Blogs are a good way for nonprofits to expand their reach and communicate more directly with supporters and their community. But where do you sta

By Abny Santicola

Blogs are a good way for nonprofits to expand their reach and communicate more directly with supporters and their community. But where do you start?

In August, TechSoup sponsored the webinar "Introduction to Blogging for Nonprofits and Libraries," in which presenters Allyson Kapin, blogger for Care2's blog Frogloop, and Jason Griffey, co-author of the book "Library Blogging," discussed the basics of getting started with a blog, covering how much staff time to devote to it, who should blog and which tools to use, and offering best practices.

A blog, or Web log, is a Web page where content is created by a single author — or select group of authors — and the presentation of the content is (usually) in reverse chronological order. Blogs also usually have some form of social component, whether through comments, trackback, or other mechanism of communicating content or feedback, Griffey noted.

Blogging allows nonprofits and libraries to:

1. Communicate and stand out.
Blogs allow organizations to have direct communications with supporters, potential supporters, the press and influentials, and decision makers such as political representatives and staff. Regularly updated and relevant blogs ensure that your organization doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

"Your opposition or competition probably has a blog," Kapin said. "You should too!"

Example: NARAL Pro-Choice America

2. Tell their stories with their voices.
Blogging is an easy and cost-effective way to share latest news, tell your story, solicit feedback and foster discussion among supporters or potential supporters. It gives your nonprofit a distinct voice within a movement and can distinguish you from other nonprofits working on similar issues.

Example: Greenpeace UK

3. Brand their missions.
Blogs help organizations build brand recognition around their missions.

Example: Amnesty International, whose blog name — Human Rights Now — says it all.

4. Deliver fresh information.
Kapin said integrating a blog feed on your organization's homepage is an excellent way to freshen up your homepage content and make it dynamic. RSS (really simple syndication) feeds allow you to automatically deliver updates from your blog onto your homepage.

Example: Save Darfur Coalition integrates its blog feed onto its homepage.

5. Build audience.
Blogs are marketing, outreach, problem solving and potentially patron feedback all in one, Griffey said.

6. Share secrets.
Every organization is doing important work that people might not know about. Libraries, for example, have amazing collections, Griffey said. Whether it's the smallest public library in a rural town or a major academic library, every library has things in its collection that are vastly important to someone in the world. The problem is connecting the reader and the object. Blogs can help get information about the collections more fully out into the world.

7. Remix their world.
Blogging is a way of structuring information. Taking sets of information and structuring them in specific ways in order to embed them everywhere you might want it, e.g., your Web site.

The presenters shared the following things organizations should consider before getting started with blogging:

1. Goals and staff.
Kapin recommended defining goals upfront. Identify your target audience. Define the unique information you want to use your blog to deliver. And determine a publishing schedule. Can you provide information quickly and regularly?

Think about staff commitment. Designate a blogger-in-chief and if you'll have periodic guest posts by board members, allies or partners, or rotating staff contributions. The people who should be blogging are those who truly understand your organization's mission, issues and agenda — probably not an intern. Kapin recommended aiming for three short posts per week to keep the blog fresh.

If you're going to separate out writing responsibilities to multiple people, match the responsibility to each person's interests within your mission, Griffey said, because blog readers will be able to tell when someone's actually really interested in the subject they're writing about.

2. Voice.
Your voice and tone depend on your target audiences. For example, if you have a young, tech-savvy online communications practitioner audience, your voice should be professional, with some personality and spunk. If your audience is policy makers, a research-based tone is appropriate. And for an audience of community members including teens and children, keep your tone straightforward, non-sarcastic and age-appropriate.

Griffey said it's important to be informal in your blog tone when informality is needed, even in a professional environment.

3. Comments, security.
Do you want to allow comments on blog posts? If so, do you want to moderate them? And do you want to allow anonymous commenting?

These are all questions organizations should hash out before starting a blog. Griffey advised that when starting a blog, it's best to begin by moderating comments. This way, comments left on a posts won't show up until approved by your designated moderator.

As for anonymous commenting, Griffey warned that it doesn't always bring out the best in people, but it gives them an opportunity to comment.

Organizations that work on controversial topics also should consider whether they want to keep identities of bloggers concealed. Griffey said this is absolutely allowable in instances where you're attempting to mask identity for legal reasons.

"It's good for readers to know who's writing, but if the things you're trying to get across are of a sensitive nature, anonymity is very common and not a taboo," he said.

Organizations also need to consider ways ensure their blogs don't get hacked or became spam repositories, and including a disclaimer stating that the opinions of bloggers are their own, not those of the organization. What standards will apply for staff, volunteer, intern or board members who blog for you?

Tools to use
Griffey said Blogger and TypePad are good hosted solutions that keep blog content on their own, outside servers. Signing up for these blog tools is like signing up for Yahoo Mail or Gmail. Like different e-mail service providers, each has its own look and feel. And they're about as easy to set up as an e-mail account, Griffey said.

However, he added, there are limits to hosted services in that the software lives outside of your control. You don't have complete control over the way your blog looks or treats media and comments. But these tools are easy to use and free. They're good for those just dipping their toes in to blogging; those who want a ton of control in regard to look and feel, plug-ins, multimedia ability, etc., should look into WordPress or Movable Type.

WordPress is the largest nonhosted blogging solution. It's an open-source tool that users download and install it on their machines and then can be modified. Once it’s installed, nontechnical people can use it, but Griffey said you do need a Web server and some sort of IT background to get it installed. It’s the most robust solution available, he said. WordPress also has a community of users active in a forum where you can ask questions, and there are thousands of sites and videos that will walk you through the process of setting up your WordPress blog.

Movable Type has two different models — a free, open-source model and a paid version that users download, like WordPress, but that also offers built-in support base. For nonprofits, Griffey said having that extra bit of support can come in handy.

Griffey also recommended organizations use FeedBurner to provide their RSS feeds. All blog platforms provide an RSS feed for readers to push into their own aggregators (readers), but FeedBurner mediates the RSS feed and provides statistics. So organizations plug their RSS feed into FeedBurner, and it spits out an RSS feed URL to give to constituents. Then FeedBurner gives you statistics like clickthroughs on your feed. It's a great way to measure results on blog posts.

Twitter also might be a good option for organizations looking to get into blogging. Twitter is what is known as a microblogging tool that presents much like a blog, but messages are limited to 140 characters. It’s limited but is another alternative to help get your voice out.

The speakers offered the following best practices for blogging:

Make posts easily scannable. Use bullets to display lists.
Frame your post around key sections that illustrate your points with bold headlines.
Use pull quotes strategically, such as to highlight a compelling comment or good stat.
Display several posts on the main page using excerpts and associated images so Web visitors can get a quick synopsis of your latest articles.
Keep posts to around 500 to 750 words or less. If your post is longer, divide it into a two-part post, which has the added benefit of creating some suspense on your blog for Part 2.
To increase your search engine rankings, use keywords that relate to your nonprofit's issue. A keyword-oriented blog can increase your chances of higher search rankings, which means more traffic to your blog.
Give visitors opportunities to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed (at the top of your blog and at the bottom of a post).
Incorporate a link to "AddThis," at the end of every blog post, which encourages users to promote blog posts.
Promote key articles to colleagues, listservs, reporters and your followers on social networks like Twitter and Facebook
Post comments on blogs discussing similar topics as yours.