Posts Tagged with Blogging
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My Strategic PR Communications students were immersed in blogging this term. In fact, they wrote a minimum of fifteen posts over the course of about eight weeks. And they did a great job. Keeping up that kind of schedule is demanding, as you bloggers know. I want to showcase some of my favorite posts from the term. I have at least one favorite from each student. Best of the Best These six students really took flight with their blogs. The posts I’ve selected here stand out as the very best. Daniel McCrone had two great posts. Daniel’s a really good writer, so I encourage you to hang out on his blog and check out some of his other posts, but these were my two favorites: In Twitter Symptoms May Vary, Daniel explores the five stages of twitter from an older post by Rohit Bhargava. And in Behind Every Success There are... Continue Reading
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It’s that time again! My class of Strategic PR Communication students take to the water and launch their blogs. For many of them this term they’ve blogged before – although not on a topic of their choice, more of a multimedia journalism endeavor. So this is new territory! If you have a moment, take some time to read a few and say hello (what blogger doesn’t like comments?). Crystal Barce Katie Brennan Mackenzie Davids Nicole Hyslop Ayan Jama Caitlin Jarvis Andy Jenness Rachel Koppes Heather Lee Daniel McCrone Isabelle Morse-Dias Julia Neff Alaina Revoir Stephanie Sahagian As a bonus shout-out for last spring’s class & hopefully some inspiration for this term’s ducklings, here are my picks for “best of” from Spring 2011.... Permalink
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I had the opportunity to chat with the staff of the Oregon Daily Emerald about how they can use social media for themselves and the publication.I borrowed liberally from a recent Mashable article, adjusted, modified and expanded it to provide a handful of tips for student journalists. I would preface all of these with the recommendation to sit down and spend a little time setting some personal and professional goals for yourself. Think about what you want to be known for and what you want people to remember about you. Knowing your goals will help you make intentional decisions about where to spend your time and energy when it comes to social media activities. Consider it a personal mission statement. Promote your content Use your social media network to promote your content. Post your articles/blogs on twitter, your links to YouTube videos on your Facebook page. As long as you’re... Continue Reading
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The cost of social media isn’t in the hard costs, it’s in the time costs. Creating a process for yourself will help save time and also make social media activities a part of your routine. If you missed Tip #1, check out my advice on setting up an RSS Feedreader here. I find it challenging to share my personal process because I’ve developed it over more than four years. So take what you think will work and modify the rest to work for you. The point is to have a process, not replicate my process. My process basically breaks down into three categories – making time to track, time to write and time to play. Time to Track You’re doing all this great monitoring with your feedreader, but you have to give yourself time to track – time to read and browse your feeds, your Twitter stream, your Facebook news feed.... Continue Reading
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A new bunch of students from J452: Strategic PR Communication is taking off on a blogging adventure. Students in this class post twice per week: one on a topic of their choice & one based on prompts that I post under the title of “linky love” each week (my best-of for the week). I’m sure my students would love it if you dropped by and read a post or two or even leave a comment. In no particular order… my spring term paddle of ducklings: Ana Strgar Lance Heisler Lauren Switzer Joani Jones Alison Klapper Colette Bryant Sara Hamler-Dupras Brandon Watt Kate Malinoski Kathleen Sumagit-Rivera Allison Moran Jenna Starkey Amy Shelton Nicole Perkins Samantha Luthra... Permalink
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Creating a blog post is really more than just writing good content. The following checklist can help you ensure that your post is readable, findable and shareable. Do you have a compelling headline? There’s some dos and don’ts. Does your post have good structure & provide useful information? Plenty of folks have written posts on how to write posts. Take a look around. Does your post invite feedback or ideas? Did you provide at least one in-text hyperlink? Don’t include links as text, hyperlink them using the “link” button. Did you include an image? (or other multimedia)
Some blog templates require an image, but even if it’s not required, an image helps to make your post more visually attractive.
Try istockphoto.com, sxc.hu, or flickr (creative commons licensed) for images. Or check out some of these sites for free or cheap images. Did you assign a category or categories? Categories help to organize your content. When your... Continue Reading
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When you’re ready to launch a blog, rather personal or professional, it’s important to think beyond just “what am I going to blog about?” Your blog is a window into your professional life and what people see and how they see it is up to you. Have a strategy: Even if you’re creating a personal blog, have a sense of what you want to accomplish with it. Do you want your blog to be informational, to help you to define and explore your thoughts & ideas about working in public relations or maybe show your interest and expertise around a topic or issue? Think about functionality: Think about what you want the experience to be for your readers. Making your blog easy on the eyes and simple to navigate is the first step. But remember that window analogy – what do you want your readers to see? Do you want... Continue Reading
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Image by Kounelli via Flickr Creating a beautiful blog post isn’t difficult. Following a basic structure formula that gives your posts great bone structure will give you more room to drape with creative style, solid information and desirable resources. Craft a Great Headline. Include an active verb and try to squeeze some of your key topic words in as well. The search engines love the headlines and a strong headline will not only attract Google, but will also compel your visitors and regular readers to read on. Write a Compelling Lede. Provided your readers hang around to see what the headline is all about, a compelling lede will keep them reading. Establish what the post will cover, of course, but also flex your best writing muscle and write something people want to read. Start with Bullet Points. Use bullets to outline your ideas in an outline form. If you’re writing... Continue Reading
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We talk about transparency a lot in social media (in public relations, too, for that matter). But what does that mean if you’re a blogger? And particulary, if you’re a new blogger. According to Paul Gillin‘s book The New Influencers, “transparency is about a lot more than just not lying. It’s about opening yourself up to inspection, analysis, judgement, praise and ridicule.” Gulp. That sounds a little frightening. But the blogging community has, over time, worked out some standards and guidelines that are not that difficult to follow and understand. When you get down to the nuts and bolts, transparency in the blogosphere means adhering to these community standards. Some basic rules: Be familiar with the basics of copyright and fair use limitations. It’s important that you don’t plagiarize content (just link to the source!) or present others ideas as your own. Your posts should be well researched and complete,... Continue Reading
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20 Jun 2010, Kelli Matthews