UKOLN is supported by:

1
Best Practice Marieke Guy and Ann Chapman,
UKOLN Using Blogs Effectively Within Your
Library ILI Workshop15th October 2008
UKOLN is supported by
2
What is Best Practice?

• Main factors are
• Focus
• Audience
• Participation
• Frequency
• Blog etiquette

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Focus

• Decide on the theme
• Dont try to cover too much (2 or 3 focused blogs
  may work better)
• Decide on the voice individual or group,
  formal or informal style
• Sustainability look ahead from the start
• Blog for lifetime of a project
• Long-term blog until end of usefulness
• Long-term blog (e.g. news blog)

4
Audience

• Scope the audience
• Tailor the following to the audience
• Content
• Tone and wording
• Design look and feel
• Be interactive - involve the audience

5
Participation

• Involve the community
• Ask questions
• Ask for ideas for further blog threads
• Encourage comments
• Invite images and video (if appropriate)
• Mini-quizzes and competitions

6
Frequency

• Consider sustainability at the outset
• Regular posts
• Frequent enough to keep interest
• Guest posts (offer to return the favour)
• Reserve posts in hand
• for holidays (can pre-set release)
• when inspiration is low

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Blog etiquette

• Acknowledge inspiration or news picked up from
  somewhere else
• Good referencing
• Good tagging choose your terms carefully

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Measure Impact

• Analytic software and tools
• Whether comments are posted, or ideas, images,
  etc submitted
• Links from other blogs

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Read More

• on the Cultural Heritage at UKOLN web pages ..
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents
  /