Nine months too late, but thanks to the same gracious individual who translated GVA’s Anonymous Blogging guide, we are now able to present you with the Chinese version of Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy:

博客有理! 全球之声博客声援指南

“[T]o inform and to inspire,” for that is the point; and to further quote author of Blog for a Cause! Mary Joyce:

It explains how activists can use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice around the world. Blogging can help activists in several ways. It is a quick and inexpensive way to create a presence on the Internet, to disseminate information about a cause, and to organize actions to lobby decision-makers.

Cross-posting for Advocacy

We are pleased to release the second Advocacy 2.0 Guide: Cross-posting for Advocacy, An Introduction to Effective Social Media Integration. This guide offers us a brief introduction to how to use cross-posting for online advocacy campaign. It reviews different web 2.0 tools, showcasing successful examples where cross-posting has been used for advocacy. The guide also includes the pros and cons of the cross-posting technique.

Boost your online advocacy campaigning efforts

A successful and effective online campaign engages a variety of strategies in order to, on the one hand, raise awareness and promote a message, and on the other hand, to maximize outreach and attract new supporters driving them to take action in favor of your cause.

Thanks to the incredible widespread availability of all kinds of content on the Internet, you can now increase the reach of your online campaign by automatically and instantly cross-posting your blog or website entries on different Web 2.0 services, such as macro and micro blogging services (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.). It is another fantastic way to build communication and connect to your audience, and it can have far-reaching impact on your campaign, particularly by getting the attention of people who have never visited your website.

The entries on your blog and website are not separate entities. They can now appear on countless web platforms simultaneously, grabbing the attention of new niche audiences and opening new channels of communication with groups beyond the circle of your most loyal supporters. Your blog or website may remain your primary medium of choice for content, but since only some readers will follow you on Twitter or are subscribed to your RSS feed, this broad dissemination approach, has the potential to engage more people in your cause and encourage them to share links, sign electronic petitions, send emails, and even make donations.

There are multiple benefits to this approach. The first is that you drive more visitors, and thus eventual supporters, to your own blog campaign. Also, it has the effect of lengthening the lifetime of your blog and website entries by generating a cycle of sharing and promotion that can be easily picked up by search engines like Google.

Please download the guide as a PDF file and help us translating the guide in your language.

Table of Contents

- Introduction
- What do you need?
- How to feed your blog or website to Twitter?
- Update your Facebook Status via Twitter
- FeedBlitz takes it a step further by automating email and IM delivery
- Some arguments against the use of the cross-posting
- A good example on how to use the cross-posting technique

Please check out our other 2.0 guides for Advocacy

Geo-bombing is one of the techniques that can be employed to enable more effective dissemination of your YouTube videos campaign through Google mapping applications like Google Maps and Google Earth. Now you can watch your geotagged videos inside Google Earth and Google Maps. Any geo-tagged YouTube video will show up when the Youtube layer of Google Earth/Maps is turned on [read more...]

The Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor guide is now available in Portuguese thanks to this translation by Guilherme Barcellos., from GlobalVoices em Português.

The guide outlines several methods of protecting one’s identity in order to avoid retaliation and can considerably reduce the risks that a blogger’s identity will be linked to his or her online writings through technical means.

“Blogar no anonimato com Wordpress & Tor” is availble for download as a PDF file. If you experience difficulties viewing PDF format online, try this linkable and blogging-friendly HTML version.

Blogar no anonimato com Wordpress & Tor

Our goal is to:

• Aggregate web 2.0 tools for advocacy
• Provide detailed instructions on how to use them
• Highlight successful experiences of web 2.0 activism by local digital activists around the world.
• Inspire other activists to adopt these strategies in ways that serve their specific goals and needs.

From “Geo-bombing” to “multi-blogging” and Twitter to “mash-ups”, we explore the field of digital advocacy, helping activists reach out to audiences they may never have reached before.

We are releasing the first from a serie of Advocacy 2.0 Guides that will show you how to use the web 2.0 as an advocacy tool:

Geo-bombing is one of the techniques that can be employed to enable more effective dissemination of your YouTube videos campaign through Google mapping applications like Google Maps and Google Earth. Now you can watch your geotagged videos inside Google Earth and Google Maps. Any geo-tagged YouTube video will show up when the Youtube layer of Google Earth/Maps is turned on [read more...]

DigiActive is very proud to announce its first guide: A DigiActive Introduction to Facebook Activism. The guide is meant for activists who are interested in bringing digital technology to help develop excitement for a budding (or mature) movement.

The guide provides an overview some best practices with Facebook activism along with information about what and what not to expect. The end of the piece provides a closer look into three successful Facebook-driven campaigns from Egypt, Burma, and Morocco.

A DigiActive Introduction to Facebook Activism is available for Download here.

