appearing on other blogs. Not only does this help you identify your peers, and give you a great starting point for reading and commenting on blogs, but it can also help give you ideas for topics to write about. And if you have already written a great article or opinion piece on your blog about whatever it is that someone else is writing about, you might want to let them know about your post.

Help colleagues subscribe to your feed

If you use Feedburner, people can subscribe by email, so they don’t even have to know what RSS is. Why not help your colleagues subscribe to your feed, or set it up for them? Not only will it increase your readership and the blog’s visibility internally, but after time you may find that some of these internal readers want to become authors, too.

Establish/reinforce your presence in the community

Go to events, lectures and networking evenings with other bloggers or members of your community of interest. You might just meet someone who’s read your blog, and these kinds of events can also provide good blog subject matter. This post itself was spawned from the conversations and ideas that emerged from this week’s NetSquared Meetup, an open event where bloggers, soon-to-be bloggers and non-profit peeps interested in the whole social web thing met up to talk about blogging.

That’s it for today! Part 3 comes next: how to keep the momentum going.

So you think you want a work blog, but you don’t know how to start. Should it be internal or external? Many authors or one? What will we blog about? Will anyone care?

These were the types of questions* that last night’s NetSquared Meetup hoped to answer, so I’m going to recap that conversation while adding my own thoughts, and hopefully you’ll go away feeling more confident about the whole thing.

Because the Meetup group is composed of a wide range of bloggers, blogger-hopefuls, tech peeps and others who are interested in social web for social good, there were lots of great ideas that came out when Amy Sample Ward, the meetup moderator, asked for ideas on blog strategy. She’s outlined the ones that were voted Top 5 in her blog post about the event, but my own views were slightly different, so here’s my own interpretation that includes some of the ideas that came out of the group brainstorm.

What to think about first:

 Why do you want a blog in the first place?

Many people say that they want or should have a blog, but when you probe deeper, they haven’t a clue why. It’s important to start from the communication need rather than the method of delivery. To say you want a blog is like saying “I want to make a phone call.” Who are you going to call? What will you talk about? Why do you want to call them rather than emailing or speaking in person? Think about what it is that you are trying to say, to whom, and why - and then think about whether a blog is the right way of getting your message out there.

Make sure you have a clear goal or purpose for your blog. Something like: “I want to connect with my customers so we can both learn from each other” is a good answer; something like: “I want another channel to broadcast my marketing messages” is not. Blogs are about informal dialogue, not carefully-crafted PR statements. If you aren’t ready to talk with your audience with the barriers down, maybe a blog isn’t right for you.

Does my company/organisation have an internal/corporate culture that supports this type of communication?

On a similar note, there’s no sense in starting a blog at all if your company’s internal culture is so closed, hierarchical, tyrannical, unresponsive, stilted, or fear-infected that no one will become a ‘genuine’ blog author because they are constantly afraid of being fired or disciplined for saying the wrong thing. Chances are the blog will either go dead quiet, or the tone will be so un-authentic and contrived that no one from the outside will engage.

That is not to say that blogging cannot be a part of creating a cultural change at an organisation: in fact, quite the opposite. But a blog alone will not work unless it is supported in other ways. If there’s already consensus or a push to make the culture more transparent, accountable and open, blogging can be a great way to get the initiative moving or build momentum. If not, maybe you should consider blogging small-scale and/or internally first. Test the waters before diving in - especially if they are shark-infested!

What to do next:

Start reading other people’s blogs - and join in the conversations.

Go out there and find where the conversations are happening on the topics you are interested in. Read what others have to say. And once you’ve read some blogs, start commenting. Many of blogging’s real ‘nuggets’ come in the comments, not the posts themselves. Blog authors love comments, so if you have something to say - even if it’s just “thanks for that” - go ahead and say it. Commenting is a great way to start to feel comfortable conversing online,  identifying who your blog peers will be, and finding people to welcome into your own conversations on your blog when you’re ready.

Think about the practical requirements of blogging

Blogging isn’t rocket science, but it can be time-consuming. Not only do you need to think about whether you will have the time or headspace to keep your blog going, but you also need to think about the time required to read and respond to comments, monitor your spam-filter, perform little tweaks and maintenance, and scan the horizon for other blog postings to read and comment on. If you can’t see yourself fitting all this into your already-packed workload, who else might be able to help? Will your IT team be able to support any technical needs? Maybe a team or departmental blog would mean you can share the work and ease the pressure. But bear in mind: not everyone wants to blog, and people who blog out of obligation rather than enjoyment rarely last long. People who are natural informal communicators tend to make great bloggers… but there are also seemingly shy people who find blogging to be a good way of communicating without the awkwardness of face-to-face or verbal communication.

Have realistic expectations

So now that you are reading of blogs, you will probably notice that some of them have lots of comments, and some have none.  You can guarantee the ones with lots of comments didn’t start up yesterday, and they haven’t become these juicy mines of great dialogue without time, effort and promotion. And you can be certain that for every juicy dialogue, there are dozens more posts that seem to fall on deaf ears. Furthermore, for every great comment, there are dozens of spam comments that never made it to the live blog. Be realistic:

• Don’t expect an instant audience
• Don’t expect every post to get comments (or to get any comments at all in the beginning)
• Don’t expect to get the tone or content perfect from day 1
• Don’t expect to instantly ‘gel’ with the act of blogging. It might seem unnatural, you might cringe when re-reading posts at first, but over time, with practice and effort, it will all get better.

 And then… ?

These are some pretty big things to think about and do before you even consider signing up to a blogging platform* or requisitioning blog software* from your IT department. Tomorrow I will post Part 2 of How to start blogging at work, when I will cover the next chunk of things to mull over: the nitty gritty of writing, legal issues, best practice, promoting your blog and more.

