Writing for blogs

Blogging for human rights impact

Why blog?

Expected & understood formatUp-to-dateMatches our contentEasy to use

Personal & FlexibleProvides a space for supporters to feedbackCan be more personalAnother way to reach and educate our audiences

Some inspiration

Some inspiration

Quiz timeBlog, press release or news article?

100 Major Charities Launch Joint Campaign To Tackle Hunger TrapHunger and malnutrition in childhood will trap almost a billion young people in poverty by 2025, according to a major new campaign, launched today by Britain’s leading development charities and faith groups. ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF’ is the largest coalition of its kind in the UK since Make Poverty History in 2005.

What if… a little goes a long wayIn spite of the cold January evening, hundreds people came to Somerset House last night to help launch the Enough Food for Everyone IF  campaign. I was there.I’m familiar with the campaign, and this wasn’t the first event of this kind I’d been to. Yet last night, I felt more excited about what we could achieve by working with other charities, and because of people who might get involved in a campaign like this for the first time.

Anti-hunger campaign 'If' launches with call for G8 to actA coalition of 100 UK development charities and faith groups will on Wednesday launch a major campaign to lobby David Cameron, the prime minister, to use Britain's presidency of the G8 to leverage action on ending global hunger.

Blogging – make it current

Blogging – tell a story

Blogging – it’s OK to have a little fun!

Blogging is now a key part of our campaigns

Writing: the basics

• Short – about 500 words• Concise, active language• Personal – blogging should show a personality• A jargon-free zone• Break up text – consider subheadings or bullets

and use short paragraphs• Clear title• Don’t be coy about calls to action• Images and videos are great!

Writing: make it easy to read

• DON’T WRITE TITLES OR SECTIONS IN ALL-CAPS• Copy newspapers in their approach

– A clear, simple title– Get your key points across in the top paragraphs– Go into more detail further down

• Don’t use internal jargon (Amnesty not AI)• Speak to your reader directly (hundreds of you

wrote… not Amnesty members wrote…)• Put yourself in the readers’ shoes – what inspires you

to read about subjects you’re not an expert in?

Writing: links in your blog

• Link to other sources often– Other blogs on the subject – written by you, us or others.– News items– Background on the AIUK or IS website– Actions

• Link the important phrases:– Join our call for clemency not

we’re calling for clemency, click here to take action.

• Avoid linking general phrases– Click here– Read this– Find out more

Blog titles

• Keep titles clear, concise and interesting• Make it findable – use words in your title that people

might use in Google to search:– 20,674 reasons to bring Shaker Aamer home from

Guantanamo– The secret world of Uganda’s LGBT activists– California remains on death row

• Be careful with punsSearch engines won’t understand them, and readers scan things very quickly – they might not get it.

Check your working!

• Stay credible – check your grammar and spelling– No Americanizations– It’s easy to lose flow as you edit your post, read it back and

check– Get someone else to proof-read, it’s very hard to spot your

own mistakes

• Aim to use 50% of your time to write 90% of the post, and 50% to polish it

• Check again – is it engaging?

Amnesty International

Try it yourselvesCan you write a short, interesting blog about…?

In your groups: - Plan out your blog – what will you cover? - Write an opening paragraph - Identify the jargon you’d need to explain - Think of a title

Blogging inspirations:Zeke Johnson, AI USAhttp://blog.amnestyusa.org/author/zeke-johnson/

C4 Factcheck blog

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck

1 Crown Office Row HR blog

http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/

Next steps

Create an account on My Amnesty

Start using your new skills!

Any questions?

Next steps