Are you a blogger or a social media power-user? If so, please read on – we need to borrow your brains for Project TOTO.
ActionAid is putting together a Blog Training Guide for our outreach bloggers Sharna and Joel to use when training the locals in Bangladesh next month and we’d love your feedback on the suggested content.
Below is a (very) rough outline for a Blogger Training Guide we’ve thrown together. But, before we go any further with developing the guide, we thought it might be worth asking you, as a social media savvy TOTO supporter, for your feedback.
As a bit of a backgrounder, the Guide will be used by Joel and Sharna to train ActionAid Bangladesh staff and as well as member of one of our local partner organisations in Dhaka – Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD).
Please read through the outline below and share with us your thoughts and opinions: What works? What’s missing? What would you do differently? Comment away!
PS: Don’t worry about technical capabilities – we will conduct the training in ActionAid Bangladesh’s Dhaka office which has most modern training facilities.
PPS: Also don’t worry about setting up the blog. We will have already done this pre-training.
Blogger Training Guide – initial draft
Module 1 (Introduction) – Presentation and Introduction about the program
- Introduction of the Project
- Introduction of the blogger and his/her blog
Module 2 (Introduction) – What is a blog?
- Nature and purpose of a blog
- How does a blog look?
- Difference blog/website
- Anatomy of a blog: post/header/titles/body
Module 3 (Theory) – Why do we blog – What is the purpose of the TOTO project in Bangladesh?
- Nature and purpose of TOTO in Bangladesh
- Scope of the initiative
Module 4 (Theory) – Know your audience
- Who is our audience?
- How do we engage with our audience?
- What is the content?
- What way do we communicate information (videos/photo/text…)
Module 5 (Theory) – Choosing a blogging platform
- What blogging platforms are available?
- What are the costs?
- Which host server is the best one to choose for your specific needs?
Module 6 (Theory) – Research and resources
- Researching different topics on the web (delicious/Google alerts…)
- blogging resources available
- finding images and videos to use
Module 7 (Preparation) – Choosing your blog look
- Colours, tones, themes and styles depending on your subject and on your potential audience
Module 8 (Preparation) – Making a blogging plan
- What are we going to write about? Many topics or just one specific one?
- How often?
- Are we going to post photos/videos?
- Who is responsible for doing what?
- What is our budget?
Module 9 (Theory) – Start blogging by making first post
- Identify first topic
- Review anatomy of the blog
- Stress importance of readability
- Tips to keep your posts short and easy (minimum text/bullet points..)
Module 9 (Practice) – Start blogging by making first post
- Write together the first post
- Aim to readability
Module 10 (Theory) – Start blogging by doing: adding photos
- Identify subject related to the topic
- What do we want to show through our pictures?
- Instruction on how to use the camera
- Essentials of photography and composition (research together?)
Module 10 (Practice) – Start blogging by doing: adding photos
- Go out and take picture on the spot
- Select appropriate pictures
- Uploading pictures on the blog
- Commenting and explaining the pictures
- (Creating a gallery?)
Module 11 (Theory) – Start blogging by doing: adding videos (interview)
- Identify person to interview
- Organise appropriate meeting
- Identify topic
- Write down list of potential questions
- Identify appropriate device (video camera vs camera…)
- How to use the device
- How to achieve minimum standards quality video (still camera, zooming, position of the interviewer and of the person interviewed, composition)
Module 11 (Practice) – Start blogging by doing: adding videos (interview)
- Conducting the interview
- Watching the video together
- Editing the video (might include subtitles?)
- Uploading video on the blog
- Introducing the video to our audience
- (Creating a gallery?)
- END OF OUTLINE –
So… what do you think?
Tags: actionaid, blogging, citizen journalism, outreach blog, outreach blogger, project toto, social media, technology, training
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If you’re a blogger, please take 5 mins to look through our Project TOTO Training Guide – ActionAid needs your brains: http://bit.ly/cmXdaN
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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If you’re a blogger, please take 5 mins to look through our Project TOTO Training Guide – ActionAid needs your brains: http://bit.ly/cmXdaN
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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Calling all bloggers – ActionAid needs your brain for Project TOTO: http://bit.ly/cmXdaN Pls RT
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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I rushed right over here as soon as I read your email to ask one simple question: Why on Earth did you choose two people who have never blogged before to be your outreach bloggers?
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Both Sharna and Joel have blogged before, although neither would define themselves as “pro-bloggers”, I suspect.
When we set out to find the next bloggers we had multiple criteria which we believed were vital to success for the next outreach blog – among these were social media expertise and passion for the cause.
In the end, we found that it was hard to find people who were both social media “experts” and really passionate about the cause. We chose Joel and Sharna because they had the best mix of both.
Also, social media expertise is not necessarily the most important factor given that we aren’t training people to become pro-bloggers – we’re really starting with the basics (“What’s a blog?” is likely to be the first question, rather than “What the best WordPress plugin for SEO?”) – and Joel and Sharna are more than capable of delivering that.
The reason for this post, is to get a wider perspective and input into the training guide that will hopefully be rolled out again and again in country after country.
So any input pro-bloggers might have into its development to make sure it’s water-tight is much appreciated. Wisdom of many…
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The outline is excellent and comprehensive, in my opinion, and addresses the most fundamental questions right at the start:
* what are we trying to communicate?
* who are we trying to communicate with?The key to good blogging, in my opinion, is being very specific in what you try to do with each of your blogs and allowing each to have its own unique voice – one that can easily be heard by your target audience. If you have a different message to give or want to try a different angle, start another blog. I have 100′s.
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Outline looks very thorough. Comments as follows:
– Totally support the inclusion of the section on understanding the target audience. This is critical, and probably needs a fair bit on emphasis. Remember that you will have multiple audiences (both geographically and in terms of interests). Need to address how you meet multiple audience needs.
– While I understand the value of a section on choosing a platform, I would have thought that this was pre-determined for your project. If so, then you wouldn’t want to spend too much time on this.
– A blog has a “voice” – you need to be clear on how you present this voice. This should probably be specifically added in somewhere. If you have multiple authors, you need to do some work on how they work together to present a coherent voice.
– Given that many of your bloggers will not have English as a first language (assuming they will be blogging in English), do you need to have some specific training on English writing and grammar?
Otherwise, that looks good to me.
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