Last night the Hubby and I had dinner with old friends we had not seen in a while at Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse. You know those hibachi places– they don’t foster quiet table conversation. Instead, the conversation tends to be located at whatever end of the table you are at.

I was sitting next to my old friend, Joe, who is a minister who has accepted the charge of starting a new church (Church Planting) for a local conference of a major Christian denomination. He clearly loves his job. However, he readily admits that due to a number of circumstances the task is harder than he expected. Careful not to be seen as complaining, he embarked on a brief conversation of the obstacles that he was facing.

Immediately, it was clear that one of the first steps to solving his problems was to establish some sort of web presence. I was immediately reminded of Toby’s post over at The Medical Blog Network where she discusses the plight of a new neighbor seeking a dentist. In her story, gone are the days of the Yellow Pages, now folks are using the internet to locate businesses and learn more about them. She goes on to conclude that blogs are a good part of a marketing strategy. Previously on her blog, she discusses the role of blogs in a not-for-profit marketing plan.

I have been thinking about not-for-profit blogs because of my work with the animal rescue. However, my conversation with Joe last night has gotten me off of my duff to investigate a little further.

What are the benefits of a blog to a not-for-profit?

Tom Murphy over at PR Opinions discusses the benefits of “Charitable blogs”. He says:

Why should charities be interested in blogs? Well there’s loads of reasons:

  • Advocacy: Blogs are the perfect medium for creating platforms where passionate and articulate individuals and organizations can clearly communicate their views on issues and drive the debate.
  • Accountability: When people give to charity, often the most powerful means of keeping them involved is to show them how their donation is being used. Blogs provide the perfect platform for demonstrating the results of fundraising.
  • Show and Tell: Can you think of a more powerful tool for charities that using blogs to showcase the issues they’re facing or trying to solve on a daily basis? Whether it’s aid workers blogging in a foreign country or homeless people sharing accounts of their lives.
  • Every other benefit of blogs: Blogs promise organizations many benefits, and alongside the first three points, they offer charities exactly the same benefits. Whether it’s about conversations, knowledge sharing, search engine optimization etc. blogs can help

    • Wayne Hurlbert at Blog Business World recently posted that not-for-profit blogs can help SEO efforts but encourages organizations to blog on issues that are pertinent to their area of service. Here the idea is that blogging provides a good avenue for people to find you and if you blog about things that are important to your organization that translates into people having a better idea of who you are and what you are about.

    More questions…

    Now, I have a good idea of some benefits. Unfortunately, I have more questions. Big Surprise…

    I suppose I best sign off with a To Be Continued……

    Technorati tags: , ,