Nonprofit Blog Exchange & Connecting with Blogosphere

Sometimes I’m asked about what a blog is and whether or not an organization should have one.

Sometimes organizations are unclear about the difference between a blog and a bulletin board or discussion board. Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal written by one or more authors that is frequently updated, usually with posts in chronological order and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or authors and can provide timely and interesting behind the scenes perspectives. A bulletin board or discussion board is a place where people can post messages on various topics. These are generally organized by discussion topic.

Here is a link to an interesting article about nonprofits and blogs: http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/section/466.html

Because I have a blog and write about issues of interest to nonprofits, I’m participating in the nonprofit blog exchange. Learn more about the exchange and the other orgs involved here.

As part of the exchange, each participant was asked to look at another participant’s blog. I read the Green Media Toolshed blog. They have an excellent posting about The Importance of the Blogosphere. It talks about the fact that blogs are becoming an important source for news – especially news not covered in the main stream so even if you don’t have a blog for your own organization, you should be tapping into blogs that cover the issues of concern for your organization. You can send press releases to blogs. You might even consider advertising on blogs.

NPR had a great story on this topic the other day too. It was about how bloggers are not just lone writers anymore. They are organizing themselves into networks. The story compared the evolution of blogging to the evolution of radio and TV. You can listen to the story online here.

When you think about it, the Nonprofit blog exchange is actually a great example of how those people who work for or with nonprofits can organize as a group of bloggers.

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