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Social Scholar

Writing Blog postsMatt Phillpott

(School of Advanced Study)Matt.phillpott@sas.ac.uk

October 2014

Outline

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• What makes for a good blog post?

• Constructing a blog post – length, tone, sub-headings, multimedia, footnotes

• Structuring a blog post

What makes for a good blog post?

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• Compelling and engaging content

• Consistently good content over a long period of time, published regularly

• Each blog/blogger should have their own style and way of doing things

• There is no right and wrong way

…however, there are things that you can do to better reach your audience.

What makes for a good blog post?- Things to consider

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1.1. Choose a TopicChoose a TopicTake time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for the blog post

2. Crafting a Title2. Crafting a TitleThe title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long

3. The Opening Line3. The Opening LineFirst impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader

4. What is the point?4. What is the point?A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What is the content of the post about?

What makes for a good blog post?- Things to consider

www.sas.ac.uk

1.1. Choose a TopicChoose a TopicTake time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for the blog post

2. Crafting a Title2. Crafting a TitleThe title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long

3. The Opening Line3. The Opening LineFirst impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader

4. What is the point?4. What is the point?A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What is the content of the post about?

What makes for a good blog post?- Things to consider

www.sas.ac.uk

1.1. Choose a TopicChoose a TopicTake time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for the blog post

2. Crafting a Title2. Crafting a TitleThe title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long

3. The Opening Line3. The Opening LineFirst impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader

4. What is the point?4. What is the point?A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What is the content of the post about?

What makes for a good blog post?- Things to consider

www.sas.ac.uk

1.1. Choose a TopicChoose a TopicTake time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for the blog post

2. Crafting a Title2. Crafting a TitleThe title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long

3. The Opening Line3. The Opening LineFirst impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader

4. What is the point?4. What is the point?A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What is the content of the post about?

What makes for a good blog post?- Things to consider

www.sas.ac.uk

1.1. Choose a TopicChoose a TopicTake time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for the blog post

2. Crafting a Title2. Crafting a TitleThe title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long

3. The Opening Line3. The Opening LineFirst impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader

4. What is the point?4. What is the point?A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What is the content of the post about?

What makes for a good blog post?- Things to consider

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5. Call to Action5. Call to ActionA good post ends by asking the reader to do something. This might be a link to related Content, a request to ‘follow us’ on Twitter or Facebook, or something else.

6. Quality control6. Quality controlCheck for errors – try to avoid spelling and grammar mistakes.

3. Timing of publication3. Timing of publicationConsider when it is best to publish the post. This includes which day of the week and the time of the day. When are your readers most likely to pick up on the post?

4. Promote the Post4. Promote the PostTalk about the post on other social media etc.

Blog post length

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• On average visitors to blogs spend about 90 seconds on a page. That’s long enough for 500 words, perhaps 1000 if skim reading.

“The length of a post depends on what it is you are talking about and howMany words are therefore needed”

• However, some successful blogs are much longer:- BBC Journalist Adam Curtis writes full-blown

articles on his blog (roughly 5,000 words with images and videos) - Andrew Prescott (Professor of Digital Humanities) on his Digital Riffs blog writes between 1,000-2,000 words

• Search Engine Optimization – roughly 250-1000 word long articles are considered average length and are thus better picked up by search engines

Making a blog post scannable!

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Lists – Lists – bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly

Headings and Sub Headings – Headings and Sub Headings – Large, Bold words that act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.

Pictures – Pictures – Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at key points and where possible make them part of the narrative OR embed a video.

Formatting – Formatting – Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.

Quotes – Quotes – add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to break up text and draw people into the narrative

Making a blog post scannable!

www.sas.ac.uk

Lists – Lists – bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly

Headings and Sub Headings – Headings and Sub Headings – Large, Bold words that act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.

Pictures – Pictures – Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at key points and where possible make them part of the narrative OR embed a video.

Formatting – Formatting – Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.

Quotes – Quotes – add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to break up text and draw people into the narrative

Making a blog post scannable!

www.sas.ac.uk

Lists – Lists – bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly

Headings and Sub Headings – Headings and Sub Headings – Large, Bold words that act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.

Pictures – Pictures – Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at key points and where possible make them part of the narrative OR embed a video.

Formatting – Formatting – Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.

Quotes – Quotes – add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to break up text and draw people into the narrative

Making a blog post scannable!

www.sas.ac.uk

Lists – Lists – bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly

Headings and Sub Headings – Headings and Sub Headings – Large, Bold words that act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.

Pictures – Pictures – Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at key points and where possible make them part of the narrative OR embed a video.

Formatting – Formatting – Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.

Quotes – Quotes – add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to break up text and draw people into the narrative

Making a blog post scannable!

www.sas.ac.uk

Lists – Lists – bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly

Headings and Sub Headings – Headings and Sub Headings – Large, Bold words that act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.

Pictures – Pictures – Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at key points and where possible make them part of the narrative OR embed a video.

Formatting – Formatting – Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.

Quotes – Quotes – add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to break up text and draw people into the narrative

Writing a Blog post: The inverted pyramid method

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Images/videos/audio

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EXAMPLEEXAMPLE

Adam Curtis is a reporter/journalist but his blog posts are long, not short. However,They are popular because of what he is saying but also how he structures the post.

Curtis is a master of documentary as blog post.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis

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Thank you for listening!

Matt PhillpottMatt.phillpott@sas.ac.uk