Thanks to everyone that’s shared comments so far in this process – it’s been a great experience and I am so thrilled to have such thoughtful, honest, sharing folks like YOU contributing here!

Redesign topic #3: Adding the Extras

When I say extras, I mean the widgets, plugins, apps and other random bits that can really add a bit of flavor, not to mention functionality, to a website. I know that I have some that I really like and imagine you have lots of great suggestions.  So let’s hear them! I’ve broken the two areas down into some of the things I’m already using (so you can weigh in and say “keep that!” or “lose it!”) and then for everything else.  Looking forward to your ideas!

Focus: What Exists

Any of these things worth keeping? I know you’ll be honest!

• Postalicious – this fuels the “round up” posts
• MyBlogLog – this lives in the side bar
• Twitoaster – this fuels the “tweet this” button on posts and replies via twitter in the comments
• Site search
• WordPress built-ins like recent posts, comments, etc.

Focus: Everything Else

There are so many tools out there designed to plug right into a site – what have you used or seen that you recommend adding here? And why?

Please share your responses in the comments – that way others can respond/reply to your feedback as well as leave their own. Matt and I will be both be responding, asking questions, and participating as well! Please share your ideas and feedback!

There are my three most-used WordPress plugins:

Postalicious (Get this plugin)

Postalicious is a WordPress plugin that automatically posts your delicious, ma.gnolia, Google Reader, Reddit or Yahoo Pipes bookmarks to your blog. The exact details of how your bookmarks are posted are very customizable and are designed to meet your specific needs.

I use this plugin to create my Great Reads posts – it lets me find blog posts, stories, news and anything else online that I think is interesting to the readers of this blog and tag it with Delicious, adding my notes about the link in the field in the Delicious bookmark.  It checks for my saved items, and once I have five things it posts it for me!  I really love it

Twitoaster (Get this plugin)

Automatically retrieve Twitter Replies and/or Twitter Retweets to your Blog’s Posts. These Twitter mentions are handled like Posts Comments, using WP built-in comment system.

I like this tool because it brings in conversation from Twitter to the comment stream for the relating posts.  What I wish was improved was the tracking to pull in the full conversation, and not just retweets, etc.

Tweetmeme (Get this plugin)

The TweetMeme retweet button easily allows your blog to be retweeted. The button also provides a current count of how many times your story has been retweeted throughout twitter.

I like this plugin because it puts an easy-to use button at the top of posts for people to tweet out a link to the post if they want to share – it even pre-writes the tweet for you with the link!

What are your favorite add-ons, extensions, or plugins for blogs?

Our first event focused on blogging with a head-to-head competition of sorts and the building of a blogging strategy.

Head-to-Head Blogging

Brave and beautiful participants volunteered to represent some of the main blogging platforms including Community Server, Movable Type, Typepad and WordPress.  We had a cheat sheet with pros, cons and comparisons (if you weren’t there, you can download the cheat sheet here) that was created via crowdsourcing before the event.  I posted the structure and basic content in a Google Document and then published it for others to contribute to – sending them the link via email and Twitter.

Our platform reps fielded questions from the crowd and shared stories from their personal experience using the blogging tools.  Questions included:

• How much do you cost?
• How tech-savvy do I need to be?
• Can I monitor comments?
• Can I control who sees my posts?
• How quick can I get set up?

A winner?  Well, there wasn’t an official vote (though a very important vote was happening back in the US!), but the majority of bloggers in attendance used WordPress.

Blogging Strategy

After our lively ‘debate’ of platforms, we took a step back to discuss what is most important for organizations to consider when just starting out with blogging.  We came up with lots of great things to keep in mind, questions to ask, items to identify, and so on.  After the big brainstorm, we picked out the five most important aspects of starting a blog:

• Identify your goals (goals for content, goals for relationships, goals for measurement, etc.)
• Write about what you are passionate about and know about
• Practice writing blog posts for a month or so without actually posting (you’ll be surprised how much your posts change just in that first month, and you can identify if you are ready to go live or not)
• Use your community (invite staff, volunteers, donors and email subscribers to read and comment)
• Integrate your blog (link and content) with everything you do (email newsletters, handouts, business cards, other social media presences like Facebook)

What would you add?

London Net Tuesday

If you missed last night’s event, that’s okay.  Connect online to be sure you make the next one! If you were there last night, what would you add to this run down?

• What was your favorite conversation?
• Who did you meet?
• What questions did you not get to ask?
• What ideas do you have for future events?

UPDATE:

Miko has posted her terrific run down of the platform comparison.  And here is her post about our strategy conversation.

UPDATE:

Farhan has a great post about the event and blogging here.

Today, Social Actions launched a plug-in for WordPress bloggers that will place ‘possibly related classroom projects’ from DonorsChoose.org at the bottom of posts, so that readers can find opportunities to take action to help classrooms around the world.  DonorsChoose.org “is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals, whom we call Citizen Philanthropists, choose projects to fund.”

Social Action Labs, Lead Programmer, Eric Cooper, really did a lot to make this happen and deserves lots of props.  So does Joe Solomon and Peter Deitz from Social Actions, as well as the rest of the crew.

If you have WordPress, why not check it out!  I will be installing it tonight and you can watch the blog here to see it live in action!  I’d love to hear your feedback about the new plug-in and ideas for other ways Social Actions Labs can be working to build actionable content you and your organization can use!  Learn more on the Social Actions website.