#blogchat for January 22, 2012: Group Blogging

Co-hosted by MarketingProf‘s Ann Handley, tonight’s #blogchat session was dedicated to the fun world of group blogging!

If you missed the chat – or if you couldn’t keep up with the stream – here are some takeaways worth noting:

Why should you bother with a group blog? A mix of voices, spreading out the workload, expanding your community, and diversifying content were all cited as valuable points for a multi-author blog.
Should you have written agreements for your co-authors? It depends on how business-like your blog is going to be. If you’re planning on running it like a company, with authors getting paid for the work they do, contracts are a must. If you’re running a blog with others as a hobby, you don’t need to worry about it as much.
What platform should you use for your group blog? WordPress is the leader, either hosted on your own server or hosted on the WordPress.com network. Google’s own Blogger is another popular choice, and Tumblr is big with a younger, arts-oriented crowd.
Editorial calendars are important. The WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin drops a handy-dandy calendar right into your WordPress admin dashboard. If that doesn’t work for you, set up a Google Calendar and share it with your co-authors.
Evernote is your best friend for blogging. Take notes from anywhere! You can quickly jot down ideas as they come to you, and with a Premium membership, you can open up group notebooks to collaborate with your co-authors.
Livefyre is a great discussion plugin for your blog. It kicks comments up a notch, with a laser-like focus on community. The team at Livefyre is on the ball with #blogchat, too, which never hurts.

You can find more #blogchat-related goodness on the #blogchat Facebook page.

If I missed anything important, drop a comment below and I’ll update the post.

http://www.eljadaae.nl Elja Daae

Wow! You’re fast! Thanks for this, great recap. Like you, I love Evernote. Just today I was watching it sync the iphone app after updating it on the iPad and then on the laptop and thinking how incredibly useful it is.

http://www.andymci.com Andy McIlwain

Thanks! I really enjoy the #blogchat conversations, and I’m a bit of a nutter for taking notes… so it kinda worked out. I’ve been swearing by Evernote for everything and anything.

Anonymous

Great job, Andy.

I’m not sure if this was discussed, but I think one of the great things about a group blog is not only the diversity of voices, but also the audiences that will come to the blog. For instance, a blog about digital marketing could bring together a star writer who specializes in social media, and one whose expertise is in SEO. Some visitors will come for social media topics, and then stay for intriguing SEO articles, creating a nice synergy.Sort of a case of 1 + 1 < 2.