* At the NetSquared Meetup we also covered which blog platform is the best tool for you; have a look at my summary here.

Whether you are a business, organisation or individual, this question can often be the first hurdle in starting to blog. There are so many blogging platforms out there, it can be confusing to decide which one is right for you. Last night at the first London NetTuesday Meetup, a group of bloggers, possible future bloggers, techies and non-profit peeps interesting in learning more about blogging met up to help wade through the confusion.

The answer really depends on your circumstances and needs. Each tool has its strengths & weaknesses, and the lovely people at Techsoup have made this handy chart as part of their review of seven popular blogging platforms, to help you match your needs to a blogging tool. Bear in mind this chart/article is from 2006, and there are new kids on the block (such as Tumblr or Habari) as well as other types of online tools that now have a blogging add-on (such as Community Server, ThoughtFarmer and Confluence)* just to make things more confusing!

The good news is that the Big 4 (WordPress, Blogger, MovableType and TypePad) are still going strong, so you can still use this chart as a base, as long as you remember that there may have been upgrades and changes to the services/products since the chart was made.

I’ll also give my own two cents about these in a moment…

But first, a little poll: last night’s moderator, Amy Sample Ward,  asked the group what platform they used, and it was no surprise that a majority of people in the room used WordPress. It’s free, extendable, has a great support community, so it’s no surprise it’s the most popular tool. A substantial proportion of people last night had started on another platform, but had moved to WordPress in the end. It’s pretty common to do this, so I thought I’d stick in a quick word about moving from one tool to another. In most cases, you can move your blog from one environment to another, but it’s not going to be painless, so it’s a good idea to think about what you really need from a blog and choose the right tool from the beginning. There’s a great article on ProBlogger about choosing the right blogging platform for you, so have a read through that if you want a detailed checklist.

As for me, I’m just going to summarise my thoughts in a nutshell, with some analogies to get you thinking:

Blogger

Blogging with training wheels

Great for new bloggers, especially people who already have a Google account (Gmail, iGoogle, Google Cal, etc). Because it integrates with your whole Google ‘world’, it’s free, easy to set up and requires no technical know-how to get blogging. There are limitations, but basic bloggers who need no frills should be fine on Blogger. I recommend Blogger for personal blogs rather than work ones.

Movable Type

The swiss-army knife of blogging

Great for companies who want a flexible platform that you can install and run multiple blogs or entire websites on, and don’t mind paying for it. You can effectively replace your content management system with Movable Type, but you’ll need a capable tech team/person/consultant to get it running the way you want. Amy suggested that it can be hard to change once it’s been set up, so make sure you plan well at the start.

TypePad

Package-holiday blogging

There are different levels (costs) of TypePad packages that offer different levels of customisation, numbers of authors and amounts of storage. It’s a hosted service, so there’s no real tech skill required to get started. TypePad is a good choice for companies/organisations who don’t have the desire or internal tech-nous to host blogs on their own servers, but still want the option of running multiple blogs cheaply, quickly and easily. However, like a package holiday, you may not be able to easily add extras to the basic package.

WordPress.com (Hosted version)

Stickle-brick blogging

The hosted version of WordPress is easy to use, with no technical skill to set it up, and there are hundreds of ready-made designs (themes) for you to choose from. The main thing to remember about WordPress, is that you bolt on bits to give you extra functionality or customisation. Some of these bits are easier to bolt on than others, and there are some overall limitations to the hosted version of WordPress. I recommend WordPress.com for smaller organisations or companies who want a basic, professional-looking blog for free, and may want to have multiple authors on a single blog (not multiple separate blogs).

WordPress.org (Installed version)

Blogging with Lego

The main differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is that the latter is installed instead of hosted, there are thousands of different ready-made designs (that you can tweak if you know how), and there are loads of different add-ons that you can plug into your blog to give you added functionality. Just like Lego, the combinations and creativity is seemingly endless. The downside is that you need some basic technical knowledge in order to get the most out of the installed version of WordPress, but you can find web hosts that offer 1-click installation so you can get up & running without needing to install anything yourself. I recommend WordPress for organisations or people who are already using other web tools or social media, and want easy integration - for example, Google Analytics, Flickr, iCal, etc - or anyone that knows they’ll be blogging for the long-haul. WordPress itself is free, as are most design themes & plugins, but if you don’t already have hosting, you’ll have to pay for that.

WordPress Mu (Installed)

Toybox full of Lego

The only difference between WordPress Mu and WordPress.com is that Mu allows you to run multiple separate blogs off the same WordPress installation - and you can set different levels of permission on each, too. Everyone can play!

* A Final Note

Lots of people ask whether they should set up & use a separate tool for blogging if they are already using other ‘2.0′ web tools, such as wikis or community sites that have blogging add-ons. It really depends on a lot of things, such as:

• Are we willing to compromise flexibility or functionality for the ease of having it all in one place?
• Would we be splitting our audience’s focus too much by having things on different platforms?
• How well-developed is my wiki/forum/intranet/community/CMS platform’s blogging tool? How easy is it to use? How well-supported is it? How does it compare to standalone blog tools?
• Is it really cheaper to stick with one integrated system; what is the real cost (factoring in user frustration, time, etc)?
• If I use separate platforms, can they integrate in some way - through RSS, for example? Is that enough?

Remember that you can hammer a nail with a monkey wrench, but you may not get the best result, it may be a lot harder… and you may look like an idiot doing it!

The main thing to remember overall, is that no blogging tool will make you a good blogger. You have to start blogging for the right reasons, with the right voice, and in the right environment - something I’ll cover in my next post.