Weblogs: The Promise for Nonprofit Organizations

Hello, my name is Marnie, and I'm a blogger. I've been running a personal weblog for four years. I maintain a link blog using the social bookmarking tool, del.icio.us, and I've finally started a work-related weblog .

(If I've lost you here, read Sarah Hawkin's excellent article, "An Introduction to Weblogs ".)

While the mantra at TechSoup -- and for all of CompuMentor's 's programs -- is about emphasizing appropriate technology and not technology evangelism, I'm going to evangelize in this article. I'm going to advocate that you (most of you, anyway) start a weblog.

It's easy to do. You can set up a weblog in fifteen minutes. Really. Search for "weblog" on Google . Spend some time looking around, and then acome back to this article.

10 Reasons You Should Start a Weblog Right Now

1. Updating is easy: It can be difficult to organize information on your Web site. The better weblog tools (such as Movable Type's TypePad, WordPress and Blogger ) have already thought through those issues and deliver templates that give you a functional site at the click of a button. Those same tools give you easy ways -- a bookmark on your browser's personal link bar, the ability to send e-mail to your weblog -- to regularly update your weblog.

   Think about the biggest thing standing between you and a regularly refreshed Web site. Chances are it has to do with the difficulty of formatting and publishing the content. Easy posting means it is easy to create small site updates that provide timely information of interest to your constituency.

2. Links are valuable to your readers: Most weblogs are made up of separate posts that consist of a link with some commentary. These links to other sources of information give readers a reason to visit your site. Your organization's blog can serve as a clipping editor on a particular topic, pointing your readers to the best sources of information so they don't have to do all the sifting themselves.
3. You can become a trusted information source: The more you add useful links to your weblog, the more you become a trusted source for information. For example, Oceana's weblog provides useful and regular information from experts pointing to studies, projects, and other information that I would not be able to find on my own. I therefore see the organization as credible, and that credibility transfers to its other efforts, including fundraising.
4. A Weblog gives readers a reason to visit your Web site regularly: The useful information you post gives visitors a reason to come back regularly. Frequent visitors are more likely to engage with your organization's efforts online and off-line.
5. Weblogs provide a more personal communication vehicle: Writing a formal Web site takes a lot of work writing a polished presentation of your organization, your projects, and your fundraising efforts. The nature of the weblog medium, with its quick and frequent updates, promotes a personal voice that can engage users on a more human level. For example, Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth is a personal, but nonprofit-related site. Andy's voice comes across. Because of this, you feel like you can call Andy by his first name, you can connect to him.
6. Google loves weblogs: Google ranks frequently updated sites with many links (and many links to it from other pages on the Web) as more valuable than those with fewer links. This means that weblogs often turn up very high in search results. If your weblog comes in high, so will your organization's Web site, issues, and viewpoint.
7. Reverse chronological order is wonderful: The vast majority of weblogs display information in reverse chronological order, so that the newest information is automatically on the top of the page. This makes it very easy for your readers to find and follow what is fresh and topical.
8. It's easy to be topical: With the newest information at the top, lots of links, and easy content formatting and publishing, weblogs give you tools that make it very easy to be topical, pointing your readers to the most recent relevant issues and news. Again, this means that you are more useful to your constituency.
9. You can use a variety of media: Look at Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth  weblog again, and be sure to check out the column on the left. There you will find an audio blog with posts that provide, for example, a narrative of what was going on outside of Fleet Center during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. You'll also find Andy's MobilePhlog, a weblog of shots taken by Andy's camera-phone. By using other media in this way, you have other ways to engage with your users. And the blog tools make it easy.
10. The sum is more than the parts: The nine reasons cited so far work together to help you create a valuable, credible resource that points to outside sources, publishes a variety of media, and uses your own voice to engage your constituency in an ongoing conversation about the issues to which your organization is dedicated. Read more in Zafir S. Shah's "What's a Blog, and Why Should Nonprofits Care? "

Okay, So Blogs Aren't Really for Everyone

The success of a Weblog depends on the strength of your message and your sense of audience. For this, you need people who regularly search for valuable information, relate it to your organization and audience, and post it. Easy content formatting aside, this still takes work, time, and commitment. A weblog that was last updated six months ago does not build credibility, it begins to destroy it.

Not everyone enjoys reading them, either. In this TechSoup Community thread Does your nonprofit have a weblog?, you'll see that some people don't like having to follow links to follow a conversation. Sometimes links can even lead you in a circle, without a feeling that you've actually found any new information. Research indicates that weblogs are read by 17 percent of Internet users . That's around 4.76 million users. And some of them could be visiting your site.

(Read part two of this series, "Weblogs and the Nonprofit Sector ".)