Collin M. Ruud

OCCRL & BLOGGING

WHY DO “WE” BLOG?

•Do you blog personally?

•Have you read any blogs recently?

•What do you think of blogs?

•Twitter is considered “micro-blogging” – how does

Twitter and blogging compare?

Blogging• More time/space to

use• More links allowed,

for cross-referencing• Better categorization

and cross-categorization

• Pages & “full picture”

BLOGGING VS. TWITTER

Twitter• 140 character limit• Hashtags for

categorization• Real-time,

conversational• Only brief “blasts” of

information• Multiple posts

acceptable

WHY BLOG ABOUT RESEARCH?

Go to http://www.collinruud.com/occrl (testing

Website)

Find the first post “Blogging Links”• Click the first link “5 Reasons…” and read (2-3

minutes)• Click the second link “Is Blogging/Tweeting

Effective?” and read first couple paragraphs• Other links are also helpful – one shares a Twitter

conversation about Blogging about research

More exposure

Greater conversation

“Stories” behind

research

Connects all of our

work• Ties in with Deb’s

“circles” of foci

Time commitment

Weekly dedication

Monitoring

Does personalization

help?

SHOULD WE BLOG?

PRO CON

STRATEGIES FOR BLOGGING

How do we split the labor? Each person

responsible for a blog post every so often?

How often do we post? Do some post more often

than others? GAs vs. full-time staff?

What do we blog about? How often for: our own

research in focus; others’ research in focus; news

items/new developments; focus on a topic; etc.

MAIN POINTS

“Culture of Blogging” or “Culture of PR”• Online discussions, new generations• Look at FINAL link in blog post – read the comments.

• People WANT to share their opinions• (Some are not so eloquent about it)• We will moderate comments but this shows the culture shift

that technology affords

Websites as Organic• Find your favorite news, blog website• How often is it updated? How active are the conversations?• Do we want that?

THAT’S IT.