Posting regularly
Try to post to your blog at least once a month.
The more often you post the more traffic and engagement your blog will receive, but only post when you have something valuable to say to your readers.
Posts can be as short as you like, such as a simple alert or comment, or be long pieces of writing that describe something in detail. A good blog post can provide interesting behind-the-scenes information to complement content on the main University site.
Posts are usually written but don't need to be. Good posts can be based solely on videos, audio clips or even just photos.
Writing post titles and summaries
Limit your blog post titles to 65 characters or fewer so that Google search results display the whole title. This also makes sharing on Twitter easier.
Make your titles as specific as possible so that readers scanning your blog page will understand the point of each post at a glance.
To maximise clickthroughs from search results, shares, feeds and email alerts, your lead paragraph should summarise the issue the post is dealing with and outline what readers can expect to find on the page. Aim for 140 characters or around 40 words, which should be plenty to summarise the post.
Getting the right tone of voice
Write like you speak and as an individual, not as an organisation or a team. Be warm and candid.
Technical language may be necessary but use plain English wherever possible. Jargon is an instant turnoff for blog readers, and will get in the way of your communication.
Use our Editorial style guide for writing advice. However, blogs provide an opportunity for a more personal voice so you don't have to observe the style guide to the letter when writing your posts.
Follow the basic rules of writing for the web. Use short sentences and no more than four sentences per paragraph. Keep to one idea per paragraph and use subheadings to give readers the space to read and understand what is being said.
Adding images
You can upload images directly to your blog through the dashboard.
Image size and resolution
For best results your images should be:
- a maximum of 600 pixels wide
- set to a resolution of 72 dpi
If you don’t have access to image editing software like Photoshop you can use free online tools such as Pixlr to resize your pictures.
Image selection and attribution
Use good quality imagery. This doesn’t mean images have to be professionally shot. Smartphone images are acceptable to use if the quality is sufficient.
Wherever possible, use images that you or other people in your team have taken.
The University has a fotoware photo library. If you can't find what you want here, the Flickr Creative Commons pages are a great place to look.
You must always attribute the images you use. Attribution should appear in the 'image title' attribute, entered when uploading the image into the post.
Whatever image you use, it should not be overly blurry, grainy, stretched, pixelated or badly lit.
Image titles and alt (alternative) text
You should add a caption to any image that conveys information.
All images should have alt text (for accessibility reasons) to be added when uploading an image to the post.
Adding videos
To embed a video, just paste the URL of the content you want to embed into a separate line on your WordPress editor.
For example, to publish a video, just paste the YouTube page URL on a separate line, like so:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQNvBifBiSI
Moderating comments
Once your post is written and published, it may receive comments from users. Comments should be reviewed regularly, especially when using pre-moderation. Not all comments need responses but it is good practice to engage in dialogue wherever possible.
Copyright
If you partner with companies or organisations on your research project, you must get their consent to use any related content, images, videos or logos on your blog.
You must get permission to use other people's images on your blog. Do not assume you have the right to use them just because they have already been published online. Find out more about image copyright.
If you need help with copyright, contact the Library by emailing copyright@bath.ac.uk.
Disclosing research funding
As stated in point 7.2 in the Code of good practice in research integrity, you must make sure you disclose all funding sources, significant collaboration and any other potential financial interest.