Blogging Ideas for a Voluntary Sector Charity
Many social sector organisations and charities have yet to leverage the full potential of maintaining a blog.
People often see it as too time consuming or find it a struggle to come up with subjects to write about. Some people just don’t know where to start and don’t see the potential benefits of blogging to their service.
Maintaining a blog means that your organisation’s web pages are being regularly updated with content, which gives search engines a reason to index your website in their rankings. If your website doesn’t have content, then people are unlikely to find your services when searching for them online, therefore a blog is an essential tool in the promotion of your organisation’s services.
Blogging in the voluntary or social sector differs from corporate blogging in the sense that the desired outcome isn’t necessarily increased sales of products or services but increased engagement with service users, funders and donors. Engaging with service users in the social sector is normally focused on meeting social need rather than on generating economic transaction, therefore blogging about topics of local and social interest can help improve an organisation’s online presence.
Here are some blogging ideas for charities and social organisations:
- Inform your visitors about local or industry-related campaigns. Internet users love interaction so linking to surveys or petitions can be a great way to establish your organisation as the experts in your field and get people talking about your services.
- Do you have any job vacancies, work experience placements or internships available at your organisation? Blogging about opportunities and job vacancies can be an effective way to spread the word about your recruitment needs and if you have enough blog followers, it can save you money advertising elsewhere.
- What has your organisation been up to? Do you have any exciting news to share with your online community? Keep people informed about the latest movements within your organisation or industry and give them something to reblog, retweet, pingback or share.
- Do you have any uplifting material to share? Have you heard any uplifting news stories related to your industry? People love to hear good news and feel inspired by the achievements of deserving others. Your organisation could be known as the ones who spread the joy.
- Educate your readers by providing them with hints and tips relating to your service. Why not outline the most frequently asked questions about your industry or provide solutions to common service user problems?
- Keep your community informed about local events. One assured way of increasing engagement through your blog is to keep it local. Encourage other local organisations to keep you informed about any events they’re running or better still, why not encourage them to guest post on your blog?
- Promote healthy living among your blog readers. Many social organisations and charities have a strong focus on health and improving the well-being of others and healthy living always offers food for thought and sparks conversation.
Do you need a charity or voluntary sector copywriter? How about a freelance blogger to help write your blog content? If so, I can help.
Image source – https://www.flickr.com/photos/west-park/4318850016
