Inspiration for Innovation:

The Blogosphere Social Tech Training

Jun 2009

Agenda for Today

  Overview: Social Media Today

 Who are the Bloggers & Who’s Reading Blogs?

  Blog Strategies

  Open Dialogue: What’s Working for You?

Overview The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Top Takeaways

  Blogs are here to stay

  Bloggers are not who you think

  It’s not just about text

  Blogs are not newsletters, but dialogues

  Blogs are communities

What is Web 2.0?

 Web 1.0 = Information and Transaction

 Web 2.0 = Connecting People to People

What is Web 2.0?

Civilisational Shift

Who Are the Bloggers & Who’s

Reading Blogs? Is it just guys in their parents’ basements?

Let’s Take a Look: Examples of Great Blogs

  Greenpeace

 NRDC Switchboard

  ThinkProgress

 Media Matters

  AK2UK.com

About blog readers

  About 22% of American adults read blogs

  The median age of a blog reader is 25-45

  Their median household income is $60K to $80K

  About 50% have left a comment on a blog

  80% of MySpace Users are over 18

Arketi 2007 Web Watch Survey   100% of journalists say they rely on the

Internet to help get their job done.

  25% of journalists say blogs make their job easier.

  60% of journalists say they spend more than 20 hours a week on the Internet. When asked how journalists use the Internet:

  98 percent say reading news   97 percent say emailing   93 percent say finding news sources   89 percent say finding story ideas

  72 percent say reading blogs   67 percent say watching webinars or

webcasts

About bloggers

  10 percent of Internet users blog

  Only 11 percent of these bloggers talk about policy and politics – most blog about life experiences.

  Bloggers tend to be younger

  They are equally men and women and are from all over the country.

  Bloggers tend to be more ethnically and racially diverse.

  27% of bloggers also use Twitter

How Powerful?

  70% of journalists read blogs for breaking news and story ideas

  91% of Congressional offices track blogs

  Only 12% don’t think they matter to the media

  75% of time on local blogs, 25% national blogs

Hispanics Online

•  19.5 million Hispanics online – most are English speaking or bilingual

•  Largest ethnic audience online in U.S.

•  89% of Latinos who have a college degree, 70% of Latinos who completed high school, and 31% of Latinos who did not complete high school go online.

•  In February 2008 the average Hispanic-American over the age of 11 spent more time online (56%) than watching television (50%)

•  More likely than whites to use IM, Internet TV, Mobile Internet, blogs, and multitask

Blog Strategies Back to the Future

Public Relations 2.0

Traditional Journalists Gain authority by being: -  Objective -  Exclusive

Bloggers Gain authority by being: - Subjective - Collaborative

Media outreach now includes bloggers

Your organization’s blog will benefit from passionate opinions backed with facts that attract others to follow and report the story.

Cheryl’s Tips

  KISS -- Keep it short, sweetie

  Don’t send a press release (send the link)

  Personalize & compliment

  Link to other bloggers who’ve blogged it/media who’ve written it

  Don’t be afraid to follow up & re-send

  A blog isn’t a newspaper; it’s a community center.

Cory’s Tips

  Have a link that’s relevant and permanent

  Don’t send PDFs

  Send downloadable (sharable) audio or video

  Add a url to photos

  Offer high-res photos

  Contact through the stated, preferred means

Blog Promotion

  Integrate blog into your outreach

  Send email to your list announcing blog

  Automate tweets from your blog

  Make sure your bloggers are also tweeting other bloggers

  Send key blog posts to email list

  Include blog in direct mail

  Consider Flickr, MySpace and Facebook links

  Check comments in all social networks

Blogs & Major Donors

Open Dialogue & Exercise

Let’s hear from you

The Blogs and Your Org

 What’s working for you? – Success Stories

 When didn’t it work? What happened?

10 Min Workshop

  Break into groups,

  Choose 1 org

  Create a quick audience-appropriate blog strategy that supports your mission

Blog Resources

 Find Blogs & Bloggers Using:  Technorati, Search.Twitter.com and

BlogPulse

 Read Blogs Using:  FireFox, Jott, Bloglines, NewsGator

 Launch Blogs Using:  Moveable Type, TypePad, Wordpress,

SoapBlox, Blogger

Top Takeaways

  Blogs are here to stay

  Bloggers are not who you think

  It’s not just about text

  Blogs are not newsletters, but dialogues

  Blogs are communities

Cheryl Contee www.FissionStrategy.com

email: cheryl@fissionstrategy.com mobile: 202.487.8711

twitter: ch3ryl