This is the presentation I gave Nov. 9, 2010 at Neil Downing\'s CCRI Warwick campus class on writing for blogs and websites.

1. Writing, blogging and social media
posting for Thrive
Or, how to
hit as many
platforms as
possible
with your
content

2. The Newspaper
 Thrive is The
Providence Journal’s
Monday Features
section, all about
health, wellness and
fitness.

3. Autopublished to Projo.com
 Stories are taken from
the newspaper and
autopublished to the
web. Projo.com then
displays the articles in a
slightly different
manner.

4. We don’t stop there
 Since 2008, Journal outdoors writer Tom
Meade and I have also been blogging on the
Projo Fitness Blog.
 That content was used as a launching pad
for Thrive, so we’ve kept it up, taking pieces
of many of our Thrive stories and posting
them on the blog.

5. Projo Fitness Blog

6. Other Web content
 We also had projo.com
video to go with the
second part of that
package: Tom Meade’s
laughter yoga story.

7. Social Media
 All of the headlines
from Projo’s blogs
appear on Twitter.
 And Facebook posts
are made for selected
content.

8. Facebook is an option, too

9. Reader interaction
 The final, and perhaps biggest piece of The
Providence Journal’s content is generated by
our readers. They comment on the web
versions of the stories, blog posts, and can
add their own video, photos and other links.
They find us on Twitter and add their
comments on the Facebook page.

10. Web comments
 A story about an dog
being euthanized
generated 95
comments from readers
in about a week.

11. Versatility is the name of the game
 Today’s journalists have to be able to
communicate on many platforms.
 The story I write for the newspaper is more
detailed, but it doesn’t offer me the ability to
link or show video the way a blog post does.

12. How good are your headlines?
 Social media affords
me even more brevity:
140 characters for a
tweet, and a snappy
headline, photo and link
for the Facebook posts.

13. Want to get more readers to your blog?
 Create a Twitterfeed account (Twitterfeed.com)
which automatically takes your blog posts and
publishes them on social media sites like Twitter and
Facebook

14. Facebook has an app for that

15. Some advice
 Learn your trade
 First and foremost, it’s more important than
ever to be a good writer. We’re competing on
so many platforms for our readers’ attentions
that we have to grab them with our content.

16. Some advice
 Then learn some more
 Be an expert in all platforms: Traditional
newspaper writing and editing, blog writing
and editing, html code and web/mobile
publishing, video production, audio
production, and social media –– and of
course, whatever comes next.