Nonprofit Blogging Best Practices: Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Blog and How to Create a Great One

Nonprofit Blogging Best Practices: Why
Your Nonprofit Needs a Blog and How to
Create a Great One
Julia Campbell
November 5, 2013
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Today’s Speakers

Julia Campbell
Principal
J Campbell Social Marketing

Jamie Maloney
Community Developer, 4Good
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4Good/Nonprofit Webinars
November 5, 2013

#npblog @JuliaCSocial @4GoodOrg

Takeaways From Today
 The benefits of blogging – why you need one
 The best platforms to use
 How to get more readers
 How to find and create fresh content

 How to promote your blog posts
 Top 10 tips to creating fantastic blog posts


Before We Begin…
 Blogging is a marathon, not a

sprint. Don’t get discouraged.
 Time, capacity and resources are
needed to do it effectively.
 Every organization, no matter
how small and strapped for
resources, has great stories to tell.
 They key is passionate supporters
– not number of Facebook fans.

Does the world need one more?
It depends.
The key to effective blogging –
quality over quantity!

“You can’t beat the Internet on
volume, but you can beat it on
quality, clarity and perspective.”
– Rich Brooks @therichbrooks


You aren’t writing for “the world”!
You are writing for YOUR
audience. They are unique.
Your audience is not “everyone”.
You don’t need to have 500,000
subscribers to have a great
blog.
You just need to tell your story
and authentically connect
with your audience.

Why have a blog?
 To improve SEO – search engine results.
 To build trust and community.
 To establish yourself as an authority on the issue.
 If you are active on social media, you will always have

new content to post!
 To drive website traffic, email
sign ups, social media
followers and even donations.


Why have a blog?
 Have a blog will continually force you and your

organization to ask the tough questions:
 What impact are we having on the world?
 What would happen if we disappeared tomorrow?


Why not have a blog?
According to Technorati 40% of people that have a blog spend
more than 3 hours per week blogging.
It’s a lot of work – researching and writing posts, editing
posts, formatting them, promoting them.


Establish Goals
As with any marketing strategy, you need a measurable goal to
determine success. (Blogging is not a strategy – it’s a tool.)
You need to know where you are going/want to go.
What is the goal for the blog?
 Establish authority
 More website traffic
 More email signups
 More Facebook fans
 Advocacy


Measurement
Write down 3-4 goals for your blog (should tie with
overall marketing goals).
Think measurement and
benchmarks.
How will you measure?
How will you be held
accountable?
Monthly reporting? Weekly?


Getting Started
 Get buy-in from Executive

Staff and Board.
 Hold a staff meeting and a
Board meeting to announce
that you are going to start a
blog and that ideas for
posts are welcome.
 Educate everyone on the
importance of the blog –
it’s not just “one more
thing” to add on the pile.

Getting Started
 Tell staff, board, volunteers and Online Social Media

Ambassadors about it first. Be excited and enthusiastic!
 Let them know that you are going to call on them to help you
find content and to promote the blog.


Getting Started
 Determine who is going to write the posts and how often.

(Once per week to start is great.)
 Create an Editorial Calendar – either in Google Calendar
or in a document in Dropbox that can be accessed in
multiple places.
 Do not keep the Editorial Calendar and blog ideas on the
server! Get Dropbox or Google Drive.
 Get Dropbox: https://db.tt/xJFmfwG


Editorial Calendar
Some things to include in your
calendar:

 Call to Action (Is there a specific and

measurable action you want to see
from this topic?)
 Post Date
 Author (if you’re not the sole author)  Notes
 Free resources:
 Working Title (or at least a







descriptive idea to the content)
Publication location (is this a post
for your blog, a guest blog, etc.)
Status
Category
Tags
Keywords

 http://www.infarrantlycreative.net

/2012/02/free-printableblogplanner.html
 http://www.business2community.c
om/content-marketing/aneditorial-calendar-for-your-blogtips-and-templates-0465693

Free resource: http://unbounce.com/content-marketing/blog-editorial-calendar/

Choose a Platform
 Talk to your webmaster – what will integrate with your blog?
 My recommendation is WordPress.
 Easy to use (you don’t need to know HTML or code)
 Can manage it from anywhere
 SEO
 Control
 Plugins
 100% customizable

 It can grow
 Multiple users

Blogging Process
4 elements of blogging
1) Research
2) Writing
3) Formatting/Editing
4) Promotion


#1: Research
What to blog about? Ideas for content:
 FAQ about your organization.
 What do you always get emails about?
 What do people ask on the phone?
 TIP: Add a short video to go with it.

 Myths vs. Facts.
 Top 5 myths you encounter regularly.
 TIP: Add links to other blog posts and

articles that support factual evidence –
outgoing links create community and
help make your blog more interactive.

#1: Research
 Video testimonials.
 Stories!
 What is happening in the world? What is everyone talking

about? The government shut down? The Red Sox?
 How can you tie this in to a blog post?

 How To
 A step-by-step list for collecting food for a food drive, organizing a

fundraising walk, preventing elder abuse or calling a legislator.
 TIP: Use a testimonial or a story of a person who took this
action, how they did it and what impact it had.


#1: Research
 Top 10 Tips
 Any number will work.
 Examples: Top 10 Dog

Training Tips, Top 10 Tips To
Keep Kids Active in the
Summer, Top 10 Tips for
Helping the Environment.
 TIP: Make an infographic of
the Top 10 Tips
using infogr.am and post it
everywhere.


