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Using Blogs Effectively Within Your Organisation

Case Study 1: The UK Web Focus Blog

Brian Kelly

UKOLN

University of Bath

Bath, UK

B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/mw-2008/workshop/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/mw-2008/workshop/

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Resources bookmarked using ‘mw2008-blog-workshop' tag Resources bookmarked using ‘mw2008-blog-workshop' tag

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

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Contents

IntroductionCase Study 1: The UK Web Focus Blog

• Background• Launching• Sustaining• Learning

Reasons For Having a Blog

Approaches to Providing a Blogging Services

Institution Barriers

Addressing the Barriers

Sharing Best Practices

What Next?

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Background

UK Web Focus blog• Launched on 1 Nov 2006,

following comments at ILI:It was rather embarrassing to be singled out as the only non-Blogging speaker in a Web 2.0 session at ILI 2006 conference!

Chose WordPress (hosted):• Popular • In-house technical expertise

not needed• Avoided possible concerns

over policies, content & workflow

• Still happy with it• Widgets are useful (but would

like greater flexibility)

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Example of sidebar blog widgets (many are available)

Example of sidebar blog widgets (many are available)

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Launching (1)

The initial posts:• Explained blog’s scope,

rational and scope• Ensured there was

documented policy • Got reader’s on my side

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Launching (2)

Once I’d got some readers I ask them what I should do next:

• Invite comments• Respond to comments• Comments on other peoples’

blogsThis is approach which is still being taken (901 comments on 237 posts)

Thoughts:Blogging, in this context, is about discussion and engagement. It’s not about publishing and workflow.

Thoughts:Blogging, in this context, is about discussion and engagement. It’s not about publishing and workflow.

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/11/06/scope-rationale-and-policy-for-this-blog/http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/11/06/scope-rationale-and-policy-for-this-blog/

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Launching (3)

But how did people find the blog to start with (especially as there was a sort launch):

• Web 2.0 gurus (Paul Miller, Phil Bradley, Karen Blakeman) used their search skills (automated alerts for ‘UKOLN’, ‘JISC’, etc. keywords)

• They blogged about my blog

• I got traffic from them – which was sustained

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/11/12/blog-statistics-2006-11-11/

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/11/12/blog-statistics-2006-11-11/

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Monitoring (1)

The Technorati search engine can provide valuable information related to your blog:

• Who has linked to one of my posts?

• What are they saying?

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http://www.technorati.com/search/ukwebfocus.wordpress.com

http://www.technorati.com/search/ukwebfocus.wordpress.com

This information can be valuable:• If they’ve linked to me, I might

be interested in their blog• I can respond to their

comments

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Monitoring (2)

http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ukwebfocus.wordpress.com

http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ukwebfocus.wordpress.com

Technorati can also provide information about your blog:

• What is its ranking and authority?

• Who has added it as a favourite?

Authority: number of blogs linking to a your blog in the last six monthsRank: how far you are from the top (the smaller your rank, the closer you are to the top).

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Monitoring (3)

Blotter provides an automated graph of your Technorati statistics

• Useful tool• Helps spots

unexpected peaks and troughs

Such objective statistics may be useful:• For spotting trends• For gaining an understanding of how blogs work• For making comparison with one’s peers• For getting statistics at little effort for reporting purposes

But there are also many limitations (blogs may have focussed audiences, blog aggregation, statistics may be flawed, …)

Such objective statistics may be useful:• For spotting trends• For gaining an understanding of how blogs work• For making comparison with one’s peers• For getting statistics at little effort for reporting purposes

But there are also many limitations (blogs may have focussed audiences, blog aggregation, statistics may be flawed, …)

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Learning

What have I learnt:• Writing: use of a conversational writing style

makes it easy to write. Blog provides a valuable tool to document & share ideas & get feedback

• Open comments: helps to get feedback with a barrier to user, but …

• Blog comment spam: can be a problem, so an automated spam filter is needed.

• Maximising impact: is important for me, so making information available in many places is valuable (even if this skews statistics)

• Blended blogging: is great – blog on topic before talk and get suggestions; blog afterwards and get feedback

• Widgets: can enrich the blogging environment

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Questions

Any questions?