Choose a blog and analyze
the functions and substance of the blog as a form of writing and information
delivery. In your opinion, what are the “best practices” when creating a blog
to ensure appropriate form, function, and substance? Provide a link when responding
to classmates and post your opinion along with your rationale.
The
blog that I choose to analyze for this blog can be located at http://blog.hubspot.com/. This is a blog by
Hubspot that is a Cambridge, MA based video production company.
One
of the blogs that caught my eye with this blog is that it deals with some of
the skills needed for a high quality video production and the steps needed to
be taken. I received my undergraduate degree in Video/TV Production from
Johnson University and am currently working on my Graduate degree in Marketing.
While working on my undergraduate degree I had the opportunity to do some
freelance work with everything from radio spots to two different Christian
based feature films. This blog was chosen in that it shows a lot of the skills
I learned while working on my undergraduate but in a way that any person can understand
without spending the time and money on a higher educated degree.
The
layout of this blog is pretty basic but the authors do give pretty of links with
they give a stat or a link to a video or picture that they use. The delivery of
the information is well done in that the information is easy to locate without
having to search. If you are not able to find something that you are looking
for than there is a search box that can be utilized. One aspect of this blog
that I found to be a good decision is that they list the contact information
and the locations of this business on the footer of each page. The reasoning
that I find this important is in that it makes the company accountable for
everything that is posted on their page. This simple action, of having a contact
page, is one of the best practices to me for the reason stated above and also it
gets the companies information out there without the person having to search
for it,
From
a design standpoint the blog is pretty standard but this is also important in
that the site is not too busy and the eyes focus on where the author means for
them to be focused on. As stated above the substance of the entire blog is
really well organized by topics and the information within each general topic
is straight to the point without fluff.
When
it comes to what are the “best practices” in blogging I do not think that there
are set guidelines and therefore this idea is subjective to the person. As long
as the information is correct that the blogger is giving than all else should
be good. The design of sites is also very subjective but as a standard I do not
think there should be too much going on in the page or the viewer will not know
where to focus on and will usually just leave. I think that the authors of
blogs should also check the links on their blog post to always make sure that
the link is not broken and still goes to where the author intends it to go. Also
another important aspects that bloggers should also be aware of is who holds
the rights to whatever form of media that they intend to use. For any publisher
or blogger, getting the right permissions is also the best practice that should
always be followed.
