How to make an interesting blog postIt’s not just about writing!

Sanjana Hattotuwa

TED FellowArchitect and co-curator, Groundviews

youtube alone

• 48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day

• Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day

• Users upload the equivalent of 240,000 full-length films every week

• More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years

time is your enemy

think of design, style & technology

1. Title: Simple, short, captivating, SEO friendly (issue, region, country, actor) keywords, spend some time

2. Post: Use sections, block-quotes, use categories or tags, images and photography (attribute!), link to other sites, embed social media, be focussed, add to conversation

3. Other post hooks: Call to action, petition or poll

4. Language: Clear, concise, captivating, challenge creatively

5. Style: Prose and satire to poetry and haiku

6. iOS & technology: No Flash, publish and design for mobile

7. Strategy: Time publication (and republication on social media, e.g. for SL and US audiences), reference older posts and output

think of social media ecosystem

• Think of social media ecosystem and pitch the story accordingly:

1.Reach: Blog, RSS

2.Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, MailChimp

3.Added value: Google Maps, TimeToast, Bundlr or Storify, Wordle

4.Tie ins: Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo

leverage social networking twitter

twitter as a storyhttp://groundviews.org/2012/04/18/the-questions-unanswered-by-amb-robert-blake-mapping-us-engagement-in-and-concerns-over-sri-lanka

leverage social networking via facebook850 million+ users

more people spend time on facebook

augment reach via facebook

example of social media appealgroundviews.org/2012/04/23/bigoted-monks-and-militant-mobs-is-this-buddhism-in-sri-lanka-today/

readers across media, under 24 hours

• Facebook : 426*234 = 99,864

• Twitter : 44*126 = 5,544

• Blog post : 3,991

complement & connect

google maps, flickr, timelines

even more beautiful timelineshttp://timeline.verite.co/#

bundling social media, adding value through curationhttp://www.bundlr.com & http://www.storify.com

word cloudshttp://groundviews.org/2010/01/15/visualising-mahinda-chintanaya-2010-the-presidents-election-manifesto

Sarath FonsekaMahinda Rajapaksa

use email for greater retentionhttp://mailchimp.com

create an app for greater reachhttp://www.theappbuilder.com

take home

take home

• Think beyond text. Online is not print.

• Think beyond prose. Online can be satire, verse, haiku!

• Think of photos, audio, video. Rich media tells stories, adds context.

• Think of crowd-sourcing & open journalism - the audience are the producers.

• Don’t suggest you know everything. Use the community to add value to story.

• Link to other stories online, they add value.

• Use new platforms to connect, deliver, archive, present.

Thank yousanjanah@gmail.com