Why would government departments want to blog?
I suppose the subtitle and subcontext would be why would anyone want to read a government blog? It sounds like a recipe for more spin, doesn’t it? However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality of posts on certain government blogs, particularly when they know exactly who their audience is, like OpenData BC does. In addition there are some great “internal to government” bloggers who are both insightful and personal – unfortunately you can only access their work if you are work for the BC government.

The follow-up to this question is, of course, can government do a better job of blogging? It would be great to have some government communications people weigh in on this question. In fact, maybe I don’t want to do a speech on this so much as I want to moderate a panel.

Another topic was “Why I love Weaver, and how it has made me better at CSS”
Weaver is a very interesting template, in that it isn’t really a template so much as it is an approach to designing in WordPress that takes all the scary CSS stuff I’ve never bothered to learn, and makes it accessible to writers like me. I’d like to go through the Weaver Adminstration section in a Weaver-based site, and customize the 2011 template to look like something quite different than Weaver’s standard templates. I’ll show how it uses CSS formatting to make a customized theme in the same way as a traveller might use a phrasebook. Handy stuff.

The third topics is… shoot, I don’t remember the third topic. And that in itself is probably a good enough reason not to consider it.

So there you go, social media public. Tell me which topic stands out for you, and I will work with the folks at WordCampVictoria to make a great presentation. (Or, if you hate all of them, I’ll make the coffee at WordCamp….)

Heather is inspiring!  Figuring she had to fit time into her busy day to blog, she has developed her own strategy: use the 20 minute cycle commute to work to record her video blog!  And why not?  That’s when she gets  her ideas, and her iPhone is set up with a clip that attaches to her bicycle handlebars, so she can pedal and record at the same time.  The result?  It’s something like this:

How cool is that? OK, there must have been some time invested in editing and so on, but she’s fitting both the cycling and the vlogging (video blogging) into her life, and Heather is a self-confessed workaholic. If you don’t cycle you could try drive vlogging, dinner prep vlogging, laundry vlogging, bath vlogging… ok maybe not. But the possibilities are endless!

BTW, yes I missed yesterday’s blog because I “didn’t have time”. This post is my comeuppance.

What happened in the meantime?  The short answer is – I needed a break.  2009 was an incredibly intense year, in which I found out what happens when you start a business on no money, and try to do everything yourself.  It magnifies both your strengths and your weaknesses.  And by the autumn of last year, I was running on empty.  So I escaped to the “security” of paid employment in a completely different field, and I did my best to take care of my family.  It took a bit longer to take care of myself as well, but that seems to be coming along, too.

As of right now, I am looking for more work in the communications field (where I have always been at my best). I’ve also signed up for Social Media Camp on October 3rd, and I’ve just finished the seminal book, “Here Comes Everybody” by Clay Shirky.  Those three things alone deserve separate posts.  So stay tuned.

Going this route instead of putting together an e-newsletter via Constant Contact, AWeber, Vertical Response or any number of other email messaging services represents a shift in how I’ve communicated online these past couple of years. I’m used to the email blast, to carefully crafting a newsletter with a few different articles, and to putting calls to action in all of it.

With Feedburner, I’m simplifying things – a lot. And that is good, because frankly putting together my own email newsletter was beginning to feel like a huge task that I really didn’t want to take on. Now, if a reader likes my work and wants to stay up-to-date with what I’m doing, he or she can subscribe to the blog via email. I can post articles, let my readers know where I’ll be and what’s coming up, and I can even blog cool deals… and it only has to be done once – not repurposed and put into a newsletter format.

And as much as I’ve had tons of training and experience in marketing, I am taking a laid-back approach – I know I’m tired of all those call-to-action formulas, so I imagine you are, too. I hope that this way, you’ll get good content and nothing but the content.

This move also recognizes that, while many people are adopting tools like Google Reader or Flock to stay on top of their favourite blogs and news sources, many more still depend on email to stay in touch. These are the folks who don’t blog themselves, don’t read blogs, and really would rather not learn that skill right now. I get that. Feedburner lets me stay in touch with them their way.

Feedburner works best if, like me, you are not a daily poster, but are more likely to put out something of significance once a week or so. (Lately, I’ve been specializing in the “or so” – next habit to improve: consistency!)

So, do you care to join me in this experiment? If so, just put your email in the box. I look forward to keeping in touch this way!

I’m surprised it doesn’t mention the big social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) – but whether you produce your own media on your own channels, or hang out on the larger social networking sites, his analogy still holds.

What do you think?

1. Stick to a publication schedule. You can blog weekly, twice a week, even every day.  But do your best to be consistent.  On average, I post once every week or two, and really, that’s not enough, in frequency or consistency, for someone in the communications field.  It’s difficult enough to build up a readership without making it extra challenging for your reader to find new material from you.  This is the rule that makes me feel like a “bad mommy” blogger.  So there you are – post something – anything that makes your heart beat a bit faster will do.  And post consistently.
2. Understand the difference between blogging and writing an article. This is going to help immensely with point #1, because ultimately, blogging is easier and more free-form than writing an article.  You can make your post whatever it wants to be, including some recent pictures, a comment on someone else’s blog, or a top 10 list.  If you are blogging for a business purpose, then I would suggest that you remember the keywords that work for your business, and try to stay on topic.  But don’t feel that you have to write a Pulitzer Prize-winning article.  You just have to share what you know, or have experienced. Content is definitely more important than style.
3. Try to keep your posts on the short side. When we read on the web, our attention spans are shorter than when we read in print – or so I’m told.  Frankly, some of my favourite bloggers create very lengthy, literate posts (Karen Rivers of iSpuddle is guilty of this, but so funny that it’s worth persevering through 400o words of her latest synopsis of The Bachelorette.  Speaking of which, Karen, where is Episode 10?  Were you camping or at the beach again when it was on?).  But for your average person who does not write for a day job, you are doing yourself and everyone else a favour when you stay within 500 words, and highlight your points with a bulleted or numbered list.  These are much easier to write, and easy to scan quickly for information as well.

There!  See?  Blogging isn’t all that scary – just get your information out there and let people know that you are someone they can do business with, or at least find interesting enough to make a return visit.  And once you are done, remember to blow your own horn by letting the social networking world know that you have launched another little nugget of wisdom into the universe.  Share it on Facebook.  Tweet it out there. You can even ask me how to set it up so your electronic online places talk to each other and do the publicity work for you.