Nonprofits are working hard to raise their online profiles. Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds–these are just a few of the digital communications tools that nonprofits must start to embrace. Which brings me to blogs. Lots of nonprofits are trying them, and I want to highlight some of the good ones. We can learn important lessons from our nonprofit blogging friends.

This week, I kick it off with The Neighborhood Writing Alliance’s new blog “Every Person is a Philosopher.” The Neighborhood Writing Alliance provides opportunities for people in Chicago’s under-served communities to write, publish, and perform works about their lives. The blog is another way for the organization to share stories about their work.

A few things this blog is doing really well:

1) Updating regularly! It’s so important to update your blog often, and this usually requires multiple staff members contributing. We’re nonprofits so we’re all stretched for time. Pick one person to manage the blog, but ask multliple staff to contribute. (I know the problem well — I’ve been swamped so I haven’t posted to the NP Communicator blog since Nov. 18! Yikes. But I keep reminding myself to update as often as I can. A couple times a week is a good goal. If you can update every day, even better.)

2) Varied content. The new blog includes excerpts from people’s writing, profiles of staff and volunteers, photos from an event and guest posts. This keeps the content fresh and interesting and gives you opportunities to reuse content that may be found in other organizational publications.

3) Tapping friends to help out. Guest posts that relate to your subject area are great! It gives your organization another post and shares another perspective on your site. If the person works for another organization, ask if they’d be willing to include a post from your nonprofit on their site or blog in the future. Content sharing online is a great way to spread the word.

If you want to learn more about blogging, we’re offering a blogging workshop with Blogger and former Chicago Tribune Reporter Teresa Puente. Learn more here.