What’s the best time to post on Facebook, Twitter or my blog?

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Tracy Briggs

That might be one of the questions I get asked the most as I speak to people trying to optimize their social media experience. They want to know when they’ll get the most “bang for their buck” with their post. If they’re going to take the time and effort to write on their blog, Facebook or Twitter they want to know when their post will receive the most clicks.

Now bit.ly, the link shortening service, has made it even more clear. They’ve issued a new report that spells how what times of day posts get the most click throughs. And it turns out a college professor of mine way back in the 1980′s was right. More on that in a minute, but first….the results of that study.

Drum roll please….

It turns out according to the bit.ly report, your tweet is most likely to get clicked between the hours of 12:00pm and 2:00pm (Central Time), Monday through Thursday. You should avoid at all costs, Tweeting a link after 8:00pm any night, or after 3:00pm on Fridays. (While Happy Hour doesn’t officially begin until 5:00pm, not surprisingly Joe and Jane Worker are already mentally eating those bar nuts a couple of hours earlier).

The story is similar on Facebook, where the most successful posts hit between 12:00pm and 3pm. So you do have an hour more grace period with Facebook.

Now where does that professor of mine come in?

Let me explain. He used to tell us he would only hold tests between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning. He claimed we college students weren’t out of our drunken stupor from the weekend until Tuesday morning and we were gearing up for the upcoming one by Thursday afternoon. He was a jaded and cynical man. I’m not saying he wasn’t right. But still jaded and cynical.

Okay, so what about Areavoices blogs? Our research backs up what common sense would tell you. Think about how you use the internet. When do you go to news websites? We get our highest traffic on weekdays, right after 8:00am (as people are logging on their computers for the workday), between 11:00am and 1:00pm (logging in and out for their lunch hour) and right before 5:00pm (as you can’t stand to work anymore, you take one more look at the news before the trip home.)

So if you’re concerned about maximum traffic, strive for these times. But if traffic is not an issue, post away day and night to your hearts content. Now I must submit this blog post right now, as it is 2:30pm on Friday afternoon and I’m a half-hour away from those mental beer nuts.

Areavoices Digest #71 – Scenery and History

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Tracy Briggs

A nice mix of blogs to recommend to you today, especially if you love beautiful Minnesota photography and a step back in time. Enjoy!

The North: A blog of scenic discoveries
http://justinmullet.areavoices.com
A blog featuring the beautiful landscapes in the Bemidji, Minnesota area.

Lasso the Moon
http://lassothemoon.areavoices.com
Donna Karis writes about life with a special needs child.

New Plateaus
http://newplateaus.areavoices.com
Learning about the world – Learning about ourselves. Social commentary from Brandon Ferdig.

History of Hastings
http://historyofhastings.areavoices.com
A collection of images and stories from the archives of the Hastings Star Gazette.

Flash from the Past
http://pastblog.areavoices.com
From the archives of the Red Wing Republican Eagle and the Goodhue County Historical Society.

Areavoices “A Team” newsletter: Will your blog traffic go up if you do what this record-breaker did?

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

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The top five things to learn from our #1 blogger

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

The other day I was looking through Areavoices Quantcast data because, well, you know that’s what all the cool people do. Actually, while it sounds a little dull, I find it fascinating. Quantcast breaks down how many people are reading each of our Areavoices blogs.

Almost every month the same guy is at the top of list. His name is Bob King and he’s a photographer for the Duluth News Tribune. But he’s not blogging about that. He blogs about his hobby: Astronomy.

His blog, Astrobob is the number one blog on Areavoices (I’m excluding the Topics blog here because that blog is not really a written blog, but a discussion center for the day’s top news stories).

About 27,000 people across the country read Astrobob every month. That’s double the audience of the second place blog, Bisonmedia. The gaps widens even more when you include the global audience. That puts Bob up to about 41,000 people a month.

I mention this now for a few reasons. I think bloggers and would-be bloggers can learn a lot from him.

First, I think Bob is a good lesson in writing about what you love. As a rule, food blogs and sports blogs will tend to have a higher audience, but this is evidence that if you write something well your audience will find you. You might think nobody cares about what you care about. You wouldn’t have an audience. Wrong. There’s a niche for everyone. Write your passion: find your followers!

Second, he’s consistent. He writes often. His readers know that they won’t go weeks without hearing from him.

