writing (short blogs) and setting up your own blog crystal hall, digital officer, time to change and...
TRANSCRIPT
Writing (Short Blogs) and Setting up your own Blog
Crystal Hall, Digital Officer, Time to Change and Seb Baird, Digital Officer, Time to Change
What this session will cover
•Why short blogs have worked for Time to Change•Content and successful blogs•Structure of a good blog
Blog swap time!
•Setting up your own blog
Why short blogs?
Better experience for people•People reading on the go – we can see this from data and analytics• Series of shorter blogs - #StoryShorts. • Better reader/user experience – likely to translate to return visits to your blog
Great way to get into blogging or focus on one subject•Try out a new subject, or talk about a core experience• Your ‘First Times’ blogs will helped you to think about writing about a experience you had in a different way
Long blogs not forgotten! Great for detail, and for readers on desktop or at home wanting a longer read.
Content of successful blogs
The Power of Stories• Powerful stories are...relatable• Powerful stories make...you think about an issue, topic or person in a way that you might not expect.
Everyone has different metrics for success•Comments •Social media response•Data...look at as much or as little as you want!
Irum’s blog Wayne’s blog
Irum’s blog
• Bold title• Frank, honest•Theme of authenticity
Wayne’s blog
• #StoryShort•Thought-provoking title•A different perspective•Theme of strength and silence
Blog examples
Blog structure
Five Things to Think About•The Arc – the beginning, middle and end•The Audience•The Angle – what’s your hook or theme•The Action – stories need conflict•The Answer – what was the conclusion to your story?
Features of less successful blogs
Blog titles, keywords and search engines
Search Engine Optimisation•How do people find blogs?•When showing you search results, Google takes into consideration the age of the content, the traffic or visits to the page, the links to and from that page, etc.
Let’s play.....
Is it a good title?
A Blog About Talking
How do you tell someone that you’re depressed?
Living with emotionally unstable personality disorder
I talked about mental health with my friend &now I am going to talk to more people about getting diagnosed with depresion
Blog swap time!•Swap your blog with your partner –read for 5 mins•Reflect back to your partner for 8 minutes each (taking turns – 16 minutes total) on:
• What was strong about the blog in terms of:•Storytelling – did it make you think? Was it relatable? How did it make you feel?•Structure – has it got a beginning, middle and end? Does it carry a theme through?•SEO – does the title reflect the content of the blog?
•What could have been better in terms of:•Storytelling – was it missing a ‘hook’?•Structure- did it not flow well? Was it a chunk of text?• SEO – was the title too long? Too generic?
Setting up your own blog
Free platforms •Wordpress.com•Blogger•Tumblr
Paid•Wordpress.org•TypePad•Tumblr
How to choose the right platform?
•Conventional blogging or Tumblr?•Free or self-hosted?
Driving traffic to your blog
Online and social media
•Twitter•Be nice to people! •Re-post older content
Driving traffic to your blog
Other tips for publicity
•Write more!
•Look for partnerships
•Publish to a regular schedule
•Titles & Keywords
•Social sharing buttons
Analysing performance
Most blogging platforms have built-in analytics platforms.
You can look at: •Raw numbers of views/visitors•Demographic data •Popular times of the day/week •How people are coming to your blog
Using analytics is an imperfect science – requires some creative thinking.
Feedback & Boundaries
Feedback & conversation can be a great part of blogging, but you may also need to manage it
Blog comments •You can turn them off & on •Moderate the comments before they appear•You can respond to comments or not.
Building relationships via social media – your choice.
Useful links
Tools for helping you to decide on blog titles:
Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator - http://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator
Google AdWords Keyword Planner – https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner - free to set up
Blogging links in your Little Book of Storytelling
Thank you
www.time-to-change.org.uk
Thank you
www.time-to-change.org.uk
Thank you
www.time-to-change.org.uk
Thank you
www.time-to-change.org.uk