Episode #240
Can blogging really help your organization?
In today’s video, Marlene Oliveira talks about how a small nonprofit organization used blogging to successfully engage new people and build excitement prior to launching a new project.
You’ll learn how the organization overcame the struggle of finding content to share, and who made up their “Blog Squad”.
You’ll also learn how blogging also led to better communications throughout the organization. If you’d like to know even more about how blogging could help your organization, contact Marlene at her website: www.moflow.ca
If you have any tips or stories on how blogging can help organizations, please share them in a comment box under the video. Thanks.
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If you have any tips or stories on how blogging can help organizations, please share them in a comment box. Thanks. 🙂
Marlene,
I’ve also worked with an organization that developed an internal collaborative blogging strategy and the side effect was just as you described: internal silos slowly broke down and staff reached across departments to work together outside of blogging.
Loved all the wonderful examples you gave of how organizations use collaborative blogging. Thanks for sharing!
Best,
Debra
Wonderful – isn’t it great to see blogging serve more purposes and deliver benefit far beyond the original communications goals?
Thank you, Debra!
Over the last year, our Executive Director has asked all staff to share the responsibility of writing blogs about different aspects of the Arboretum. There are one or two staff members who consistently write their blog, but the most of us are time-challenged and write only when we are very inspired or reminded to write.
I like the idea of an internal blog to break down silos. Even on a small staff of ten, it’s amazing how insulated we are. What would I write about? Would I use an educational perspective “what it’s like to have my job?” Would an email be just as effective?
I’ll think about this,write something and bring it to the attention of my co workers at the next staff meeting.
Hi Meg!
Regarding your first point/concern, I find a little planning and structure goes a long way. Does your organization have an editorial plan and calendar in place for the blog? Time should put in at the outset (and then periodically) to determine what topics will be covered by whom and when – with an opportunity for all contributors to commit to what they feel is manageable. Given the time pressures faced within nonprofits, making a commitment and then carving out the time to write might be the only way to get it done.
As for inspiration, it helps to have a list of types of content your blog will feature and then fine tuning topics based on that. I’ve previously blogged on this and share a list of potential ideas here: http://nonprofitmarcommunity.com/content-type-ideas-for-nonprofit-blogs/
Regarding starting an internal blog, it can have wonderful results, but in your organization’s case it seems there is significant risk of adding another layer of tasks for which no one has time. Is that correct? For now, you might just see those silos breaking down as you work together to plan and facilitate a collaborative approach to generating content for your external blog. And then you can build on that success to develop an internal blog!