Third, it’s visual. Not surprising from a photographer, but Bob includes stunning photography and impressive graphics in his blog.

Fourth, he breaks down sometimes scientific information in a reader-friendly format.

Fifth, don’t always look for the newest blogs to get your Areavoices fix. Sometimes the oldies are the goodies. Bob has been blogging for years and he’s great at it! Check him out! What are you waiting for for heaven’s sake!

Get it? “For heaven’s sake?” An astronomy blog? I’m punning you and it’s only 7:00am. This is going to be a great day!

Check out Bob and the other recommended blogs of the week in a post later today.

The 10 Best Ways to Share Your Blog Post

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

I learned a lot during my college days at The University of North Dakota. For example, Mountain Dew is a weary student’s best friend, the best place to go for cheap after-bar food is The Red Pepper and it might not be the best idea to walk across campus in Bermuda shorts in January for the annual Sigma Nu Beach Blast.

But things I learned in the classroom actually stuck with me too. For example, I remember sitting in journalism class and learning that famous acronym: KISS – Keep it simple stupid.

My professor explained that to be a good broadcast journalist it was imperative that you keep things simple. Make your stories understandable to people not at all familiar with the topic. Why do I bring this up now years after I’ve left the TV news biz?

Because, I think when it comes to building an audience for your blog, you would be well suited to follow KISS. Keep it Simple. (I’ll leave out the “stupid” part because it goes against my sense of Minnesota nice.)

I decided to write about this after getting an email from one of our Areavoices bloggers. She is a consistent poster, writing on her blog nearly daily. But she wants to build her audience and is overwhelmed by all of the sharing methods out there. She notices all of those icons online. What works to spread the word and what’s a waste of time?

My rule, again, KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Here are the 10 best methods for sharing your blog posts with your potential audience:

1. Tweet it. Use Twitter to quickly tease your blog post. But DON’T give it all away within the tweet. Make them NEED to click on the url to see what you’re talking about. To coin another term I used to hear in writing news teases: Make it “vague and provocative.”

2. Post it on Facebook. How many people do you know who aren’t on Facebook? Chances are if they’re not, they’re probably bragging about it. Kind of like those people who brag about never watching Seinfeld. They hold out for a number of reasons. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. (Of course, all those non-Seinfelders out there don’t get that reference). According to the latest statistics, 750 million people use Facebook. Obviously, this is a great way for you to direct your Facebook friends to your blog post. Like with Twitter, DON’T give away too much in your Facebook post. Make them want to read more by clicking on your link.

3. Google Plus. The new kid on the block. The latest figures I’ve seen suggest the newbie is already up to between 5 and 10 million users. I’m on Google Plus and so far I don’t think it’s that different from Facebook. But others claim it has all the best bells and whistles and that within a few years it will overtake Facebook. We’ll see. But for bloggers, it doesn’t hurt to get started. You might find a new audience.

The good news about these top three sharing methods is that if you’re blogging on Areavoices, you already have the capacity to share on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. You’ll see those icons at the top of each blog. Simply click on them and they get sent to those respective platforms. I’d call these the BIG THREE. If you do nothing else, just use the above share methods. That will enable you to reach the most people with the least amount of hassle. But if you want to dig into some other methods for sharing your blog keep reading.

4. Email. A good way to reach people who aren’t as immersed in social media.

5. Texting. Again, another good way to share with friends who are tied to their mobile phones.

6. You Tube. Some bloggers choose to set up You Tube accounts and post the You Tube icon right on their blog. This is particularly useful if you’ve produced instructional videos or tutorials.

7. Linked In. Sometimes your blog post is worthy of sharing with your business contacts. That’s what Linked In is for.

8. RSS feeds. You can add an icon for people to click on which allows them to subscribe to your blog. You can find this option within your Areavoices dashboard

9. Others. This includes the many other social media platforms out there including Digg, Reddit, and Stumble Upon. Each has their own specific selling points. But the point is: if you want to keep it simple, I’m not sure you need to mess with these. If you’d like to, it won’t hurt. But chances are the people you’ll reach in these smaller platforms are also users of Facebook and Twitter, so you might not have much to gain by sharing this way. But again, experiment, you might find these methods suit you.

10. And finally, I’ll end on a crazy note. You can share your blog, by putting down the smart phone or laptop and just talking to people. Mention your blog to people you meet. Don’t be creepy about it. That’s annoying. But mention it when you can. People might be more willing to read your blog if they know the face behind it.

