Jayne Corso on Why Blogging is so Important

Hello, my name is Jayne Corso and I am the community manager for American Evaluation Association.  From my past posts, you can see that I love social media. I see these platforms as never-ending conferences, where you can meet and share ideas with people with similar interests.  Although I have a tendency to favor social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, one must not forget the importance of the blog.

Even the most robust social media presence cannot substitute the benefits of an active and engaging blog. Social media platforms come and go—do you remember Myspace, Friendster, Geocities? Blog domains are stable and are always available giving you firm control over your online publishing.

Rad Resource: Blogging Creates Creditability

Sharing advice through blogs establishes you as an industry expert or a subject matter expert. It presents your name to other professionals as a trust-worthy resource. Blogging also gives you the opportunity to establish your own brand—which includes writing style and design.

Rad Resource: Make connections through blogging

The evaluation field is filled with bloggers. This opens many opportunities for cross-blogging. Cross-blogging occurs when bloggers with similar interests become guest writers on each other’s blogs. This introduces your blog to new audiences within the field and further shows your credibility on the subject matter.

Blog posts are also very easy to share on social media outlets. Most blogs have a share button that generates a post for you. If others find your blog post helpful, this posting tool can help create a lot of engagement.

Hot Tip: Keep your blog up-to-date

Your blog is only as strong as its content—so keep your blog active and up-to-date. Blogs should be updated very frequently. I would recommend creating a new post at least once a week to keep people interested in what you have to say. I would also recommend dating all of your blogs so your readers have a sense of relevance and context.

Rad Resources: Here are some great evaluation blogs to follow and learn from.

• Ann K. Emery Data Analysis +visualization
• BetterEvaluation
• EVALBLOG: John Gargani’s blog about program design and evaluation
• Eval Central
• EVALUSPHERIC PERCEPTIONS Reflections of an everyday evaluator/learner/educator exploring the evalusphere
• Evergreen Data
• Free-range evaluation
• Fresh Spectrum
• The Listening Resource

Find more bloggers on the AEA website and stay tuned for Bloggers week coming soon on AEA365!

Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.