Blog Team

Introduction

This page will describe the structure of the blog team, the basic process for writing and publishing a blog post, and the expectations of the blog writers.

Team Structure

The Blog Team is highly encouraged to collaborate and bounce ideas off of one another. To facilitate a team dynamic, the Blog Team needs to have meetings at least once a month to generate ideas, set goals, and talk about progress. This way, the entire team can be on the same page about what kind of content is wanted, what everyone else is working on, and potential opportunities for collaboration.

Student Leadership Positions

These leaders will be appointed by Ed and Anne. Student leaders are responsible for logging and documenting their work in a manner that allows for easy transition once a new student takes over the position.

• Graphics Editor Responsible for approving all choices for blog post graphics, checking that we have permission to use them and that they are appropriate based on the content of the post. This editor is also responsible for approving the captions on photos. The Graphics Editor will also check once the blog post has been published that it has the correct citations, caption, and appearance in WordPress. This position is currently open. Let us know if you’re interested.
• Online Editor: Tay Jacobe will be responsible for approving the blog posts once they are in WordPress right before they are published. The Online Editor checks to make sure that the Yoast SEO and Readability plugins are rating the page at an acceptable level. The Online Editor assures that there is consistency in how we structure posts. The Online Editor is responsible for keeping a running list of what posts we have published and what date they were published.

Two student roles

• Peer Editor: All student blog writers would in turn act as peer content editors. Responsible for editing drafts of blog posts, looking for places where content could be improved, cut, or elaborated upon. The Peer Editors also edit posts for grammar and style. Peer editors will return posts to authors within one shift.
• Weekly Round-up Authors: These students would author a weekly post that briefly summarized what other entrepreneurship and innovation blog writers had posted during the preceding week. Round-up authors would be responsible for choosing which contact from an established list of blogs to include. They could also include material from other blogs, but these additions would need to be okayed by Anne or Ed. The weekly round-up would be published on Monday mornings, and thus would need to completed and approved no later than 5:00 pm on Friday. These positions are currently open. Let us know if you’re interested.

List of Blogs for Weekly Round-Up

• Patentlyo patentlyo.com
• Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property Blog cpip.gmu.edu/blog/
• FOSS patents fosspatents.com
• Kauffman Growthology kauffman.org/blogs/growthology
• Pitchbook pitchbook.com/news
• Crunchbase Daily (registration required) crunchbase.com
• Entrepreneur.com entrepreneur.com
• The Deal thedeal.com
• Thomson Reuters
• National Bureau of Economic Research nber.com (posts on E&I only)
• Kleiner Perkins kpcb.com
• Harvard Business Review hbr.org

Due Dates and Expectations

A draft of a post will be expected by Anne no later than one week after the idea is proposed. This week includes the peer editor process. Peer editors must complete their editing within one shift of being assigned to a post. After Anne’s edits are received, a new draft is expected one shift later. Tighter timelines may be specified depending on circumstances.

Blog Post Writing Process

1. Before beginning a blog post, blog writers must get preliminary approval from Anne or Ed. To propose a blog post, sketch the idea in 2-3 sentences in a post on the #bloggers Slack Channel. Include links to at least three sources you would draw on to write the post. State the implications for public policy on entrepreneurship, innovation, or public policy in your proposal.
2. Once your idea is approved, set up a wiki page for the blog post. Include the proposal, all sources, an editable link to the google doc, and any other relevant information. Use Blog Post Categorization for help so that the post shows up in our summary page, Active Blog Posts. Drafts are due one week after your idea is approved.
3. Once the draft is ready for review, give it to the next available peer editor. He or she will make suggestions and return the blog post to the writer. The writer will revise the draft based on these suggestions
4. Give the revised draft to Anne, completing the same process of suggestion and revision as with the peer editor in Step 1. If any large changes are made in this process, the writer will give the new draft to another available peer editor to check for grammar/content one last time before giving it to Ed. This process may have to be repeated more than once if the blog needs further development.
5. Give the final draft Anne for approval. Once Anne’s approval is given, the piece can be posted in the blog using Steps 5-6.
6. Simultaneously with Steps 1-3: Select two or more graphics for the blog post (one as featured image, one for within the post itself), making sure that we are authorized to use the image and that we have the proper citations. Write a caption for the graphic. Give all of this to the Graphics Editor for approval.
7. Once the graphics and content have been approved, the writer can post it all into WordPress. The writer need to make the page visually appealing and set up the WordPress features- Use Blog Post Best Practices for help (SEO, Readability, Tags, Hyperlinks). At this point, the blog post will be ready for publication, but should be labeled as a “Draft” within WordPress (not public yet).
8. Notify the Online Editor that the post is completely ready to be published. The Online checks that the post is at the quality we expect for publishing, looking at graphics, plugins, content, title, etc. The Online Editor can then publish it to the public in WordPress.