Experienced Areavoices bloggers: What are your favorite methods of sharing?

2 Easy Steps to Posting from your Phone

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

A couple of days ago, a veteran reporter stopped by my desk.

“I just got this phone and now I wanted to write my blog from it.”
I realize that sounds like a declarative sentence, but it was really a cry for help. He didn’t know how to begin.

I realize he’s not alone. Many of you bloggers might wish to post from your smartphones, but haven’t taken the plunge.

I can tell you the water is warm. Jump on in! I’m blogging from my phone as we speak. Let me give you some very short tips on what to do.

1. Go to the marketplace and download the WordPress mobile app. It’s free and loads pretty quickly.

2. Make sure your blog is able to accept remote publishing by going to your Dashboard settings. Click on ‘writing’ and check the box marked ‘enable the Word Press, Movable Type, etc XML-RPC publishing protocols. Click on ‘save changes.’

That’s about it. You should be able to start posting from your phone as I’m doing right now. I don’t forsee a lot of you doing elaborate, long posts from your phones. These little keyboards and touch screens are tricky. But mobile posting is definitely a nice option for when you’re away from your computer. Questions? Just ask. Or feel free to share your thoughts on posting from your phone. Do you do it?

I’m happy to report that veteran reporter from a couple of days caught on much faster than he thought he would. Now I’m watching out for his first mobile post!

Promoting your blog in 5 words or less

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

You know the old saying is “A picture is worth a thousand words.” But I’d like to add a new one. “A tagline is blog gold.” Okay, that’s not quite as catchy as the first one. But I’m trying to make a point about the importance of your tagline.

What is a tagline? It’s the subheadline you have on your Areavoices blog. For example, in this blog my tagline is: “News and information for and about Areavoices blogging.”

The tagline is that subheadline that really explains what your blog is all about. To me, the tagline is just as and maybe sometimes more important that your blog title.

Let me tell you about a couple of blogs that I think really utilize the tagline effectively. Both happen to be food blogs (Maybe I’m hungry.)

Anyway, in Everyday Gourmet, the blogger’s tagline is “Great food without the fuss.” I think that’s perfect. Simple. To the point. You know the theme of this blog.

Another good example, also very short, sweet and to the point is Courage in the Kitchen. The blogger choose the tagline “Reminiscences and Recipes” because he shares stories of both his love of food and the wonderful women who taught him how to cook. Nice.

While both of these examples used short taglines, you can make them longer, funnier or whatever.

Yet, as you go through the blog roll you’ll find many blogs with the same subheadline, “Just another Areavoices blog.” Are all of these people on the same wavelength? Why the same tagline? It’s because “Just another Areavoices blog” is the default tagline given to us by Word Press. In other words, if a blogger does not input their own tagline, Word Press automatically puts this one into your blog.

Obviously, you’re better off coming up with your own tagline that explains what your blog is all about. You know the attention span of people today. Sometimes you need to grab them just with your headline and tagline. They should feel compelled to read a post after reading your headline and tagline.

So how do you change your tagline from “Just another Areavoices site” to your own personalized tagline? I’m happy to report, It’s super easy! Here’s what you need to do.

1. Log into your Areavoices page

2. Click on ‘Dashboard’

3. Click on ‘Settings’

4. You’ll see a screen pop up with your General Settings including your Blog title. On the second line, you’ll see the tagline. Simply type over “Just another Areavoices site” in the field.

5. Click ‘Save’ and you’re good to go.

Personalizing your tagline is the easiest thing you can do to make your blog look more professional and perhaps attract more readers.

Please let me know if you have questions.

Does blogging make you happier?

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

Carolyn Baana’s blog is one of my favorites. It’s succinct and full of usable information to better your life. Understandable, I guess considering what Carolyn does for a living. She’s spent the last few years as a career coach helping people achieve their career and life goals. Luckily for us, she shares her expertise on Areavoices at http://carolynbaana.areavoices.com.

I like her attitude about blogging so much, I asked her to write a guest blog about what she’s enjoyed about writing her blog and why she makes it a priority.

Thanks Carolyn!

A few years ago I spent several weeks working my way through The Artists Way with a group of talented and ambitious women. For those who havent heard of the book, its about finding and expressing creativity. As I went through the process, I felt as if I was never going to find a true creative outlet, being that my artistic side pretty much consists of me purchasing art, never creating it!

