Placeblogging 101

In short, the answer is simple, because someone ought to do it - why not you?

Placeblogs address the most local information, the news that directly impacts you on a daily basis such as school closures, road work, events at the library, budget discussions from the school board meeting, zoning changes, and new businesses.

Typically a dozen or so people show up at local meetings, know what is happening, and they might tell someone, but until blogs came around, there was no good way to share the information with everyone all the time. Now there is, and with shared information there is greater accountability, which is critical to help ensure good government.

There is a tremendous pressure applied on local officials and public servants to be accountable when the information is posted online and people can comment about it. This is most true on the local level where officials are also neighbors and possibly co-workers.

I knew my site was making a difference when the Mayor called out people making anonymous comments on web sites during his "State of the Borough" address (mine wasn't the only site out there, but it was the only one covering the borough in close detail) in 2007.

This incident followed my calling the Borough on Violating the Sunshine Law, which drew in the interest of local dailies, and another resident took legal action against the Borough and agreed to drop the suit if they changed their practice, which they did.

Connecting neighbors to help them inform one another of local events and activities is essential at a time when newspapers are stretched thinner than ever before. They cover larger areas, which means they can't provide coverage, let alone in-depth coverage, of every local school district and municipality. I work with the local press and we benefit from one another. I quote their stories on my community and link to them, while they use stories on my site to generate ideas for stories and to find sources of information.

Excited enough to learn more? Great! Let's get you started on setting one up for your town.

The biggest thing to remember about a placeblog is that it is about the place, not the person.

Next most important are the content, environment, and posting frequency.

Place Over Person
I intentionally wrote posts that left me out of them. I tried very hard to provide information without being overly personal. I didn't want the site to be my opinion on all matters. I wanted to present the information. Now, having said that there will be times that you need to state your opinion and make bold statements, but you must be able to figure out when that must be done.

The flavor of your site will also depend on your writing style. I avoid sarcasm and humor. It makes the site more vanilla and plain, but it also sets a tone that is mostly followed in the comments. My biggest initial fear was a site full of nasty comments and perpetual flaming. So from the beginning I replied to comments that were borderline and deleted those that crossed the line. Whenever I deleted them, though, I made a comment explaining why.

For the most part, my rule was no personal attacks. You could attack the idea, but don't attack the individual.

The other important thing about Place is to define it. Know what you will cover and what you won't. I decided to go with the municipalities that made up the school district. This provided one commonality across all constituents.

Content
I decided to start small and expand. Nazareth borough is at the heart of the Nazareth Area School District. I began to attend borough meetings and report on them. I then moved to the School District, and an individual volunteered to report on these for me. I found some people from some of the other municipalities who had sites themselves and we linked to one another and fed our sites with one anothers content when applicable. For ideas on what to write about see Frequency below.

The relationship between my site and both print dailies has been very good. I always recognize the name of the publication, link to the full article, and occasionally recognize the reporter by name.

When posting on these stories, it is critical that you cite and link to them. You also need to be careful regarding how much you quote. You want to give enough info for your reader to understand what is happening, but not so much they don't have to read the full article.

You also don't want incredibly long posts. People don't spend too much time on any given site, so get them the info they need and a means to get more if they want.

Environment
I'm hyper-sensitive to the environment of my site. "G" rated movies have worse content at times than I would write, but with comments it is a bit tougher. There are without question many sites that like to 'pick fights' or play 'gotcha'. I don't do that. I ask for people's opinions, but pound on the fact that you don't attack the individual, you attack the idea or comment.

In a column about my site, Bill White of the Allentown Morning Call wrote on January 6, 2007, "Unlike some of the blogs originating in other communities, NewsOverCoffee focuses more on straightforward information than on wisecracks and commentary. That makes it somewhat less entertaining to nonresidents, but more credible, I suspect, to those who haven't made their minds up."

I also found that readers will also call-out others who post border-line or inappropriate comments once the house rules are understood.

And, site management is much easier when you aren't lobbing hand-grenades and waiting for a response. I can't constantly monitor, I've got a job and family, not to mention a life off-line.

The environment is up to you. You need to lead by example and in the beginning you'll need to express clearly what the expectations are, and what is not acceptable. No right or wrong, but I've found with a small potential audience, it is best to appeal to most of them by keeping it clean and straight-forward.

Frequency
You'd be really upset if your newspaper on Tuesday arrived and had the exact same content as Monday. And if Wednesday, repeated Tuesday, you'd probably cancel your subscription.

If you want a following, you need to post regularly. I don't profess to post everyday, and you shouldn't post for the sake of posting (quality content is mandatory), but you do need to have a regular frequency to keep your readers.

Feedreaders and other tools are now available, but I've found a small portion of the public use these. Most bookmark and visit your site directly or find it via search.

In the beginning it is tough to generate daily content, but here are a few tips:
1. Attend a meeting, take copious notes, report on different topics each day for that week.
2. Prior to a meeting, review the posted agenda, and report on items to be discussed.
3. Announce meetings as posts on your site.
4. Visit other local news sites, search the name of your town, and report on the reporting
5. Use Google Alerts, multiple combinations of Keywords, you'll be amazed.

Also be sure to reach out to community groups, the Chamber of Commerce and everyone else who might want to distribute news about upcoming events and activities. Over time they will come to you, but at first you have to constantly reach out to them.

This should give you a good sense of the concept, value, and initial considerations needed to create a Placeblog.

I've planned some additional lenses that will help you get up and running:
+ Placeblogging 201: Technical & Legal Considerations
+ Placeblogging 301: Marketing Your Site