Category Archives: Blogging
Social Media Marketing Year In Review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 24,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals
Top 5 Blog Posts of 2011
In the tradition of new year’s eve reviews, here is a list of the top five posts of 2011 on Social Media Marketing for Non-Profits, ranked according to most viewed.
How do you monitor online conversations about your organisation?
Prezi for professional presentations
How to bring your on and off-line audience together
Are you missing out on this SEO tip?
Optimize Your Website Images
Did you know that Google’s results rank images?
But there’s a catch!
Search engines cannot see images so you need to do a little work to optimize them.
Use Alt Text
Alternative text or Alt Text is used by Internet browsers to display a description of an image. It is also used by people who are visually impaired. Don’t ignore this option when you are including images on your blog or website.
Use Captions
Always caption your images, keeping the caption brief but as descriptive as you can. Make sure you make use of your keywords.
Similarly, when uploading your videos on YouTube, make sure you insert targeted keywords for your business in the video title and description and include a hyperlink back to your website.
Join me at Bloggers International
Building a successful blog takes know-how, strategy and effort. Having navigated my way through the early days of blogging by myself, I know just how much hard work this can be!
So I am delighted to be taking part in Bloggers International, a place where you can find answers to your blogging questions, learn more about blogging strategy and network with fellow bloggers and all in a friendly supportive environment.
The event takes place next Wed evening, 29th June, 7.30pm at the Heritage Hotel, Portlaoise and will take the form of a bloggers clinic. A panel of blogging pros will be answering your questions on both the technical and creative sides of blogging. The Irish panel consists of Beatrice Whelan, Niall Devitt, Amanda Webb and myself.
Submit a question and win a prize
You can submit questions before the meeting and there will be prizes drawn for those who have submitted questions.
Click here to submit your question
Can’t attend in person?
If you can’t make it in person but would still like to take part, you will be able to view answers by video link (if prebooked and prearranged) on the facebook page and on twitter by following the hashtag #bi11.
Hope to see you there!
Visit http://www.bloggersinternational.com to find out more
How to use your blog to project personality
So, did you come up with your 3 personality traits? Then you are all set for today’s lesson – how to use a blog to project your non-profit’s personality.
You will hear me say again and again how much benefit can be gained from setting up and maintaining a blog for your non-profit. Among the many advantages is the fact that you can get across your non-profit’s personality through blogging. How do you do this?
1. Personalise your writing
Write in the first and second person. Write I or we when referring to your non-profit organization and address your audience as you. Whoever you choose to take care of your blog, make sure they are passionate about your cause and tell them not to be afraid to let that passion shine through their writing (one of the biggest tips I give new bloggers is to pick a topic they are truly passionate about if they want to be a successful blogger).
2. Show your face
Let your audience know who is blogging, tweeting, or maintaining your Facebook page. It’s up to you whether you use just a name, or a name and a picture, but do make sure you humanize the process for your readers.
3. Show and tell
Think back to your 3 words – perhaps you chose words such as honest, compassionate, friendly, caring or helpful as your particular personality traits.
Now show us!
Use your blog to tell stories that demonstrate these traits at work in your non profit. And speaking of stories, tell us the stories of those you have helped or want help in the future; tell us the stories of your volunteers and your founder(s). Stories connect us to others, help us to find commonality and increases our empathy.
So once again, I want to reiterate that your non-profit personality reflects your brand and how you are perceived by everyone who comes into contact with you, your employees and your volunteers. Make sure everyone is on board with this and that it is consistent across the board (from your letter heads to your emails to your social networking). Your non-profit’s personality is one of your most important assets, so look after it wisely.
What’s your brand personality?
Let’s start off with a quick exercise – make a list of all the different personality traits you can think of and then pick three that best describe your nonprofit and/or which three you would like it to be known for.
Some examples that spring to mind:
- Caring
- Creative
- Determined
- Enthusiastic
- Focused
- Friendly
- Hard-working
- Helpful
- Honest
- Involved
- Opinionated
- Responsible
- Responsive
- Serious
- Trustworthy
- Warm
Projecting your organisation’s personality is vitally important, because in essence it’s your brand – what you are known for and how people perceive you. I would go so far as to say that your brand is your nonprofit’s most valuable asset. It is how you connect with and form emotional bonds with your supporters.
One of the main reasons I recommend blogging to non-profits is because it is a great way to show your brand personality. You can use it to display your trustworthiness, your transparency, your stories, your warmth, your enthusiasm and your humanity and as a means of building rapport with your audience.
Exploring the question of what your brand personality is/should be is a useful tool to use across the board – it helps ensure consistency of tone and message in all your communications (both on and off-line). Furthermore it can throw up inconsistencies in how you want to be perceived and how you are actually perceived by the public. (I run a communications audit with my clients before we even think of taking your brand online).
So what three personality traits best describe your non-profit? And if you are reading this and thinking but my organisation doesn’t have a personality, then this exercise is definitely one you need to do!
Come back to me tomorrow with your list and I will show you some practical ways in which you can use your online communications to project your personality.
Until then..get thinking, get writing and get ready to take the next step in successfully branding your non-profit organisation online.
Exploding Media Conference
Last week I attended the Mash 2011: Exploding Media conference in the Croke Park Conference Centre and I came home buzzing with new ideas and contacts.
20 speakers from Ireland and abroad came together to give us their take on how the media has changed in the last 5 years and how it’s set to change in the next five. It was a superbly run conference and well done to the organizers for hosting such a terrific two days.
I loved the digital media lab, run by ten journalism students from DIT. They did a fantastic job blogging, interviewing and reporting and you can check out the results on the Mash Storify page, YouTube channel, blog and Flickr account to see just how its done. Well worth a look!
Why do you blog?
Following on from yesterday’s post on the state of the blogosphere, here is an interesting infographic on bloggers’ primary motivations for blogging.
Key Findings
- Self-expression and sharing expertise are primary motivators;
- 39% of corporate bloggers blog to get published or get features in traditional media;
- 57% of self-employed say they blog to attract new clients to their business;
- Hobbyists measure their success by personal satisfaction;
- Professional bloggers measure success by unique visitors;
- Overall, respondents feel that blogging has had a positive impact on their personal lives;
- 63% of respondents agree that they have become more involved with their passion areas as a result of blogging;
- 62% agree that they have made friends through their blog whom they have interacted with online but not met in person;
