Tag Archives: nptechuk

12 ideas for blog posts (and a couple more)

Posted on by
Reply
Photo by Steve Bridger used under creative commons

Photo by Steve Bridger used under creative commons license

I’m picking up on a blog post from Paul Bradshaw who has suggested 12 ideas for getting started with blogging.

“I’m currently writing a chapter on blogging for a book on online journalism.  It includes 12 typical blog post types to kickstart ideas.  Here are the examples I came up with…”

 

It can be useful for first time bloggers to hear what other people are doing, this is the original list of ideas (plus a couple of suggested tweaks):

  1. Respond to something else on the web
  2. Suggest an idea
  3. Interview someone
  4. Blog an event
  5. Ask a question
  6. Pick a fight (and respond constructively of course)
  7. Reflect on something
  8. Do something visual
  9. Review something
  10. Make a list
  11. Write a how to
  12. Let someone else post
  13. Add glossaries or jargon busters
  14. Find, analyse and explain data
  15. Hold a themed photo contest and produce a slideshow with commentary

Some of these are easier than others but I’m going to give them a go anyway.  Will keep you posted.

A day at the Social Media Exchange – 3

Posted on by
1

I’m at the third masterclass of the day and it’s not even lunchtime!

Dave Briggs is running this session on “WordPress for good”

WordPress is an open source blogging platform -

  • open source means that it’s “free as in beer and free as in speech”
  • it produces rss feeds as a standard – helps people to keep in touch with what you are saying
  • WordPress has in built commenting facility and loads of other cool tools

Before setting up your WordPress account, you need to decide if you want it to be .com or .org? – .com is a bit limited in what it can do and how it can be personalised

Some examples of typically bloggy type blogs

And some not quite bloggy blogs

What else can you do with WordPress?

  • You can categorise your posts as “news” or by project to make it more like a regular website.
  • Plug ins add cool stuff to WordPress blogs.
  • WordPress can be easily themed around corporate colours, type faces etc.

http://www.wordpressforgood.com has some useful resources for setting up your WordPress blog.

… so, lunch! …

A day at the Social Media Exchange – 2

Posted on by
Reply

So, into the second session and i still haven’t digested the learning from the first – i think i’m going to be exhausted tonight!

“using the mobile channel to your benefit – the what, why and how”

I’m slightly worried that i’ve just been asked for my mobile number but i’ve been reassured that it’s all part of the session, fingers crossed!

Apparently the four most used features of a mobile phone are:

  • phone (obviously)
  • sending text messages
  • use as a torch
  • use as an alarm clock

80% of people will carry a (web) connected mobile device within 5-10 years

What do you need to think about when launching a mobile fundraising campaign?

  • People want a quanitifable object for their money
  • They want an instant response
  • getting something back
  • reward/gratification

What is the journey that people go on when giving through text?

  • Receive a call to donate
  • Text a keyword to dedicated number
  • Acknowledgement of the donation – this may include a link through to a website but be careful as you may lose people
  • Money is taken off your monthly bill or pre pay credits
  • Mobile companies can take 50% of the donation but work is being done to try and reduce this

Things to remember:

  • Pick the right moment to send your text as you can only contact people once or twice before losing them altogether
  • Make it as easy as possible for people to give – and include the option to opt out
  • Think viral – get people to share with their peers

Some examples of text campaigns:

Text can be used for more than just fundraising, it could be used to keep in touch with activists, renewing membership, recruiting volunteers for an event or thanking people for taking part in something.

Bulk sms is easy to do and not very expensive – use someone like http://www.itagg.com/, http://www.bulksms.co.uk/or http://www.textmarketer.co.uk/.  Search for bulk sms in Google.

I think i’m just about to be texted in the session … waiting … message received.

Off to the next workshop … when’s lunch?

A day at the Social Media Exchange – 1

Posted on by
1

I’m spending the day at the Social Media Exchange, an opportunity for people to come together and learn more about social media tools and how they’re being used in the sector.

The day is packed full of practical sessions, the first one i’m going to is from Kate Fox from the Mersey Basin Campaign (MBC), looking at how they use blogging, pod casts and other tools to engage people (both locally and internationally) with their campaign.

The MBC’s early approach to new media was much the same as other people in that they heard about blogging and decided they wanted to give it a go.  It wasn’t until Kate arrived as the new media manager that they started to look at what they wanted to achieve and then matched the available technologies to that.

MBC started their journey with blogging, using the blogger.com platform.

