A Sprout! Workshop Blogging 101 Blogging for a cause
Jan 15, 2015
A Sprout! Workshop
Blogging 101Blogging for a cause
an arts & social sciences graduate, trained in the media, working in
an educational technology department, who guides heritage walks
and struggles with the eternal question: why?
A short introKenneth Pinto
How about you?
Do you blog?
What do you use to blog?
Blogger
LiveJournal
WordPress
Multiply
Something else
Who has used...?
Flickr
YouTube
Firefox
Section 1
Reconceptualizing blogs
What is a blog?
Dr danah boyd, Social Media Researcher
Medium not genre
DiaryPersonal publishing
Section 2
Why blog?
Simple to administer
Google Juice
You have something important to share
Personal archive,public resource
Section 3
Considerations
Occasional post on personal blog
orTopical blog
Which blog engine?
Blogger or WordPress(both have great Google Juice)
Which blog engine?
Blogger
Easiest
Most popular
Most flexible
WordPress
Static Pages
Categories & tags
Choosing a layout or theme
Simple is best
Good or Bad?
Can be fancy but...
It’s all about readability
Fonts
Font size
Colour combinations
Each post must have its own page
Section 4
Important bits and pieces
Important parts
Title
Permalink
Date
Archives - Categories/Tags/Keywords
Archives - Date
Search field
Blogroll
RSS Feed
Section 5
Writing a post
Who is the audience?
Dedicated posts on personal blogs
Broad or narrow scope?
Man bites dog: the importance of a good title
Grab attention!
Catchy
Meaningful
Evaluate these:
My trip to Sungei Buloh
Surprising Sungei Buloh
Guess what I saw at Sungei Buloh
The crocodile looked me in the eye
Fleshing out the post: 5 Ws 1 H
1000 words
Section 6
Photos and videos
Take your ownColleen aka Damselfly
will cover photography later
Or use other people’s photos and videos
Did he just say,“Use other people’s photos and videos?”
Creative Commonshttp://creativecommons.org/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/budak/
http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/
Contributeyour photos and videos
for others’ use too!
Section 7
Not just about producing content
Reading others’ blogs
Commenting on others’ blogs
(provide encouragement and give information)
Highlighting and linking to others’ content
Section 8
Credibility & Community
Networking: both realspace and online
Provide accurate and timely information
Look out for events and invite others for walks
Other bloggers will highlight you if you are
credible
Section 9
Social Media Ecosystem
Facebook, Twitter, Posterous
Section 10
Blog Sustainability
How frequent should I post?
Blogging takes effort - pace yourself
Lazy?Save drafts for later
Blog fatigue - hiatus doesn’t mean stop
everything
Section 11
Three takeaways
No blog is an island
Google is your friend
Maintain a presence