Strategies for Advocacy Blogging [lessons we learned]

update 4/3/11: You may want to read “is it ethical to earn from advocacy“

The objective of this material is to help bloggers who are into advocacy blogging to make the advocacy self sustaining, and maximize the online exposure.

Web Safety PH was officially launched on July 10, 2010 with the 1st “Keep your kids safe online” seminar held at Microsoft Philippines. 9 months after, we held a total of 20 roadshows, several media exposures and an award. And the most fulfilling in my opinion, is that the Filipino community has recognized the need, thus, several groups are also spearheading a similar campaign or has collaborated with us in promoting internet safety and cyber wellness in the Philippines.

Both the executive and legislative branches of government is working double time to enact an appropriate cyber law that can address the abuses and crimes being committed using the internet, victimizing mostly women and children. The private sector is working with the gov’t. too in promoting cyber wellness. In the last international cyber crime conference, Web Safety PH participated and submitted our recommendations.

Now herewith is a copy of the video and the keynote presentation of my iBlog7 talk [note: keynote is best viewed in safari, files are uploaded at iwork.com, an apple platform]

Here’s the recap of my talk:

1. Advocacy should not be a waste of time- if you are not willing to spend not so little amount of time and money in your advocacy, then that advocacy may not be for you. An advocacy is not a past time, it should reflect your purpose in life, your mission.
2. Blog should be the center of your campaign- people go to search engines to look for info. And a blog is a perfect place for that
3. Create a brand that will attract other brands- Your advocacy should be self sustaining in the long run. Preferably, build a brand for the advocacy that is separate from your personal brand. So if something happens to you, or if your reputation is maligned, whether by your own doing or by others for whatever reason, the advocacy will not be directly hit. Corporate brands don’t just give money away for altruistic reasons, they carefully looked at the cause and the people behind. Personal brands or other people will not just join a cause, they too looked beyond the cause and the people behind. So how you build the advocacy brand, matters
4. Develop other channels- Use all available social media channel to compliment your blog
5. Evangelize not proselyte- You don’t need to compete for the attention of the same people, convert the unengaged and build a community from the scratch. It’s normal to chase after success rather than build success. Chasing after success is associating with a popular personality or movement, hoping the success of the person or group will rub of on him. There is nothing wrong with this but probable downside are these people are already engaged or committed to another cause. Building success on the other hand is to be where you are supposed to be and build the work that you’re suppose to be doing [purpose and life and mission]. Then, you can create an impact to society. Yes, we can go beyond the almost 30% internet population and reach out to the 70% to build a new community
6. Find opportunities offline- Your online campaign is only halk the effort, explore.