Enter blogging. As I wrote my first posts and sent them to friends, one of my Artist Way cohorts replied back, Carolyn, these are your Morning Pages! referring to a daily process of journaling three pages in long-hand each morning (augh!). Blogging is so much easier!

After consulting with a few bloggers, I decided to write every weekday but to keep my posts under 500 words (most are about 250-300). I also had an epiphany on my format while on the treadmill one day such an odd occurrence that it must have made my brains creative juices splash around. I then, as my first post indicated, made my mark and began blogging.

Here are some surprises:

Ive really enjoyed it! Since I began blogging Ive learned that a side-benefit of blogging is that it makes the blogger happier. Similar to journaling, only better.
Blogging makes me think about things a little differently. Im always seeking lessons that I can incorporate into my posts from daily life.
I seek to learn so I can share. Ive sought out books, articles and blogs that I wouldnt have otherwise found in search of information to support my posts.
Its delightful to run into friends and acquaintances that share how they enjoyed a particular post or topic.

It can be work, but a post always comes forward when I sit down in front of the keyboard. Thinking about starting up a blog? I encourage you to make the mark and begin.

Cool changes for Areavoices bloggers

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

Sometimes I get a little scared when my co-worker Zac Echola comes to me with news of systems upgrades. I’m afraid I give him that deer in headlights look and insist he speak to me like I was in the 4th grade. (That backfired awhile back when another techy co-worker reminded me of the technical proficiency of most 4th graders.) Anyway, he proceeded to tell me about the upgrade to WordPress 3.2 effective today.

The upgrade brings some technical changes. To see a complete list go to https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.2

But let me tell you about the changes that will most affect you.

The new default theme for new users will be called Twenty Eleven. That means if you sign up today for a blog it will automatically start your blog in Twenty Eleven. Prior to today the default was Twenty Ten. Twenty Eleven is very similar to Twenty Ten, but has a few more features for handling different post types, which was a feature that came with the last update. I think Twenty Eleven is a really sharp looking theme. I changed one of my blogs from Twenty Ten to Twenty Eleven just by going into the Dashboard, clicking appearance and selecting Twenty Eleven. Here’s what it looks like on my “Ear Candy” blog (that’s my blog where I celebrate embarrassing music).

Besides the sharper looking Twenty Eleven theme, users will also notice increased speed when loading things in the admin. There’s been a lot of optimization done to make things go faster there.

You’ll want to make sure you have updated browsers to use WordPress 3.2. That’s because support for IE6 will be dropped completely. IE7 users may notice problems in parts of the admin. WordPress and Automattic will be dropping support for IE7 soon.

Anyway, we think you’ll like it. If you experience any problems at all please email support@areavoices.com. You can also email me directly and I’ll forward to support if I’m unable to answer your questions.

Sometimes I listen to myself

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

I guess it’s better than talking to myself. I recently wrote a blog post on what to do with your blog while on vacation. I offered 5 tips from leaving it altogether to posting in advance to finding some guest bloggers. I’ve decided to take my own advice. I’m gunna git’ me some guest bloggers.

The fact is Areavoices continues to astound me with it’s success. We’ve gone from a couple hundred featured blogs last year to nearly 600 hundred this week, from 100,000 people viewing each month to 250,000 people viewing this month. That’s according to Quantcast. That’s pretty amazing. The main factor behind the success is simple: the bloggers. They are providing interesting, relevant, entertaining content that people want to read. I’ve learned so much from them since starting this job back in September. Now I want to share this with you (and they were nice enough to agree).

So over the next few weeks, I’m going to provide space on this blog to some guest bloggers. I selected a handful of bloggers who continue to be among the most popular on the Areavoices platform. All of them are continually in the top ten most read blogs attracting thousands of readers every month. They write on varied topics from sports to spaghetti.

I told them they could write about whatever they’d like to write about. But I hope they’ll provide us with a little insight into what makes their blogs so popular. Tips like: what to write about, how to make a story pop, how to use pictures and video, what they like most and least about blogging, how do they work with Facebook and Twitter and what they might do differently if they started their blog today.

Let me know what else you’d like to learn from them. And also, let me know if there is an Areavoices blogger you’d most like to hear from. If I tell them they were specially requested from you guys, they might feel the love and know they can’t say “no” to writing a guest post.

