I currently subscribe to over a hundred blogs on topics such as nonprofit management, education, business, entertainment, the environment, literature, and politics. I even subscribe to blogs about blogging! But three years ago, I didn’t even know what a blog was.
I know that many of you are new to the concept of blogging, just like I was, and if you’re anything like me, you have an inbox full of email, a desk piled high with books and articles for professional development, not to mention very demanding jobs and personal lives that require time and energy. Do you really have time to read one more thing?
Today I want to tell you why blogging is worth your time as a volunteer manager, but first, let’s cover a few of the basics.
What is a blog? Darren Rowse has answered this question more completely than I could hope to on his own blog, Problogger. According to Darren, “a blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.” Archives, like the ones that appear on the right-hand column of this blog, arranged both by subject and date, are a common feature of blogs. But the thing that most distinguishes a blog from an ordinary web page is the capacity to create a truly interactive environment through comments. A blog is not a newsletter, a press release, or some other species of one-way communication tool. Blogs are about dialogue.
Why blog? Blogs allow you to build community and share ideas around a common area of interest. Have you ever gone to a conference and felt that you gained more talking to your peers over coffee between the sessions than you did in the workshops themselves? That’s what blogging is like—those short, incisive little conversations about the things that matter most to you.
I also believe that blogging is a critical piece of professional development, whatever your field. One of my favorite bloggers, Penelope Trunk, has written a post about why blogging is essential for a good career.
If you’re new to the world of blogging and other social media, Michele Martin’s “Social Media Spiral” is a very useful tool that helps delineate the connections between new media and the older technologies that we are already comfortable with, such as email. Where are you on the spiral?
What does blogging have to do with volunteer management? The stated purpose of this particular blog is to serve as a communications tool for volunteer managers, but beyond that how might volunteer managers use blogs—and other social media for that matter—to advance their work and their professional development?
First, blogging is a way to expand your base of support, whether that is volunteer support or financial support. Second, blogging provides an easy way to communicate quickly and frequently with volunteers, donors and other stakeholders. Third, blogging is a way to build your brand. Ryan Healy used his blog Employee Evolution (another of my personal favorites) to establish himself as an expert on millenials in the workplace. Blogging can do the same for your organization and give you an edge as you seek to recruit volunteers and donors interested in your cause. Finally, as volunteer managers, we often work in isolation and lack an accessible peer network. The Volunteer New Jersey Blog is a place to establish a network of peers to support you in your work.
Ready to join the conversation? The interactive nature of blogging can be a mixed blessing. In many ways, a blog is only as good as its readers. I hope you’ll join the conversation on this blog by making comments. Try it now. Go to the bottom of this post, click on the comment link and write something. Introduce yourself, share your ideas about how else you think blogging might be a useful tool for volunteer managers. Ask a question. Tell me if you disagree with me, and why.
Ready to go a step further? Check out our submission guidelines and send us a guest post.
Carla Ganiel is a nonprofit management consultant
