Questions to ask when you’re hiring a blogger

by | Apr 6, 2009 | Social Signal

Michael Haggerty of Trellon, a Washington, DC-based Drupal shop, asked LinkedIn Answers:

I need to hire a blogger, someone who can write about open source and issues affecting non-profits. Basically, I need someone who can take ideas from my team and synthesize them into something that sounds right on our blog. Dunno how to find someone for this position, evaluate his / her skills, or set expectations. Would appreciate any advice.

Clarification: There has been a lot of feedback on this topic – to be clear, I have no interest in outsourcing. I want to hire someone to work for me directly, and am really asking what kinds of characteristics to look for when evaluating candidates aside from writing skills.

Here are the chief characteristics I’d look for:

  • Do they currently blog in a voice that’s somewhere in the neighbourhood of what you’re looking for? Your preference is people who won’t have to force a different tone to their writing – although they should be flexible enough to take direction.
  • Are they crazy-passionate about social missions and open-source… without actually being rabid? You want passion and knowledge, but not someone who gets into reader-alienating rants.
  • Have they met regular writing deadlines before? A candidate can be a lovely writer… but if each post takes a week to craft, you probably won’t be getting value for your investment.
  • Do they engage with the broader web world? You want someone who doesn’t just create blog posts, but can spur and develop productive conversations – both on your blog and elsewhere.
  • Do they know how to promote a blog post? Your ideal blogger doesn’t just write something terrific: they head out into the social media world and drum up interest.
  • Do they understand social media beyond blogging? Your best candidate will be as comfortable engaging followers on Twitter and commenting on YouTube videos as they are cranking out high-quality blog posts.
  • Do you like and respect them? You’re going to need to have a meeting of the minds… and as intellectual an exercise as that is, it also requires a level of personal rapport. Plus an engaging personality is a must for connecting with your audience.
  • Are they outgoing? Their work may well take them away from the keyboard to meetups, one-on-one conversations, phone interviews and video calls as they research blog posts… and even if it doesn’t, you want them to be an effective ambassador for your blog in their day-to-day informal conversations.
  • Do they *really* get the non-profit sector and open-source? A lot of people have a vague, arm-waving idea of what non-profits are up to, but don’t understand their culture and unique challenges and strengths. The same goes for open-source.

Re. how to find someone (if you’re still wondering about that), and assuming you’re also doing a traditional candidate search, here are a few thoughts on finding folks through other means as well:

I’d start by doing some personal networking – search LinkedIn for the keyword “nptech”, and you should get a list of non-profit technology practitioners in your network. Let them know what you’re looking for, and ask them for leads.

Next, do a Technorati search on the nptech keyword – through their blog directory in the first instance, so you’re not overwhelmed by search results – and see if you can find promising candidates. You (or an assistant) can sift through the results for bloggers who match the profile you’re looking for.

You can also drop by the Washington, DC Net Tuesday meetup and put feelers out there. Net Tuesdays bring out non-profit tech practitioners, with an emphasis on folks on the social web side of things.

Finally, Beth Kanter is an international treasure, and her blog is a fantastic source of links to non-profit bloggers, as well as all other things non-profit.

Rob in Vancouver Sun story on Facebook “Photo Stalker” app

by | Mar 26, 2009 | Social Signal

Do you know who’s looking at your Facebook photos?

A lot of people don’t know that Facebook’s default privacy settings expose their photos to the world. And for a stranger, browsing your snapshots of that crazy drunken office party may be as simple as installing a new Facebook application called Photo Stalker.

That’s the word from Vancouver Sun reporter Gillian Shaw, who interviewed the app’s developer.

Carcione said he developed the software because there was no other way to pull up photos that are posted with “everyone” as their privacy setting, and he also saw it as a way to generate revenue from ads on the application site.

“That’s what people go on Facebook for, to look at pictures of their exes,” he said. “They are going to be able to spy on people, which they weren’t able to do before.

“People are just curious, stalkers, I don’t know. The name is perfect, only stalkers would want to do that.”

She also interviewed me… after having a stroll through my Facebook photo library. (I’m cool with that – there’s nothing embarrassing on there, and we know each other, although we weren’t Facebook friends at the time.)

Cottingham’s online photo album was among ones I perused with Photo Stalker. I also randomly punched in Facebook ID numbers and saw a number of photo albums for users showing everything from personal pictures from the U.S. presidential inauguration to photos from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s Harvard sophomore year dorm, various vacations, living quarters, parties and other events through recent years.

Cottingham said that while “strictly speaking” Photo Stalker doesn’t violate Facebook’s terms of service, he said it is unlikely people posting photos on their profile sites will expect them to be found by a Facebook application.

