Britt Bravo has accumulated a wonderful list of ‘change bloggers’ through suggestions and referrals from readers and facebook members. If you are looking for a good lead on a new blog to add to your reader, check out the list here!
Archive for the 'blogging' CategoryPage 2 of 2
The challenges for days 20 and 21 are such that I want to combine them. Day 20: Three Links Out; Day 21: Make a Recommendation.
The ‘Three Links Out’ idea is that you go to a blog you regularly read and from there click a link to another blog, then from that blog click to another blog, and then one more time. So, you are three links out from where you started. Then leave a comment there!
To explain my steps, I started with a good friend and colleague’s blog: Britt’s Have Fun Do Good blog. From there, I clicked on The Happiness Project in her list of blogs she reads. And from there, I clicked on Design Sponge. So, being the third link, I left a comment. Not only was I surprised by the site I ended up on but was also very excited! I’m a crafter and enjoy craft time alone, in cooperations with my husband, or in groups for crafting parties. I want to recommend to you all that you explore the world that is just three links away and to check out the three sites that I linked through.
Why do I also recommend the three blogs I happened to have clicked through? Because I think that it is important to have a few ‘random’ blogs in our readers that we come across and read from time to time so we don’t let our minds sit in the same pool. And, it’s exciting to take just a couple minutes and find something that interests you that you wouldn’t have otherwise have found!
Let me know where you end up by click three links out!
I’m still catching up with everything and have missed out on many days of this great challenge. Day 19 was “Respond to a commenter on your own blog.” This got me thinking…
If any of you have left a comment before, then you know I do respond. (I’m 99.9% sure that I have responded to every commenter.) The difference is that I respond directly in email with my commenters to continue the conversation in that way. Sometimes, I respond both directly in email and on the blog, especially if it is something that would clarify a question or remark to other readers.
Should I change my practices to responding to commenters on the blog instead of email? What do you think?
It could seem to readers that I don’t reply so there is less incentive to leave a comment. But, as I said, I always respond in email (and sometimes those responses turn into long email chains of conversation with readers.) Should I try to continue responding in email but also respond on the blog? This would definitely take some extra steps on my part but if you all would be more engaged by it, I’d certainly be up to it!
I consider my readers friends and colleagues and cherish the relationship built by responding and emailing personally back and forth from comments and questions. If my responses to comments were all also in the comments area of the posts, I often feel that commenters are less likely to see them (at least quickly.) But, if the relationships with readers was made richer by publicly responding, then I’d definitely change.
So, readers, what do you think? I’d appreciate your thoughts on this very much - and will reply personally in email and publicly!
The 31-Day Comment Challenge, from Michele Martin, Sue Waters, Kim Cofino, and Silvia Tolisano, and others. The goal is to help and encourage all of us to become better commenters all over the blogosphere. See Michele’s post for some additional information.
DAY 1- The Self-Audit
For this activity, do the following:
1. Answer the following questions:
- How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week?
- Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking?
- Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week?
2. Now review Gina Trapani’s Guide to Blog Comments and ask yourself how well you’re doing in each of the different areas. Are there any specific areas where you think you need to do some work? What do you want to do to address these issues?
DAY 2 - Comment on a New Blog
This one is pretty straight forward: leave a comment on a new blog. This doesn’t have to be a blog you’ve never read, just a blog you have yet to comment on. Opening the door to more rounded conversations with someone you are obviously interested in following, or else why do you keep reading the blog? 
I am excited to watch as this 31 days of exploring commenting opens up. I will miss out on the next two weeks but hope to get back into when I return! Be sure to follow along with it through Michele’s blog or someone else’s and see if you can expand your commenting and the comments you receive! Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Change.org is hiring part-time bloggers for the forthcoming social action blog network. The social action blog network will launch this summer and part-time bloggers/editors will create a movement for change around the major causes of our time.
Each blogger will lead an online community focusing on a different social, political, or environmental issue, maintain a daily blog covering news and offering commentary, convene leading nonprofits and activists working on the issue, and help people translate their interests and passions into concrete action.
Change.org’s blog network will include communities around the following issues:
Global Warming
Human Rights
Universal Health Care
Public Education
Homelessness
Peace in the Middle East
Microfinance
Disaster Relief
Racism
Gay RightsHuman Trafficking
Global Health
Darfur
Women’s Rights
War in Iraq
Global Hunger
Autism
Promoting Democracy
Immigrant Rights
Fair TradePoverty
Prison Reform
Humanitarian Relief
Animal Rights
Cure Cancer
Domestic Abuse
Mental Health
Rights of the Disabled
Sustainable Agriculture
…and more to come…
If you are interested, visit http://www.change.org/bloggers for additional details and how to apply.
I was recently honored as Change.org’s social changemaker of the week and am excited to watch, advise, and help with this growing network keeping people around the world connected, informed, and engaged in the major social issues around us. This is a great opportunity to get involved in cultivating a community around a topic that you are passionate about and helping form a larger network of activism and education.