#1: Research
 Sign up for free Google Alerts:







http://www.google.com/alerts
Technorati: www.technorati.com
Alltop: www.alltop.com
Keep a list of topics always accessible so you can add to it
when you think of a potential topic (put in Dropbox).
Are you locally based, regional or national? Focus on local
events and news rather than national depending.
Ask your community!


#2: Writing
 A blog post can be 300-500 words and a photo (it does not

need to be a novel).
 Picking a great headline is the most important part.
 Make it catchy and tweetable!!
 Look at other blog headlines that grab your attention.

 Free resource: John Haydon – Time-Saving Hacks to Write

More Blog Posts (Video demo):
http://www.johnhaydon.com/2013/10/time-saving-hackswrite-more-blog-posts/


#2: Writing
 I find it helpful to do a “brain







dump” and put everything on the
page.
The create an outline – a
beginning, middle and end.
Opening paragraph should grab
people’s attention.
One-two sentence paragraphs.
Bolded headlines.
Bulleted lists.

#3: Formatting
 Get photos.
 Canva.com
 Photopin.com
 Morguefile.com
 Flickr Creative Commons


#3: Formatting
 Categories
 Always think of your reader.
 Will describe what the blog is
about.
 Tags
 More specific
 Free resource – How to use

WordPress categories and tags:
http://www.johnhaydon.com/2013
/04/howto-wordpress-tags/

#3: Formatting
Make sure:
 There is a way for

people to subscribe
to the blog.
 There are social
share buttons so
people can share it.
 Experiment with
email sign up/pop
ups.


#3: Formatting
 Enable comments.
 Encourage communication.
 Can be monitored/approved.
 Great WordPress plugins:
 Disqus Comment System
 Akismet (for spam)
 WordPress SEO by Yoast
 JetPack
 CommentLuv – places a link to the commenter’s blog
 WordPress Popular Posts

#3: Promotion
If you write it, they will
come!
Not necessarily…
You need to promote each
blog post.
Great WordPress plugin:
 Publicize


#3: Promotion
 Post the blog to all social media

channels:
 Facebook
 Pinterest
 Twitter

 Google+

 Syndicate to your local Patch and

Wicked Local.
 Create a checklist.


Julia’s Blog Promotion Checklist
Automatically goes to: 
 FB personal

 Twitter

 LinkedIn personal 
 Tumblr

 StumbleUpon

 Reddit
 Digg

 Delicious
 Social Buzz Club

SocialMarker.com
ShareBloc.com
SocialADR.com
LinkedIn groups
Facebook page – add
hashtags
Google+ Community
– add hashtags
LinkedIn Company
Page
 Pinterest


 Scoop.it

 Business 2








Community
Sulia.com
Patch
WickedLocal
Triberr
NetSquared
MosaicHub
Quora

#3: Promotion
 Include in email blasts.

 Guest blogging – look at

Technorati for the lists of top
bloggers in your industry and
contact them to write guests
posts.
 Ensure that readers can subscribe
to your blog to see a new post
when it’s published –either via
email or RSS feed.


#3: Promotion
 Don’t be passive!

 Ask Board, staff and volunteers to

share the blog posts.
 Read them at staff meetings and
encourage comments.
 Make it a team affair.
 Remember – you cannot do it
alone!!!


Questions?


A Word On Content
The Customer Insight Group (CIG) at the New York
Times published a study exploring why people share
content online. People share to:
 Bring valuable and entertaining content to others
 Define themselves to others
 Grow and nourish relationships
 Give self-fulfillment
 Market causes or brands
 How can you help your community do these things through
your blog?


http://nytmarketing.whsites.net/mediakit/pos/

A Word On Content
Spend some time and dedicate some resources to creating
content that is wellwritten, original, compelling, timely, relevant and
interesting.
This may seem like a tall order, but that’s what it takes to
stand-out in the noise of social media.


Keeping Momentum
 Be open-minded and don’t

get discouraged.
 Not everyone will a
superstar blogger.
 Just because someone is
influential does not mean
that your cause will
resonate with them.
 Actively look everywhere
for people who are
passionate about your
cause.

Get Inspired
 Third Sector Today – Nonprofit Blog Post Best of the

Day:
http://thirdsectortoday.com/2013/10/28/nonprofitblog-post-best-of-the-day/


Top 11 Takeaways
Figure out the “why” of your blog and be consistent.
2) Write good stuff.
3) Post at a regular time.
4) Mix up content – How To posts, FAQ, Video Testimonials, etc.
5) Don’t be long-winded.
6) Make sure you keep readers with an RSS feed, email sign up, etc.
7) Promote all posts.
8) Use an SEO plugin.
9) Measure, improve, measure, improve.
10) Incorporate visuals.
11) Be social yourself – comment on other blogs, be active.
1)


In Conclusion
Always think back to your audience.
What are they reading about, writing about, sharing
and commenting on?
What are they interested in?
It’s not about YOU – it’s about them!


Nonprofit Resources
 John Haydon – www.johnhaydon.com
 Nonprofit Tech for Good – www.nptechforgood.com
 Beth Kanter – www.bethkanter.org
 Amy Sample Ward –

www.amysampleward.org
 Problogger –
www.problogger.net
 My blog –
www.jcsocialmarketing.com

Questions?
Tweet me: @JuliaCSocial
Facebook me:
www.facebook.com/jcsocial
marketing.com
Email me:
julia@jcsocialmarketing.co
m
THANK YOU!


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