Sightsavers’ blog exists for individual members of staff to share and discuss their views and opinions online. We use blog posts to:
Blog posts should be part of a strategic communications approach, not standalone pieces of content. Before you start writing a blog post, speak to the relevant comms manager. If your blog is cross-thematic, speak to the comms strategist (Rebecca Mintrim for Inclusive Futures, Nasseem Khanum for Sightsavers) or head of comms (Maria Gandara). Discuss how your post will contribute to a specific communications objective. Do this as far in advance as possible. If you know there are events or conferences that might be good blogging opportunities throughout the year, flag them as early as you can.
For example, you might propose a blog about a new research study addressing an evidence gap. This would meet a research comms objective to ‘highlight the role and impact our research has on our policy, advocacy and programmes.’
There are three main questions to ask before writing a blog.
Need help with writing, editing or proofreading your blog post? Raise a service desk ticket for creative services: editorial and publications. Give as much notice as possible. At least two weeks if you’re drafting your own blog post, and longer if you need help writing it.
Aim to make your blog post between 500-800 words long. You can either launch straight in, or start by setting a scene, sharing an experience or telling a story. By about paragraph three it should be clear to the reader what the point of the blog post is. If you take too long to get to the point, you may lose the reader.
Once you’ve introduced your main point, expand on it. Make sure information is in a logical order and each paragraph flows from the one before it to the one after it.
To conclude, sum up or reiterate your main point. You could end on:
Remember that blogs are opinion-based – they’re not academic papers. It’s fine to write in an informal style and it can help to write as though you’re chatting to or emailing a friend or family member about your work. This doesn’t mean you need to oversimplify; if your point is clear, it will be easier for any reader to understand. It will also make your blog more appealing to a wider audience.
Suggest a title for the blog – note that this may need to change to meet web layout requirements. If you’re not sure what the title should be the comms managers or editorial team will be able to help.
Once you’ve finished your draft, run it by a colleague for feedback. If it needs signoff from someone in your team, now’s the time to share it with them.
Try reading it out loud. This will help identify sentences that might need work.
Check:
Images should be as high resolution as possible. Photos taken on a mobile phone are usually not high res enough to use but will occasionally work. For blogs, photos should be in landscape format. You’ll need to provide information on:
You’ll also need to confirm you have consent from the people in the photo for us to use it.
If you don’t have a suitable photo, it’s also fine for you to suggest an image you’ve found in iVillage that could work. If your blog is about a particular country or area of our work, the image must reflect that. All blog posts include a photo and one-line biography of the author. Please provide a photo of yourself and a sentence about your role. For example: Lucy Muchiri is Sightsavers’ technical adviser for social inclusion in East Africa.
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