Blogging, Extension Annual Conference 2009

An Introduction to Blogging: Extension

StyleKara Newby, Andy Kleinschmidt, Jamie

Seger, Julie Shertzer, Linnette Goard, Melinda Hill, and Cora French-Robinson

“Our job is not to defend yesterday, but to invent tomorrow”

-Peter Druker, Management Guru

Why Extension?

Lack of knowledge about Extension among younger generation (18-35 yo)

Why the Internet?

Possible Issues?

•Difficulty?

•Time/Task Management

•Communicating Impact

Setting up a Blog

High Touch vs. High Tech

Common Questions How does one find the balance in using

technology and not create a divide in clientele?

Does using technology create more work or less work?

How does one maintain a high touch concept that Extension was founded upon while embracing new technology?

Advertising

The #1 referrer to my blog…. Optimize, evergreen Rapid turnaround of information Backlinking, no Virginia it’s not dead yet Enough is never enough

Only 3 readers on your blog? No worries, those are your best friends. Be patient and give these advertising methods time to develop your readership.

High Touch vs. High Tech

Common questions What technology that you use do you find

most useful? How has the use of technology affected

the amount of clientele that come into the Extension office in your programming?

What upcoming trends in technology are you using, and finding the most beneficial right now?

Finding & Reporting Impact Where do I obtain statistical data? What

kind of an impact is my blog having?

Finding & Reporting Impact Options:

Wordpress.com Statistics For blogs hosted by Wordpress.com (free) Can retrieve blog hit information daily, weekly, or monthly

Top posts & pages Search traffic (i.e. if someone views your blog via a search

result) Subscriber information (RSS feed, e-mail, etc) Referring sites

Move It Miami County dashboard Over 7,900 hits since the MIMC program in March. MIMC program ended second week in May. Blog averages approx. 70 hits per day.

Finding & Reporting Impact Options (cont..):

Google Analytics For use with a Blogspot blog – or – can embed into

any blog (with administrative access) Can retrieve daily, weekly, monthly, yearly stats

Traffic sources (referring sites, direct, search engines, etc)

Top posts Traffic map (see who is visiting your blog nationally &

internationally!) Export data into a PDF or similar view

Family Blog

Finding & Reporting Impact

I have all of this data – now what do I do with it? URS / OSU Pro Monthly Mini-Reports

List of new and updated posts (include “active” links)

One or two helpful comments that were posted to the blog from readers

Overall statistics for that month

Advertising Your Blog

Boost your impact by advertising your blog and posts

Twitter

Facebook

Group vs. Individual Blogging Group Blogging

Blogs that have contributors of two or more people OSUE FCS blog Pros:

Less amount of work for everyone in updating the blog Blog posts could represent a range of topics / authors

could focus on their area of specialization Cons

Blog may seem unorganized, less uniform, and not targeting one specific niche

May require more work: checking with other authors before posting, etc.

Group vs. Individual Blogging Individual Blogging

Blogs that have one contributor/author Van Wert County Ag blog / Parents in Action

blog Pros:

Blog can be more focused More of a “high-touch” blog (readers correspond

with one author – makes for an intimate experience)

Cons More work for one person

Group vs. Individual Blogging Which format is best?

Extension staff Extension clientele