How to: Academic Blogging

How to: Academic blogging

Chris Gilson and Stuart Brown

LSE EUROPP blog editors

#LSEImpact

• May 2010 - British Politics and Policy at LSE

• January 2011 - Impact of Social Sciences

• February 2012 – EUROPP – European Politics and

Policy

• April 2012 – LSE Review of Books

LSE PPG Blogs

BLOGS VS. WEBSITES?

Blog Website

Regularly updated Static

Interactive, community building One-way

More informal Often formal

Very easy to publish new content Dedicated program needed, e.g. Dreamweaver

Easy to do at low cost Quality=Cost

• Shorter articles: 300 – 1,200 words therefore good

for external audiences

• Easy to share via social media and email

• Searchable and available on open web

• Whole person style – where content may be

personal as well as academic

Why should academics blog?

BLOG ARTICLES VS JOURNAL ARTICLES

Journal Article Blog article

Length 8,000 words 800-1000 words

Timing Yearly Weekly

Multimedia Black and white charts?

Colour, audio, video

Audience Tens or hundreds Potentially thousands

Availability Paywall Open Access

WHY SHOULD ACADEMICS BLOG?

• Easy to start, with software such as Wordpress

takes 10 minutes to set up

• A valuable job finding tool as employers can see

more than just your CV

• Dissemination is immediate so too is comment and

feedback

• Link to academic papers (also via other blogs)

ACADEMIC BLOGGING: SINGLE AUTHOR BLOGS

You could start your own, single author blog. Here though:

• Content is king, unless you post regularly traffic

will die off

• Some SABs are successful where the name is well

known (Paul Krugman) but most SABs are now

either shutting down or joining with other bloggers

If you’re keen to strike out with your own blog, here are some ways that you can keep content fresh:

• Updates on research progress

• Commentary on current events

• Reports from conferences, seminars and other

events (liveblogging?)

• Thematic posts with other blogger(s)

• Reposts from other blogs

What should I blog(write) about?

So instead a good choice for academics is to contribute to a multi-authored blog. The advantages are:

• Multiple contributors covering many topics or subjects,

posting regularly and reliably, so that readers know

when to return

• Your blog is disseminated out to a wider network of

interest than you could create on your own

• Comments and social media can help build a

community

• You can get feedback on reader numbers and retweets

via blog staff using Google Analytics

Academic blogging: multi-author blogs

•

• LSE’s blogs • OpenDemocracy - http://www.opendemocracy.net/

• Politics In Spires (Oxford/Cambridge) - http://politicsinspires.org/

• Sociology at Warwick - http://sociologyatwarwick.wordpress.com/

• Ballots and Bullets (Nottingham) - http://nottspolitics.org/

• Blogactiv.eu

• Guardian Comment is Free • Huffington Post

Examples of multi-author blogs

•

• Students

• Other academics

• Policymakers

• Politicians

• General public?

Who are you blogging for?

• Academic writing

o Formal

o Long articles, long sentences and words

o References and footnotes

o Arguments at the end

• Writing for blogs

o More informal, but not too informal!

o Shorter articles (800 - 1,000 words or so)

o Hyperlinks

o Arguments at the start

Blog editing - general

• Your blog does not look like what you think it looks like o PC

o Smartphone

o iPad

• Newspaper style ‘split’ after two paragraphs to bring readers in, then full article

Blog editing - presentation

• Narrative is best

• Summarises the blog quickly, so

Greece cannot afford to ignore the challenge of controlling

inflation.

is better than

The Stylized Facts of Greek Inflation: New Wine in Old Bottles

Blog editing - Titles

• Also summarise the most important parts of the post

• Provide background

• Introduce author(s)

The Spanish labour market is infamously rigid. In response to Spain’s economic crisis, the recently elected right-wing Popular Party, has undertaken major labour market reforms. Vicente Cuñat argues that the government’s attempts at reform are a missed opportunity because they will fail to resolve Spain’s job market duality of temporary and permanent contracts and they will not reduce the red tape associated with

employment law.

Blog editing - Introductions

•

• Linking

• Google visibility

• Timescales – 1,3,6, 12 months

Blog often!

• Twitter – short messages to many (eventually

thousands)

• Facebook – more content, events

• Pinterest – photos, displaying your multimedia

‘wares’

Social media tools sessions – 12:00 & 16:15

Holden Room

Remember that without social media engagement…

Blogging and social media

Chris Gilson

c.h.gilson@lse.ac.uk

@chrishjgilson

@lseeuroppblog

Stuart Brown

s.a.brown@lse.ac.uk

@lseeuroppblog

Thank you!