Everything else by The Forum CCC Shane Mercer

A little truth in advertising disclaimer thingy: I’m sort of the Areavoices blog guy at The Forum (the daily newspaper in Fargo for those of you unfamiliar with us) so part of what I do is try to encourage and nurture that community. As far as I’m concerned, the more bloggers, the better. So, with the fine print out of the way, here are some thoughts on what you or your organization can gain from blogging on Areavoices. I’ll try to keep this quick.

• Before we get to the benefits, here’s a little info on what Areavoices is? Areavocies is a blog platform (with some social media functions) where individuals and groups can write about the  topics, causes, events, etc. that interest them.  Areavoices is part of the Forum Communications Company, a communications network in the upper Midwest comprised of more than 30 newspapers as well as broadcast outlets (and some other stuff).
• Benefit #1 – Areavoices blogs can be featured on FCC websites: Any of
  

  Here's where featured blogs appear on The Forum's website when a new post is created.

  the numerous properties can feature those Areavoices blogs that they think would be interesting to their audiences. That includes some pretty big media players in the upper Midwest (like The Forum, The Grand Forks Herald, The Duluth News-Tribune, WDAY-TV) as well as numerous smaller media outlets. If a FCC website features you blog, each time you create a new post, a link to it will appear on the website homepage.

• Benefit #2 – You could make it into print: At The Forum, we regularly use blog content
  

  This is a piece used in print that was taken from the Concordia College blog on Areavoices.

  from Areavoices in the printed paper. Could be your stuff. In fact, there are some blogs that we run on a regular basis. When we do print something from the blogs, we also include the web address of the blog with the printed piece.

• Benefit #3 – Links from the homepage: Along with having your blog featured in the “Areavoices” section of our homepage, we also sometimes take interesting Areavoices posts and feature them more prominently on our website — sometimes even in our scrolling “featured content” section at the top of the page. That can mean a lot more traffic.
• Benefit #4 – Promotion on Twitter: If you mention @areavoices when you Tweet about a blog post, we often reTweet those to our followers.
• Benefit #5 – Local help: If you’re having trouble with your blog or if you’re just feeling a bit anxious about how to get started, you can call my desk number at 70-451-5734, email me or email tech support. You can also Tweet to or email Tracy Briggs, the company-wide Areavoices person.
• Benefit #6 – Tracy’s list: Tracy Briggs regularly sends out a digest of new and/or interesting blogs on Areavoices. This digest goes to the entire FCC company, and she’s always on the lookout for stuff to include on that email. Once you’ve set up a blog and done a little work on it, let me or Tracy know and you’ve got a good chance of making the mail-out.

By now, you probably can’t wait to start your blog. You can get going here. Or you can email me with questions.