Minnesota

A community blog is only as good as those who use it - both those who blog and those who check it to get the latest news, information, and discussion. If you want people to visit your blog, you have to let them know that it is out there. People will rarely, if ever, stumble upon your blog by themselves (But it does happen, just ask the bloggers in Chisholm!).

Here are some easy tips for promoting your community blog:

1. Send out an email announcement introducing your blog to the community. Start by sending it to your friends, and having them pass it along to their friends. Or find a contact who owns a list with many subscribers, such as local businesses, schools, chambers of commerce, or other.

2. Include your blog address in your email signature. Just add your community blog URL to your email signature by changing your options to have it automatically included, or by manually typing it each time you send an email to people you think might be interested.

3. Do some good, old-fashioned self-promoting! Create business cards or fliers and leave them out where community members gather. Contact your local newspaper, community newsletter, radio or television station and ask them to do a story on the blog.

4. Link to other websites. Other nonprofits, chambers, government agencies, local businesses, and even other bloggers often have a designated area where they link to like-minded organizations - similar to the sidebar option on your own community blog. Don’t be afraid to ask others to link to your blog, and be sure to return the favor.

5. Have a contest! Similar to the contest the Minnesota blog just announced. Drive people to your blog by offering them incentives to participate.

6. Have a Blog Night where you teach others how to blog. Some communities in other Horizons states are holding blog nights where they do a seminar on what the blog is, it’s role in the Horizons program, and how to blog. It’s a great way to spread the word, create community, and get more individuals blogging.

The community blogs are an important tool for increasing communication and helping you to create change though the Horizons program. There is no single solution that will work to get all communities involved. Be creative and be proud of the work you do on the blog!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Tips for Bloggers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.