5 things to do about your blog while on vacation

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

We’re deep in the heart of summer vacation season and avid bloggers might wonder, “what should I do about my blog?” It’s not like the dog, the paper or the mail. You don’t absolutely have to figure out how to handle it in your absence. But it’s worth thinking about. Here are my recommendations for what to do with your blog while you hit the beach (or the lake, or your in-laws house):

1) Let your blog have a vacation too: It works hard. Getting commented on and Google searched – it’s exhausting! Consider just walking away for awhile. Clear your mind of all blog thoughts. Isn’t it more fun to count the little umbrellas in your drink than worry about your next blog post? The downside: your traffic will fall.

2) Blog a bit on vacation: I know that’s kind of like being just “a little pregnant” because the true meaning of being on vacation is getting away from it all and that means your blog too. Even so, while on vacation you might find all kinds of new things to write about. There’s potential for fun photos and video as well. The downside: What are you a machine? Sometimes your brain needs a break. You risk burnout.

3) Get ahead of the game: Word Press allows you to post-date your publications, which means you can write all kinds of blogs ahead of time and set when you want them to be published. It fools the reader into thinking that you’re right there diligently blogging to your heart’s content. The downside: You might set a post for publication that might be irrelevant by the time it hits publication. IE: When you write a post on how to cope with extreme hot weather and it gets published on the coldest, rainiest day of the summer.

4) Along the lines of advance publishing consider a “Best of” post: We all have those posts we think were better than the others. Consider bringing that back to life. Add a brief updated intro and you’re good to go. The downside: Some of your more loyal readers might feel cheated. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve already read this one…”

5) Consider finding a guest blogger: Think about having someone post in your place. Maybe it’s a friend or family member. Maybe it’s someone with similar interests or even their own blog. If you write a cooking blog, for example, think about all those great chefs you know. Perhaps they’d like to write a post for you. It’s win-win. You get activity on your blog. They get to promote themselves or their business. The downside: you lose a little control of your blog content, unless you can see exactly what they write ahead of time.

Think it over. Decide what to do. And have a great vacation!

How Google is helping me mine for gold

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

Awhile back my daughter was assigned to draw a picture of her parents at work. She drew a picture of my husband in front of a chalkboard with the words, “My dad teaches chemistry at a college.” For my picture, she drew me sitting behind my desk working on my computer with the words: “My mom is a director-type person at a newspaper.”

I’ve come to realize she, along with most of my friends and family, don’t understand what it means to be a digital content development director. It’s much easier to say I’m a “director-type person.”

The fact is my job is to find interesting, relevant, entertaining community content for the 36 Forum Communications news websites across the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin. I do this by promoting our blog platform, Areavoices. I love my job, mostly because there is so much GOOD content out there. I’m amazed at the quality of writing by our Areavoices bloggers. But with the good comes the bad. And by bad I mean content that is more like spam. That useless information that comes up when you type a keyword into your search engine. That’s why I’m glad to see what Google is up to. They’ve found a way to combat these content farms. I urge you to read this blog post by Sundog, an areavoices marketing and technology blog. (See what I mean about our great content on Areavoices?)

Anyway, from someone who spends her “director-type” person days trying to cultivate quality content, I applaud Google for their actions and Sundog for telling us about it!

Coming soon to a TV near you…

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

A few days ago, I told you about our newest testimonials from happy Areavoices bloggers. Seeing as though we can’t let words of praised heaped upon us go unnoticed, we decided to put them into a TV commercial for all to enjoy. Actually we have six commercials from bloggers Scott Brusven of the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre and MS Simplicity Melissa Schmalenberger. The commercials illustrate how blogs are featured all over the region including Fargo-Moorhead, Grand Forks-East Grand Forks and throughout North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Melissa and Scott share with us why blogging has been so sucessful for their businesses and why it’s an integral tool for anyone targeting customers under the age of 50. But the commercials also tell you more about their blogs and what kind of content they deliver. We’re hoping to produce more commercials in the coming weeks to further spread the message of Areavoices blogging. Why you should read them and why you might want to consider writing one yourself.

To access the commercials, just go to the bar at the top of this blog. Click on “Videos.” When the drop down menu appears, click on “Promos/Commercials.”

If you have any questions, you know how to reach me!

Military blogs: an update

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

An update now on the post I wrote just before Memorial Day. I threw out a question, “Wouldn’t it be great for someone to write a blog to honor our fallen soldiers?”