“Is this going to come as a pretty rude surprise to them?” he asked. “To the extent that you are taking advantage of people’s naivete or carelessness or just lack of understanding how a platform works, I think you really have to ask yourself what it is you are doing and why you are doing it.”

So if you do have pictures on Facebook of yourself, say, running around with fairy wings and a wand when you were supposedly off work sick, now might be a good time to rethink your privacy settings. If you’re logged into Facebook, click here… or just navigate as follows:

  • From your Facebook home page, click the “Settings” button at the top right, just to the left of the Search box.
  • Click “Manage” next to “Privacy”.
  • Click “Profile”. (And now’s a good time to look through all of those settings: are they what you want them to be?)
  • Click “Edit Photo Albums Privacy Settings” under “Photos Tagged of You”.
  • Choose the settings you want for each album.

10 ways to maximize your blog’s ROI: Part 6, telling a story over time

by | Mar 25, 2009 | Blogging, Social Signal

Not every story fits in a few neat paragraphs – especially stories that are still unfolding. Maybe you’re taking on a major advocacy project. Adding a green roof to your office building. Or tracking an intern’s apprenticeship in the skills and culture of your industry.

Either way, you have a story that can engage readers over an extended period: weeks, months or even years. And when it’s a story that reinforces your brand and engages readers, you have something with the potential for real value… if you can tell it to them.

But telling that story through traditional channels can be difficult. Advertising is expensive, and it’s a major commitment to devote an extended ad buy to one story; news media, while they may cover you from time to time, almost certainly won’t broadcast every development – and there’s no guarantee they won’t lost interest.

A blog, on the other hand, lets you tell an extended story easily. Devoted readers can follow every development via RSS; others can check in from time to time. And if your story is a compelling one, you can build an audience over time – people joining you halfway through can experience it from the beginning, thanks to your blog’s archives.

Commenting allows readers to become part of the story, whether it’s by cheering from the sidelines, as active participants with offers of help and support, or as story-tellers in their own right, inspired by your tale. That’s the kind of engagement traditional media can’t offer.

Here’s how to put extended story-telling to work on behalf of your organization and your brand:

  • Tell the right story. You’re looking for something aligned with your brand (which doesn’t have mean a story about your brand itself, but rather a story that reflects its underlying attributes and values). You want something that’s interesting to your readers, and can sustain that interest over time. And you want a story that you can tell well – where you have ongoing access to the people involved, so you’re delivering first-hand information to your readers.
  • Look for concrete details. Any good storyteller looks for those nuggets of tangible, sensory detail: the way snow squeaks under a construction worker’s boots in extreme cold, the tangy aroma of cilantro hitting a frying pan, the papery-thin skin of an elderly woman’s hand clasping yours. Used judiciously, they can bring a story to life.
  • Use photos, audio and video. They can often tell your story more efficiently and more evocatively than text. The right sound or image can quickly engage a reader’s senses and emotions, and impart a sense of immediacy and shared experience – especially when we’re seeing people’s faces and hearing their voices.
  • Stories are ultimately about people. Find the people behind your story, and let us hear their voices. A choice sentence quoted from someone at the heart of the story can do much more for you than paragraph after paragraph of factoids or statistics. Pair it with a photo, and you can deliver something with real power. And don’t feel like you have to bring in someone new in each post; seeing how someone’s situation and perspective change over time can be one of the most engaging parts of a story.
  • Stories are also about conflict. What are the opposing forces in this story? Who are we cheering for… and against? The “villain” doesn’t have to be a person or organization; often, we’re fighting against time, a natural disaster, illness or a social condition.
  • Identify your theme. Usually a particular story speaks to some deeper idea… hopefully, one that has a lot to do with your brand or mission. That theme should help keep you on track as you tell your story… as well as helping you find echoes of your theme on other blogs that can open up opportunities for engagement and conversation with them.
  • Welcome the new reader. You want to build your audience over time – so it shouldn’t be hard for someone to get up to speed on your story. That might be hopeless with, say, Lost… but you can include a sidebar with an overview of the story so far, linking to a more detailed summary page. And consider offering an occasional “the story so far” post.
  • Involve your readers in the story. Can they suggest something – a name for a new building? Can they collect questions to pose to the people at the centre of the story? Encourage conversations about the story in your blog’s comments, and keep those conversations going with your replies. And if your readers can have an impact on the story’s outcome – by raising funds, for example, or lending some volunteer labour for an afternoon – find a way to make that possible.

And here are three ways to tell when your storytelling is building toward a happy ending for you and your organization:

  • Your story’s audience is building over time, enhancing this channel and extending your reach.
  • Your readers begin talking about the story and the underlying brand values, on your blog and elsewhere in the social web.
  • Other channels – including the news media – pick up on the story.

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