Farkas (2007) offers important practical considerations before creating
a blog:
FOCUS
“A
blog trying to be all things to all people usually ends up being useful to no
one” (p. 19).
First, you must determine who you are writing this blog for.
Undergrads? Faculty? Library staff? Determining your audience will inform your
focus.
“The
institutional culture at your library and the interests of your colleagues should
determine your focus” (p. 19)
Once you know who you are writing for, determine what you can write
about that will interest this audience.
“People
will not read a blog that doesn’t interest them, even if you think the topic
would be good for them” (p. 20)
You must also consider the fact that you will have to post frequently
and regularly. It is very hard to post regularly on a topic that does not
interest you.
“…consider
whether you can imagine yourself writing on this topic for years” (p. 23).
Once the focus of the blog has been determined, you must be able to
impart this focus to your audience in an understandable and concise way. This
can be done using a statement of purpose strategically placed in a very visible
place on your blog – so people have an idea of what to expect from your blog.
“If
you know your [audience] well enough and tailor your blog to their needs, you
can make your blog an integral part of your library’s online presence” (p.
20)
SOFTWARE
Investigate the numerous blogging software platforms to determine the
right one for your purposes. The first step is to figure out where your blog
will be hosted. On the library’s own server? Hosting company’s server? Software
company’s server? There are pluses and minuses to each of these choices:
Library’s
server
|
Hosting
company’s server
|
Software
company’s server
|
Free
|
Monthly fee
|
Free (most)
|
Complete control
|
Choose software platform that gives you the most control blog
|
Easy set up
|
Ownership of your data
|
Ownership of your data
|
May be difficult to move data
|
Library responsible for updating software; must deal with unforeseen
technical snafus
|
They handle upgrades and technical snafus
|
High volume can slow down servers
|
Some may add advertisements
|
||
Important things to have considered before choosing software:
·
Software documentation
·
Spam protection?
·
Help contact
·
Customizable? Can blog match style of rest of
library site?
·
Easy to create and delete posts?
·
Archives? Categories? Searchable?
·
Comments? User have to register before
commenting?
·
Permalinks?
·
Back up and store data? Data portable?
AMOUNT OF INTERACTIVITY
You will be posting consistently, but how much interaction with the
users do you want?
“The
focus and audience of your blog will determine in you want to keep comments
open” (p. 23)
MARKETING
“Blogs don’t often
attract a significant number of readers without marketing….Marketing is an
essential part of starting a blog” (p. 25).
There are numerous easy ways to do this:
·
email announcement (including link)
·
include it in newsletter, on the library website,
intranet
·
posters, fliers, bookmarks
·
RSS
“The best way to increase traffic
to your blog is to create frequent, interesting, and well written posts”
(p.25)
Farkas, M. 2007. Social Sfotware
in Libraries: Building collaboration, communcation, and community online.
New Jersey: Information Inc.
