Should Your Nonprofit Have a Blog?

Aside from meeting so many of you, my favorite part of this year's Nonprofit Boot Camp was a presentation by Ben Rigby and Jacob Colker. The talk was a sort of crash course in social media, covering everything from blogging to social networking sites to video sharing sites to remote volunteering. At the end of the talk, someone asked, "If my nonprofit were to start using only one of these technologies, which one should we adopt?" Jacob's answer was instantaneous and stolid: "Start blogging." I agree. Blogging is the simplest, fastest way to open more lines of communication with the people who care about your nonprofit. What's more, it offers the people who care about your nonprofit more opportunities to introduce their friends and colleagues to the work that you do.

If you're just beginning to think about how your nonprofit could start blogging, check out this list of the five types of nonprofit blogs. Nina Simon created the list on her excellent museum blog, but Beth Kanter has applied its lessons to nonprofit blogs.

Even if you already have a blog at your nonprofit, understanding the five types is an excellent way to sharpen your focus on whom and what your blog is for. Is it an objective source for announcements about your nonprofit, or does it allow for more subjectivity within established boundaries? What are those boundaries? Will one or two bloggers create most of the content, or will it be a community hub? If you can clearly explicate the purpose of your blog, then it'll be much easier both to create content for it and to position it within a greater online presence.

After thinking about why you're blogging, take a moment to think about who should be blogging. Should the ED blog? No, Katya says, unless she really wants to. Should interns blog? They can contribute, Britt says, but if an intern is your lead blogger, what will happen when the internship ends?

Finally, check out Steve's five secret ways to trick your colleagues into becoming content creators. My favorite is number one: steal it. Engage with your colleagues about the subjects they're experts in. When you get good information from them, offer to post it to the blog on their behalf. You'll have a new guest blogger in no time.

For more insights on blogging at your nonprofit, check out Becky's recent post on the ROI of blogging and Britt's burning questions about blogging. Head to the learning center for Joshua Porter's Nine Lessons and Nine More Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers.

Update (February 24, 2009): Take a look at Dave Briggs' slides and handout from his talk about blogging at Social Media Exchange 2009. Dave's handout offers numerous tips and strategies for using your blog as a strong communications and networking tool at your nonprofit.

Update (April 6, 2009): Check out this guide for bloggers and nonprofits on avoiding libel, courtesy of Public Citizen. It's a useful bookmark for your blogging toolkit, even if you don't blog about controversial issues.

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