Blogging competition rules and top tips

Rules

• Only authors of blogs posted on Greenpeace/active webgroups between the 1st and 30th Sept will be entered into competition.
• Blogs must include at least one image or video to be considered for an award.
• Only blogs of between 100 and 500 words will be considered for an award
• The judges decisions are final, and this is intended to be a bit of fun

How to enter

If you are reading this, we hope that you are already an author, or an admin, or a manager on the Greenpeace/active website, and have a basic understanding of how to post blogs to the site.

• If you are an active member of your local network, and would like to post a blog, but you are not yet an author, then please speak to your network coordinator.
• If you are not active with a Greenpeace local network, and would like to post a blog, then please email richard.martin@greenpeace.org.
• See here: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/pdfs/groups/user-manual.pdf

Award categories

1. Overall best – a combination of story telling, writing style, relevance and fun
2. Best newcomer – as above, for a previously unpublished author on the site
3. Best use of photo – focused on the image, and the way it illustrates the story
4. Best use of video – as a stand alone piece (with a text introduction)
5. Special award – for something outstanding, interesting and fun

Prizes

For each category a choice of a previously unavailable, Greenpeace forests campaign t-shirt, from a recent campaign, or a recent campaign success.

Top tips

Some of the things the judges will be looking out for include:

• A good image - it doesn't have to be one of your own, it can be a relevant one from the archive.
• A good title - make it descriptive, snappy, explaining what your blog is about, but not so mechanical that it reads like a text book title.
• A good story - something that is engaging, well-written, passionate, represents your opinions and keeps people reading to the end. Perhaps
  
  • Your reasons for getting involved with Greenpeace
  • Personal observations about doing street campaigning
  • A campaign discussion you've had down the pub
  • A recent campaign event you’ve been involved in
  • Your views about a recent campaigning film you’ve seen
  • A look back at a Greenpeace campaign, and why you thought it worked
• A purpose or point you want to make, ideally in an entertaining way.
  
  • A personal account - make it about you and the people you campaign with, not about you as a part of an organisational structure.
  • Use I not we – you’re a real person
• Avoid dry campaign information, personal stories stand out better.
• An appropriate word count – less is more, 250-300 words is ideal
• Spelling – use a spell checker
• Including relevant links – ideally 4-6 per blog, perhaps to
  
  • Greenpeace stories and dry campaign information
  • Relevant external sites, especially high profile news sites
  • A link at the end – what do you want you reader to do at the end? do something and / or read another blog on your webgroup
• Formatting – avoid big chunks of text, use paragraphs and bullet points
• Use of images in the body – the title image is important, but if there are images that help illustrate your story – then post them in the body of your blog as well.
• Use of keywords, some of the most important search terms people will use to find your webgroup include: {your town name} {environmental} {activist group} {environmental issues} {green issues} {climate change}
• Something that makes us smile

Finally

Many of you are better writers and blogger than I, so one of the things we hope to pull from the blogs you publish in September is a better set of top tips, based on your experience, skills, knowledge and what works for you.

So please don’t be afraid to try new things, experiment with different styles, diversity is better than a uniform standard, and have fun.

Richard