Some of the useful snippets that came from Kate’s session …

  • To encourage people to blog who have never done it before, get them to pretend they’re writing a postcard to a friend
  • Once they started the blog they made sure it linked to others using through the blog search engine Technorati
  • It’s important to take time to comment on other people’s blogs – it lets them know you’re there and drives traffic to your site
  • Use other blogs to get your posts out to a new audience, they may get picked up by local news agencies
  • Regular posts to blogs keeps people interested and coming back
  • MBC eventually replaced their staff newsletter with a blog, forcing people to use the blog and familiarising them with the blogging format
  • The success of the event focussed blog prompted MBC to create a more general blog – hosted on typepad.com for a cost of £7 a month

What worked well for Mersey Basin Campaign?

  • Blogging worked really well when it was linked to a specific awareness raising campaign
  • One example was the adventures of sammy the salmon, celebrating the fact that salmon had returned to the Mersey for the first time since the industrial revolution
  • Contributors in particular felt to write in the persona of Sammy the Salmon
  • When Samantha the Salmon (Sammy’s sister) went missing on an international journey, she turned up again at www.travellingfishy.com – the further adventures of Sammy!
  • MBC started using their blog for consulting with people on issues that affected the mersey and then used comments from the blog to feed in to formal consultation responses

Next up for MBC was using audio

  • MBC was involved with www.riverthatchangedtheworld.com, a project featured audio content from local people
  • The audio has been showcased at local museums, on BBC Merseyside and it also led to further interviews and exposure

Tips for creating audio content

  • choose the right interviewee
  • plan your interview – give people a copy of the questions
  • take stock of your surroundings – are there any background noises?
  • get people to answer questions in complete sentences
  • double check that the recording has worked!
  • keep hold of your raw audio
  • get your podcasts transcribed so that everyone can benefit from it
  • why not issue talking  press releases? – ready made content that can be used on local radio

… right, off to another session …

Listening to the web at large

Posted on by
2

Everyone is talking about listening. 

As more and more takes place online, listening becomes a vital aspect of engaging with the web.  Hearing what others are saying about your organisation or about topics you’re interested in will start to become one of your routine tasks.  Even if you’re not confident in (or even interested in) setting up a blog or joining a social networking site there is a mass of information out there that could help you to do your job more effectively.  The widespread availability of free tools makes it easy for you to listen to what is going on with your funders, your competitors, your supporters and your clients.

Are you currently listening to what people are saying online?

Blog posts

Six approaches for social media adoption - listen http://whitehallwebby.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/six-approaches-for-social-media-adoption-2-liste/

Building a nose for news www.waugaman.org/blog/2008/08/18/building-a-nose-for-news/

Listening and learning http://nten.org/blog/2008/09/03/nten-is-listening-and-learning

Why putting on your listening ears is the first step http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/09/wearemedia-why.html

What are the best first steps and a few advanced tips for listening.  What are the best how to resources? http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/09/wearemedia-what.html

What kind of information can you listen to on the web and how do you do it?

By taking the example of a small community arts group in Canterbury, there are a number of sources of information that you might want to tap in to:

  • RSS feeds from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport with the latest initiatives and funding news
  • RSS feeds from Canterbury City and Kent County Council with similar news and funding opportunities
  • Twitter search for posts tagged with #artsinkent
  • Twitter posts from people you know talk about the arts
  • Blog posts from key performers and artists in Kent
  • Blog posts that feature keywords such as “arts”, “community”, “kent”, “canterbury”, “dance”, “theatre” etc
  • RSS feed of a Google search for sites containing the name of your organisation
  • You Tube videos that people have made at your events (to make it easier to collate, you may want to tag them with the name of your organisation)
  • Bookmarks that other people have saved on subjects relevant to you on a site such as Delicious or Magnolia
  • Photos that people have taken at your events and posted on Flickr (perhaps tagged with the name of your organisation)

Below are some interesting links listing different ways to listen on the web.  You might also want to dowload a copy of the “How to use new media” guide.

Blog posts

Summary of some of the tools you can use to listen http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/09/nptechblogs—t.html

Listening on Twitter www.chrisbrogan.com/how-to-listen-for-opportunities-on-twitter/

Pulling all of that information together into one place

Once you’ve started listening, the amount of information coming in every day can be a bit overwhelming, especially if the different sources of information – such as twitter feeds, blog subscriptions and keyword searches – are all found on different websites.

Feed aggregators allow you to pull together these different strands into one place.  Some examples of feed aggregators are iGoogle, Netvibes and Pageflakes.

After setting up one of these pages, you can save it as your homepage so up to date information is always to hand.

One example of a Pageflakes site is this one, tracking discussion about the Government’s Empowerment White Paper www.pageflakes.com/ewp.

Blog posts

Tools to help pull together info http://whitehallwebby.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/two-tools-i-really-like/

More links

I’ve been tagging things I find about listening at http://delicious.com/ICT_Hub/listening, please feel free to send me anything else you find.