Yellow Bloom by Julia Austine for Meat of the Message
I’ve blogged for school, I’ve blogged for myself, I’ve blogged for friends and family, but for the past few months I’ve been blogging for a team. I was trying to find a way to keep a group of part-time Service Associates with ever-changing schedules on the same page, in the loop and every other team cliché that exists. Meetings weren’t going to happen on a regular basis and email seemed clunky, so I set up a WordPress blog and started a dialogue.
Palmetto Halo by Julia Austine for Meat of the Message
The very first blog post was an introduction to how it would work and what the expectations were for the team’s participation. Every post would include a question at the end that each person was expected to answer in the comments. This was to make sure that they had read and understood the post and I committed to replying to each and every comment. For some of the team, this was their first time reading and/or commenting on a blog. The topics included changes in procedure, the cultural shift that our team was making and re-blogs of posts that I found relevant.
Baby Snapdragons by Julia Austine for Meat of the Message
Once they had embraced the format and I was starting to run short on weekly topics, I turned the blog over to the team. Each person had to write a blog post (just over 400 words) about the project that they had been leading for the team. They also had to include one relevant image and a question for everyone to answer. The “guest” blogger was then responsible for replying to the comments. I was truly impressed with the quality of their blog posts and they really enjoyed the interaction through the posts and comments as, due to scheduling, some people rarely worked together.
City Exchange Bell by Julia Austine for Meat of the Message
I would definitely recommend a blog format for keeping in touch and updated a team that is separated by time or space. It created a sense of camaraderie and connection that email just doesn’t have.
What do you think the greatest advantage or disadvantage of a team blog would be?
Related articles
- Why blogging matters more than ever (news.trafcom.com)
- Top WordPress Resource Blogs (bloggingtips.com)
- Blogging Tips To Avoid Triskaidekaphobia (heidicohen.com)