I heard a resounding “YES” from some of you and even some suggestions on how to make it even better.

The consensus was that while stories of fallen soldiers would be a great way to honor our military heroes, a couple of you pointed out that we should include the survivor stories as well. Great idea! Why not tell the story of the man who lived in a POW camp for 2 years, but came back to Jamestown to work for the railroad for 40 years. What does he remember? What insight does he have?

So many stories to tell. And Areavoices is a good place to start. The platform is yours. Learn more about starting your blog at http://areavoices.com/start and after you start let me know so I can suggest our papers look it over.

And thanks once again to all of you who responded!

Seeking the “Extreme Weather Team”

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

Let’s be honest. Are you getting any work done today? I have to admit I’m struggling a little bit. I’ve been glued to our news websites all day today (fortunately, it’s part of my job, so I can claim that I’m sort of doing my job). I’m fascinated by all of the stories from last night’s severe weather. According to meterologists, the highest recorded wind speed in Fargo last night was 72 miles per hour at Hector International Airport. But wind speeds were most likely higher based upon storm debris.

I awoke to a little debris in my own yard: My neighbor’s trampoline.

My neighbor says she saw it fly away last night and at first she wasn’t sure where it landed. You can tell from the photo that it must have been airborne for awhile. If it had just rolled from her yard (towards the upper right of this photo) into my yard it would have been blocked by trees and garden stakes. As it is only one garden stake is slightly bent. It flew through the air with the greatest of ease.

But my adventures with the flying trampoline pale in comparison to some of the photos out there. Reader-submitted images to InForum are pretty amazing. Maybe, it’s how we all bond after traumatic nights like last night. We like to share our experiences, our photos and our “where were you” questions.

That’s why I’m excited to talk about The Extreme Weather Community Blog Team. It’s something my co-worker Shane Mercer set up a couple of weeks ago to invite people with a passion for weather to write about it. Shane says he has a handful of writers now sharing their thoughts and he welcomes many more. If you’d like to share your insights, pictures, or observations about severe weather today (and into the future) drop Shane an email smercer@forumcomm.com.

Help wanted: A blogger to write about military heroes

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

Bill and Evonne Williams - Courtesy: Omaha World Herald

“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous” – Albert Einstein.

That is one of my all time favorite quotations and something I think about today as we approach Memorial Day and I look back on the coincidence of meeting 2 modern-day heroes who spend their days honoring heroes.

It happened a few years back while I was working on the Honor Flight project, an effort undertaken by WDAY to send area World War II veterans to the WWII Memorial in Washington DC free of charge. I had been working on the project for a few months when I got a call from a man named Bill Williams from Omaha, Nebraska. He said he and his wife Evonne were hoping to start an Honor Flight chapter down there. After visiting for a few minutes, I mentioned that my husband grew up just an hour outside of Omaha. When he asked where, I told him “Exira, Iowa.” But added that it’s a pretty small town and he had probably never heard of it. But not only had he heard of it, he used to live there as a kid when his dad was superintendent of schools. We knew some of the same people. In fact, one of his best friends was my husband’s gym teacher. Small world.

Turns out Bill and Evonne not only took our advice about how to do an Honor Flight project, they soared with it. They raised 1.2 million dollars to send 1,500 Nebraska/Iowa WWII veterans to the memorial. But the Williams haven’t rested on that. These days they’ve formed Patriotic Productions to create and display “Remembering Our Fallen” a traveling photo exhibit honoring nearly 100 fallen Nebraska and Iowa soldiers. Read more about it in the Omaha-World Herald.

Reviewing what the Williams have done made me start thinking. Wouldn’t it be great to have an Areavoices blog where we honor fallen military heroes? Each new post would tell the story of the soldier/sailor. It doesn’t have to be long. Just a photo and his/her story. Can any of you do that? It would be great! And the perfect way to honor our soldiers this Memorial Day and every day. Please let me know if anybody is interested in getting something like this set up. I’d be honored to help you!

The Do’s and Don’ts of Blogging

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

I’m flabbergasted. I am. Does this ever happen to you at work? You swear you wrote that document or turned in that report. But when you go to look for it, it’s not there. That happened to me yesterday when Shelley Nelson, the editor of the Superior Telegram, asked me if we had any kind of a blogger’s guide she could give to bloggers in her neck of the woods. I assured her, that “yes, I’m sure I have something like that.”

