What an ICA blog can do for you

Blogging is a controversial topic in ICA. While some members have active personal or business blogs, other members roll their eyes at the very notion of keeping a blog. I've spoken with journalists in and out of ICA who consider the blogosphere to be nothing more than a rumor mill of unsubstantiated, biased allegations.

Why, then, would I encourage ICA members to blog on the ICA website?

First, I'd encourage you to substitute the word publish for the word blog. It's just another publishing channel—whether it is subjective and personal, or objectively reports on an issue, is your call.

Blogging on the ICA site, has a number of benefits:

1. Your blog posts can help you establish yourself as a thought leader. Everyone in ICA is an expert. We are all professionals who have attained hard-earned knowledge and wisdom. Posting on your ICA blog is an opportunity to share your perspective and demonstrate your expertise.
2. Your blog posts can attract attention (and Google) to your ICA profile and contact form.
3. It is perfectly OK to end your blog post with a plug for your own website…which can help with your website's search engine ranking.

It's also easy and flexible:

1. If you are considering a blog of your own, but are unsure whether it's for you, the ICA blog gives you an opportunity to get your feet wet and see if you like blogging.
2. If you have no desire to keep a regular blog, but have a couple of topics you would like to write about, you can do that and no more. There is no requirement to blog frequently, regularly, or ever.
3. If you have a personal blog, this gives you a place to blog about business issues. If you have a business blog, you could still consider blogging on the ICA website with a different focus, e.g., about being an independent.
4. You don't even have to write a full article: you can post a link to a business article with a comment as to why you think ICA members might want to read it. You can also just comment on others' blog posts.

What your ICA blog can do for ICA

Blogging on the ICA site doesn't just benefit you personally—it can also benefit ICA as a whole:
 

1. ICA can develop into a go-to place for communication expertise…and experts.
2. The words used in a blog post can be picked up by Google and drive additional traffic to the ICA website…and our member profiles.
3. It's a great way for ICA members to learn more about each other, and learn from each other.

How the ICA blog works

Every Professional Member automatically has an ICA blog. The web address is in the form icatriangle.org/blogs/username. If your user name is your full name, with spaces in it, the spaces will be replaced by hyphens. E.g., my user name is Claire Doyle Ragin and my blog is at icatriangle.org/blogs/claire-doyle-ragin. (If you would like to change your user name, email your request to cla...@redberetdesign.com with what your name is currently and what you want it changed to.)

There is a dedicated field set up in your member profile for a link to your ICA blog (you can also link to any other blog you have in the three Websites fields).

Currently, any member can publish their blog post not only on their own blog page, but on the front page. Blog posts will appear in the center area below any event listings. If we have many members blogging, this may have to change, but for now it is up to the member if you wish to have it on the front page or not. You can also choose whether or not you want to allow people to comment on the post.


How to set publish a blog post

1. Log in to icatriangle.org

2. In the left sidebar, click “Create Content”

3. In the either the left sidebar or the center area, click “Blog Entry”

4. Enter the Title of your blog post

5. Enter your post in the "Body" field. There are basic controls for bold, italics, adding a link, etc.

6. Unless it's a very short post, show where you want the "teaser" break to be. On the home page and the main blog page, there should be just a teaser...perhaps the first couple of sentences...and a "Read More" link to the rest of the post. Place where you want the break to be by positioning your cursor, then clicking the icon all the way to the right of the toobar, right after spell check.

7. You can mostly ignore the other options below the Body field. Here are the ones of interest:
 

• Comment settings: By default, this is set to Read/Write. If for some reason you don't want people to comment, change it to Disabled. The "Read Only" section is something you can use after people have already commented: it allows people to read the comments already there, but not make new comments. You wouldn't want to set it to this when you first make your post.
• Automatic alias: The system will create the web address (alias) of the post based on your post's title. It adds the date, then drops out small words...so a post on June 29, 2009 called "How to be a really successful blogger" would become blog/username/ how-be-really-successful-blogger. If you want to set the address manually, you need to publish your post first, then just go back in (hopefully right away), uncheck Automatic Alias and type in the name you want. You should, however, keep the blog/username/blog-post-name format.
• File attachments: It's possible you might want to attach something to your post: for instance, you might write a post summarizing a 10-page white paper that you'd like to share. That would be a bit long for a blog post, but you could talk about the white paper and attach it so it would be available for people to download.
• Publishing options: if you would like to publish the post to the front page, select the "Promoted to front page" option. If you like to save the post as a draft but not publish it yet, unclick publish, then save. Please do NOT check "Sticky at the top of lists"

Hit "Save" and you're done!