Blogs are one of the older but enduring forms of dissemination on the Internet. A blog can serve as:
One of the best blog models is Gordon Snyder's ICT Center blog, which offers perspectives on ICT industries and education. On his blog, Gordon does several things that are considered best practices, including extensive linking to other sites (which raises both awareness and search standings) and links to share and comment on information.
Before committing to a blog, browse a few others in your field, considering what their topics are, how often they publish, and what sorts of comments they attract. Here are some lists and examples:
Florida Advanced Technological Education Center
ICT Learning: Industrial Skills Training
Top 100 Educational Blogs (Online Education Database)
ATETV (Information on Producing Video Content)
Blogs can be friendly, accessible ways to communicate with your audience and key stakeholders. The role of a blog should be to help your project or center build and shape your public voice and brand. Before diving in, consider these tips:
Blogger.com is the easiest to use, and has almost instantaneous setup. You can go from blog-less to publishing your first post in less than 15 minutes thanks to an extremely easy setup process. Blogger supports drag-and-drop template editing, and much more.
Tumblr.com uses a shorter even less formal format called micro-blogging. It's a combination of a full-fledged blog and a Twitter feed. It focuses on short, frequent posts that are not much longer than Twitter updates. Tumblr is a great solution for people who aren't looking to commit to a blog as a time-consuming project.
WordPress.com is an open-source platform that offers an almost limitless variety of options: themes, plug-ins, and gadgets of all stripes. It isn't as simple to set up and configure as the others, but once you get going, the sky is the limit. It's also a scalable solution, allowing you to do everything from maintain a single blog with a single user to an entire stable of blogs with multiple users overseen by one site administrator.
Are you interested in more social media uses? Check out the next section: Analytics and Tracking.