PhilanthroMedia began our work in the world of new media by establishing PhilanthroMedia.org in August 2007.  Since then we’ve produced daily blog content that syndicates to more than 70 community foundations.

More than 450 posts later, we’ve learned a number of valuable lessons about the value of blogging that make us uniquely qualified to guide our clients in answering the questions “to blog or not to blog?  At a high level:

1.  -The Blog Monster is Voracious! In order to keep your content fresh, and to keep readers returning, you have to post regularly.  If you are going to host a blog as part of your communications strategy, be sure you understand clearly why you are making this move.

2.  -Blog Posts are (Relatively) Easy to Write.  One of the best things about blogging is that brevity is expected.  When you come up with a great insight, you knock out three paragraphs about it and see if anyone gives a flying flip.  If they do, you might want to spend more time fleshing it out.

3.  -Blogs Increase Your Visibility on Google.  Try to understand how Google archives your web and blog content and your head may fall off.  Those guys aren’t bazillionaires because what they do is intellectually accessible by the likes of mere mortals.  But two years of posting has shown us the results -- more posts pop up when you use both blogs to advance ideas and make them easy for others to pick up on.

At Pm, we haven’t gone deep into the science of blogs -- but we have learned the pros and cons of how they can be used as part of a broader strategy -- info we would love to share if with organizations aggressively advancing ideas that matter.