Wrong. Well, I do have the blogger’s guide in about 10 different places. I found dos and don’ts, pointers, and guidelines, in Power Point presentations, blog posts, Word documents and of course, in my brain. But I have never compiled them in one place for your reading pleasure. Until now. So with only a little further adieu here is: The Do’s and Don’ts of Blogging on Areavoices:

DO set up an “About” page on your blog. It’s easy to do and is the best way for reader’s to know more about you and what your blog is all about.
DO personalize the look of your blog. We have many different themes from which to choose. Pick one that suits you or customize your blog even more by changing the header and background with your own pictures. (Make sure you pick a theme template that allows you to change the header and background. Twenty-Ten is one theme that allows you to do that.)
DO set up the discussion section of your blog to have “Moderated Comments.” This allows you to read someone’s comment before it appears on your blog. You can allow unmoderated comments, but you could lose some control over the tone of your blog.
DO write as often as you’d like. The best blog posts are ones in which the author wanted to write. Don’t blog one day just for the sake of blogging.
DO think about your audience. What do they want to read? Will they find this blog post entertaining, helpful or boring? Would you want to read this post if someone else had written it?
DO include pictures and video in your blog post as much as possible.
DO write in a casual tone. Formal language doesn’t fly in the blogosphere. Pretend like you’re writing for your friend.
DO keep it shorter rather than longer. 500 to 750 word blog posts are best.
DO give readers links on where to go for more information.
DO know how to use effective tag words in your blog post. After each post, you should go to the box on the side of the dashboard which asks you to include tag words. These are words which describe what you just wrote about. If I write about “Fast dinners on a Budget” I’ll want to tag it “Food,” “Family,” “Money” at the very least. Effective tagging is the most important factor in how you will be displayed on our websites and you’re more likely to be found on Google.
DO pay the MOST attention to your headlines and first couple of sentences. That is what the reader will see. They should convince the reader to read more.
DO know what makes a good headline: attention-getting, question-asking, or lists (IE: The top ten Paul Newman movies).
DO make your post reader friendly. They should be able to skim your content and still get some of your message. Consider using subheadlines, bullet points, pictures, and quotes.
DO follow other bloggers. Be part of the blogging community.
DO comment on other blog posts even if it’s just a “like your blog” or “I agree.” People like to know that they’re being read.
DO read the comments you get on your blog. You don’t always have to approve them. But you should read them.
DO use your blog together with Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
DON’T plagiarize. If you like a blog post or article written by someone else don’t pass it off as your own. Simply write that you found an article or post you liked and then link to that original article. You can add your own comments to it as well.
DON’T get too long-winded. We live in a fast-pasted world. Most people won’t take the time to read a War and Peace length blog post. If you have 10 points to make consider writing 10 shorter blogs in a series rather than one LONG blog post with all 10. Again, 500 to 750 word posts are optimal.
DON’T give away too much on Facebook and Twitter. Use Facebook and Twitter to tease people about your blog post. Throw out a question on Facebook and post the link to your blog post to make them want to get the answer.
DON’T be a jerk. You’re a nice person right? So think twice before you leave a nasty comment on someone else’s blog. It’s cool to add to the discussion, to be a voice of thoughtful dissent. But launching verbal stink bombs (IE: You’re an idiot!) is just very schoolyard bully.

And finally DO have fun and DON’T beat yourself up if don’t get all of this right away. It’s a learning process, but it’s worth it!

By the way, I’d love to hear if any of our veteran bloggers can add to this list. What do you think is the most important Do or Don’t? Do you disagree with me on any of these?

A “silver bullet” worth thousands!

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Tracy Briggs

Often times when I’m visiting with two of my favorite Areavoices bloggers; Scott Brusven of the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre and Melissa Schmalenberger of MS Simplicity I find myself thinking I wish I could just bottle them both up and take them with me as I try to recruit new bloggers. Well, I can’t do that. Their families would miss them.

But I’ve done something close. I got them on camera telling us why they like Areavoices blogging. I’m so excited that they’re sharing their success with you. Scott calls Areavoices “a silver bullet” and Melissa says the exposure she’s gotten through Areavoices and other social media is worth thousands in free publicity. See their videos for yourself. They’re only a minute long.

We’ll have more testimonials to come and watch for Melissa and Scott on TV promos

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