Social justice blogging is not for the faint-hearted, but it can make a difference.
A colleague of mine recently asked me for some tips on starting a new social justice blog, since I am a 'veteran' of this blog genre. I thought I'd share them with you too, to show blogging can be effective for more than just the "tech glitteratti."
1. Be prepared for media requests.
This is one thing which totally caught me off guard. I just considered myself an average citizen trying to raise awareness on an issue.However, bloggers are now considered to be legitimate journalistic "go to" sources - just look at the presidential debates. So,out of nowhere, I'm getting email requests for interviews from MSNBC, Chicago Tribune, ESPN, etc, and I was totally not expecting it. You'll need to weigh the risks of blogging in your own voice and identity, depending on how volatile your cause is. The media respects if you use an alias. By all means if your interview is posted on the web, post the link.
IMPORTANT: I learned this the hard way. Make the press call you, so you don't burn up your cell phone minutes. Seriously. I was usually on the phone for 30 minutes to an hour, and they may use one quote from the whole conversation anyway.
2. Search Technorati for other Social Justice bloggers and reach out to them.
This is beneficial for a lot of reasons. First you can get ideas on how to structure your blog,linking opportunities,etc. Secondly, reach out to the blogs you like and ask if they'd consider linking to you once you have a couple posts under your belt. I've found most of the time they are happy to do this if you email them. I've made some terrific friends and contacts through this experience.
3. Utilize Blog Widgets (Add-Ons) Where It Makes Sense.
I've found the most worthwhile add-ins to be Technorati, delicious, Twitter, and link this. You can spend too much time on these easily, so once you familiarize yourself with them, pick a couple to incorporate into your blog and go with it. After using eveything under the sunshine it seems, I've found Technorati has most of what I need.
4. Comment on Other Social Justice blogs - a lot.
This helps get your blog and name out there to other audiences and give readers a chance to click your profile and see what you're about. I found once I built up a cadre of posts,
5. Have a Plan for the "Tin-Foil Hat Wearers"
(props to David Churbuck for hipping me to this term.)
Rest assured, the lunatic fringe (aka tin-foil hat wearers) will read your blog and either comment or email you. To protect yourself:
- Set your commenting feature so that you have to approve them before they are published.
- My rule was I would publish comments I didn't agree with, as long as they were civil. Even my biggest detractor on the blog wrote me and thanked me for allowing him to be heard. Again this will boost your credibility among the blog community.
- Ignore any "lunatic fringe" emails unless you are threatened.
- Try not to let your emotions get the best of you, or you'll write posts you regret later.
- I found that the racist/sexist people would only email me, rather than comment. Some I responded to, some I didn't - just depending on my gut feel.
6. Install a Visits counter and check it regularly.
My favorite is SiteMeter . The reason is sometimes online newspapers or blogs with big followings link to you and don't tell you. You have these huge traffic spikes and
you don't know why. SiteMeter shows you where your traffic is coming from by referrals,location, what link they came in on or left on, how many pages they view etc. Google Analytics does this well also, but I found it was more detail than I needed for my purposes.
7. Look For News Sites that Post Links to Blogs on Your Topic
The way this works is: if you link to a story on say, Super Tuesday, some news sites have a link list that shows "Who's Blogging About______?" with links to those blogs. So, if you link to that story, your blog may appear in the list. It is a good way to build your traffic,get other points of view on your cause, and network with those bloggers.
Let me hear about your experiences out there and any lessons learned you may have.
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