One last live blog from the NTC here in New Orleans. Click on the link below if you want to follow along with (or read the archive of) E-Advocacy: Mission over Membership with Charles Lenchner, Colin Delany, Jonan Compitello, Farra Trompeter:
I am going to live blog another session from today’s NTC here in New Orleans. Click below to follow along live (or read back from the archive) of Targeting Your Message: Values-Based Segmentation and Communication Strategies for Nonprofits with representatives from McQueen Morrow Associates:
I am going to try out the newly released tool CoverItLive to cover what should probably be a terrific panel here at NTEN’s NTC. If you would like to follow along live with me or read back over the live transcript of the Building, Growing, and Sustaining a Vibrant Online Community - How to Reach Beyond Traditional Tools into the Web 2.0 Sphere with Beth Kanter, Susan Tenby, Keith Morris and Abby Sandlin, click here:
Global Voices Advocacy, a group that seeks to build a global anti-censorship network of bloggers and online activists dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online, just released a manual (for free!) on how to start blogging for social change.
The guide hopes to inspire and inform by its simple tips and how-tos. It includes examples of advocacy blogs that cover the gamut of goals and causes. You can read more about it on Global Voices blog here.
What is Blog Advocacy?
Blog advocacy is using a blog to fight against an injustice. People use blogs to fight a wide range of injustices, such as wrongful imprisonment, government corruption, rights abuse.
I think that many people have said, “I really do care about an issue or a crisis or an organization’s work but I just don’t have the know-how to be a ‘blogger!’” Well, this guide is for you! There is so much terrific information sifted down to the simple approaches and directions. This is your ticket to squashing those nay-saying thoughts of not knowing how.
For example, one page (appropriately titled, “If you read just one page…read this one!”) describes what every advocacy blog should include:
- Background info
- Current updates
- A clear goal
- A “get involved” page
- A contact email
Download the guide and get started blogging for advocacy and social change now!
If you are already doing so, download the guide and do a self-test on things you are already doing and areas that you could improve on!
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31-Day Comment Challenge (catching up!)
Day 23: What Makes a Great Comment?
Describe the feature and characteristics of a great comment: Personally, one thing I think makes a blog post interesting, inviting, and better is the questions it asks and not necessarily the questions it answers. So, this carries over to comments. When I leave a comment on someone else’s blog, I like to take a stab at answering or responding to the main question asked but also like to include another question. This keeps the conversation going and what are blogs and comments for but enabling conversation!
Day 24: Comment on a Blog Written in a Foreign Language
There are growing numbers of translating services available online to help you find and read blog posts and websites that are generated in other languages. Although this isn’t a blog, for this challenge I started following and sent messages to a few Twitter users from Madrid. I was actually feeling nervous when I sent the first message in Spanish, but received kind replies and have enjoyed following the new connections.
Day 25: Take a Break!
I have obviously taken a break from some blogging/commenting but it is all due to heavy work load of a project about to launch that I will blog about in a few minutes!
Day 26: Exploring Other Ways to Comment
Explore how you might use multimedia for a richer commenting experience. Consider whether or not you think multimedia is a better option and how it might impact learning.
I am excited by enriching conversations by multimedia commenting and look forward to incorporating more into my own blog. I often find that I begin to leave a comment on another blog and realize I’ve written a few paragraphs and still have more to say. So, I will just turn that comment into a blog post here and link back to the post as a more interesting and fleshed out comment. This is the same for linking back to posts that spur you to get out thoughts using Seesmic, Utterz or something similar. I’m curious if any of you have enjoyed exploring new options for commenting/posting/sharing.
Day 27: What Do You Communicate About Your Personal Brand Through Comments
To me, this goes back to the “What makes a great comment” question. I think that much of what I try to do both on this blog and in the many events/trainings I coordinate and help with is to ask more questions than answer more questions. I love sharing the ideas, thoughts, experiences and opinions I have about nonprofits and social media. But, I think that there is a great deal of value in the questions we can ask to help guide strategies, adoption, decisions, and work. So, in a face-to-face meeting, email, blog or comments, I’m always trying to stir up, consider and provoke questions. How am I doing?
Day 28: What’s Your Blog Commenting Strategy?
Commenting wasn’t something I really looked at strategically prior to this 31 day challenge. Something that I have taken from all of these wonderful opportunities for self reflection and evaluation is that commenting, just like blogging and other social media practices, needs to be done strategically if it is going to be successful and at the same time not drive you mad. There are so many insightful and interesting blogs out there that I could read and comment all day long, every day. That wouldn’t be very strategic, though. I have decided to try to have ‘blogging’ days and ‘commenting’ days where I do one or the other with the amount of time I would otherwise try to spend on both together. So far, I am really finding it a good balance and much less stressful as I’m not worried about commenting too long and not getting to the blog, or vice versa. Do you have a strategy for your commenting? Or commenting rules you use when leaving comments?
There are lots of questions embedded in the different topics above, but, one thing I’d also like to hear from you is a suggestion for a blog you read but have never commented on and what keeps you from taking that next step in the conversation.