Make your blog an agent of social change and influence public opinion?

Hey Indibloggers,

There are thousands of blogs on a number of topics. With blogs like tech blogs, news blogs, cookery blogs, parenting blogs, life style blogs, etc. the blogosphere is ever expanding. And we all know that Twitter is the next 'in' thing.

With such an advancing web 2.0, internet has become a platform for many and we all know that blogging and forums like Indiblogger have given us a voice. People recoginze us here. People consider us as 'fellow' bloggers. It's become like a family.

Today, I am going to write about something which I have been trying to do for the past 2 years and have seen successes and failures and have learnt from both. Thus I would like to share it all with you. So, I will tell you "How to blog in a way so as to influence public opinion and be an agent of social change?" We will discuss this niche of blogging, for social change, from pitfalls to the cool stuff.

I am running Youth Ki Awaaz (http://www.youthkiawaaz.com) and it's been 2 years since I wrote my first blog post. Youth Ki Awaaz was a result of my anger towards the mishappening around me. Thus, blogging was the best way to express myself. Today, Youth Ki Awaaz has been recognized globally as an agent of change and was also amongst the best election blogs. Recently, Youth Ki Awaaz was placed in Livigston Buzz's list of social change for having the most comprehensive and innovative online campaigns.

I will keep it short and precise and support every point with a personal experience.

1. Be self motivated: When you are blogging to create a change the first thing that you must keep in mind is that you yourself must have a strong belief in change. You should be very sure that change is possible. If your blog is about cribbing and demotivating others and says "nothing can happen" then you better not blog. You can either opt to sit on your couch and crib, or start your self motivated blog. My main reason behind starting Youth Ki Awaaz was that I wanted to see change and I firmly believed in it.
2. Be regular: This is something that most of the veteran bloggers would say. If you start a views blog, then you better update it regularly. There are blogs which update once a month, once a week, once daily, and ten times a day, but they are consistent. So know when to update.
3. Be sensitive: Blogging for social change would require you to be sensitive. Don't consider this as being diplomatic. Do not forget to take care of other people's sentiments. Don't go against the laws of caste, creed, colour, sex, religion, or any other fator. It's good to be one sided, but being public about it could lead you to earn a bad name. Show both sides of a coin and let your readers decide the rest. E.g. When the campaigns for the Lok Sabha elections were on, there were many blogs which were supporting a particular political party and they were public about it, which is good. But what was bad was that they were writing crap about other parties. They were being read, but only by the supporters of that party. Then, there are blogs which are against a particular religion. All this is against the rules of ethical blogging (more on ethical blogging later). Blog for the masses. OK!
4. Content is king: This comes naturally in some and some get it through practice. I got it through practice. Pump out good content. Don't write long long long long write ups, cut it short and be precise. Do not forget to play with the content in order to entertain the reader.
5. Encourage comments and reader views: If you are blogging for social change then the voice of the people is a must. encourage your readers to comment, make them participate in polls and surveys. Get to know what they think of an issue. This would not only get you backlinks, increase your page rank, but also make your readers feel like home when they are at your blog. They will feel that they are contributing to the change you have initiated.
6. Encourage reader posts: Invite your readers to write posts on your blog. Tell them to mail it to you. This will establish your credibility and also get the readers featured on your blog. (They will feel same as mentioned in Pt.5, but the level will be higher.)
7. Consider yourself as the facilitator of change and not the change: Blogging in this niche can make you feel that you are a social activist. Thinking this would be too early if you have not yet been recognized. Work wioth dedication and earn some accolades. Only then shall you consider yourself a tiny part of the change. There are still millions who are working on the streets, so let them take the credit, be at the back stage.
8. Go from "me the blogger" to "you the reader": This is the most important point and is almost the same as point 5 & 6, and even if I say it in every point, it will be less. You HAVE to be generous and address the readers. You must give them the opprtunity to HEALTHILY play with your blog. Make it interactive. Add media, pictures, videos, everything possible and make it INTERACTIVE. A blog that is not interactive will not engage readers.
9. There are hundreds of websites and blogs which are well established and which give the opinion of people, then why would someone come to your blog? If this is what you are thinking, think again. THINK! What is so exclusive about your blog? YOU. You are the person that separates THOSE blogs from THIS blog. People will come to your blog to know what you feel, what you think of an issue, what do you have to say, whether your mentality matches theirs or not? Get me? So make it exclusive, be as vocal as possible, let your point across in the most expressive manner. Be cool!
10. Don't be a critique only, play with it: When you start a blog and address important issues people expect you take them seriously. But remember, if you take every issue in a very serious manner then you are bound to sound monotonous and you WILL put off your readers. This happened with me in December 08. I realized that as the times change, needs change, especially in the blogosphere. Thus I expanded from politics, society and environment to sattire, and more subtle issues. This brought in a breath of fresh air and helped me regain the lost readership. Thus, play with it. Select a day or two in a week when you are gonna play with your post. When you will write a topic in a humourous way.
11. Be natural, if not, act natural: People will consider listening to your voice if they know that you are a natural writer, an expert. I was never an expert, and am still not (please don't rush away from my blog, LOL!), but act as if you know all the facets of it. Be like a mentor for your readers. But,...
12. Don't let them know you are behind it: Yes, I know it helps build a brand at times, but in this niche, your blog is the brand. Let your blog have a motivational name. Give it a name people can resonate with, and let that name be a brand. Rarely do we find an NGO named after its founder (exceptions are there). Your blog is like an NGO. Be modest and keep your name aside. Readers will be the first ones to think that you are bragging about it. Let them relate to the name and not to you. Trust me, it's cool to be a hero behind the scenes and be loved rather than being a hero on screen and being hated.
13. Make religious use of social media: Look, this is a niche which has trusted and established websites like hindustantimes.com, timesofindia.com, breakingnewsonline.com, thaindian.com, and many many more. So you have to work really hard at this one. Really really hard. I spend almost 6-7 hours a day at Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious. There were days when I had spent around 10 hours. And social media did not benefit me at all in the first year. NOT AT ALL. But I did not give up. Today, I get 30% of my total traffic from Twitter, 5% from Facebook, and around 5-10% from others and rest from Google search. This does not mean that you spend all your time there. But yea, do consider social media as the first step when you think about promotion and marketing.
14. Read a lot: Now I do not wish to sound like your mom, but yeah, reading books, newspapers, magazines and other blogs is a must. The more you read, the better you write. You are supposed to be a master of all, so increase your knowledge by reading. It is the key. Behind every successful man is a women, akin, behind every successful social blog is a regular reader.
15. Rock on! Be the blogger who writes, reads, leads, influences and is the change. Last but not the least, understand others well. Please understand others well. Know that people are the ones who will make you. So be selfless and cater to them. Work for them. Be a social worker. Be the change.

I went from being just another blogger to an online activist with my blog http://www.youthkiawaaz.com and my online campaigns, Us Against Drug Abuse (http://www.drugabuse.youthkiawaaz.com), Act Against Child Abuse (http://childabuse.youthkiawaaz.com) and The Rural Bharat Project (http://ruralbharat.youthkiawaaz.com). Do visit. Will write more on this if you like this one. If you have any doubts or would like to have this post as a guest post on your blog then drop a comment below. U comment, I follow. :P