Content is split into four sections:

• Pros & Cons of Facebook Activism
• Steps to Organizing an Activism Campaign on Facebook
• Advice for Your Facebook Campaign
• Great Facebook Campaigns from Around the World

DigiActive is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping grassroots activists around the world use the Internet and mobile phones to increase their impact. Its goal is a world of activists made more powerful and more effective through the use of digital technology. DigiActive pursues this goal in several spheres of action, including a blog of digital activism best practices around the world, an interactive map which serves as a visual database of digital activism, a research program, and Open Trainings, a new open source repository of digital activism training modules. Learn more and get involved at www.DigiActive.org.

For further information please contact the author, Dan Schultz, at dschultz [ at ] Andrew [dot] cmu [ dot ] edu

Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy, is now available in Arabic thanks to this translation by the Egyptian journalist and blogger Amr Magdi.

Blog for a Cause! has already been translated into Spanish and French; the translation into Chinese and Bengali is on the way.

The guide outlines easy-to-follow tips on how to use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice and features successful examples of advocacy blogs from around the world. It is divided into five sections:

1. Frequently asked questions about what blog advocacy is
2. The 5 key elements of any successful advocacy blog
3. The 4 steps to creating an advocacy blog
4. How to make your blog a vibrant community of active volunteers
5. Tips to help blog activists stay safe online.

دوّن من أجل قضية is availble for download as a PDF file. You may need to install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.

Please download دوّن من أجل قضية and help us translating the guide in your language.

For further information please contact Mary at MaryCJoyce [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com or Global Voices Advocacy Coordinator Sami Ben Gharbia at advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] org

We are pleased to announce the translation into French of Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy thanks to Claire Ulrich from Global Voices en Français. Blog for a Cause! has already been translated into Spanish; the translation into Arabic, Chinese and Bengali is on the way.

The guide outlines easy-to-follow tips on how to use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice and features successful examples of advocacy blogs from around the world. It is divided into five sections:

1. Frequently asked questions about what blog advocacy is
2. The 5 key elements of any successful advocacy blog
3. The 4 steps to creating an advocacy blog
4. How to make your blog a vibrant community of active volunteers
5. Tips to help blog activists stay safe online.

Bloguer pour une cause

Please download Bloguer pour une cause ! (PDF file) and help us translating it into your language.

Thanks to one very gracious individual who unfortunately insists on remaining anonymous, Global Voices Online co-founder Ethan Zuckerman’s guide Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor is now available in Chinese, bringing years of experience in combining technology with activism not only to yet another part of the world but also, at just under 5MB, in a handy package designed specifically to be shared.

Coming later this month will be the translation of Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy, a perfect next step for those soon to be—and those who already are—equipped with the basics of what it takes to keep safe while doing certain kinds of work online. As with Anonymous Blogging, Adobe Acrobat Reader might be needed to view it and can be downloaded for free here.

And back to Ethan for the last word:

If you don’t really need to be anonymous, don’t be. If your name is associated with your words, people are likely to take your words seriously. But some people are going to need to be anonymous, and that’s why this guide exists. Just please don’t use these techniques unless you really need to.

Please certainly do feel free to help build this project by translating either Blog for a Cause! or Anonymous Blogging into your own language.

For further information please contact me at: chinese [ at ]globalvoicesonline[ dot ] org, or Global Voices Advocacy Coordinator Sami Ben Gharbia at: advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] org

Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy, is now available in Spanish thanks to this translation by María Florencia Puente from Global voices en Español.

The guide outlines easy-to-follow tips on how to use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice and features successful examples of advocacy blogs from around the world. It is divided into five sections:

1. Frequently asked questions about what blog advocacy is
2. The 5 key elements of any successful advocacy blog
3. The 4 steps to creating an advocacy blog
4. How to make your blog a vibrant community of active volunteers
5. Tips to help blog activists stay safe online.

Blog Por Una Causa! is availble for download as a PDF file. You may need to install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.

Please download Blog Por Una Causa! and help us translating the guide in your language.

For further information please contact Mary at MaryCJoyce [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com or Global Voices Advocacy Coordinator Sami Ben Gharbia at advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] org

Click on the image to download

Global Voices Advocacy is pleased to announce the second of several planned manuals focused on the topics of circumventing internet filtering, anonymous blogging and effective use of Internet-based tools in campaigns for social and political change.

Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy explains how activists can use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice around the world. Blogging can help activists in several ways. It is a quick and inexpensive way to create a presence on the Internet, to disseminate information about a cause, and to organize actions to lobby decision-makers.

The goal of Blog for a Cause!: is twofold: to inform and to inspire. The guide is designed to be accessible and practical, giving activists a number of easy-to-follow tips on how to use a blog to further their particular cause.

The guide is divided into five sections:

1. Frequently asked questions about what blog advocacy is
2. The 5 key elements of any successful advocacy blog
3. The 4 steps to creating an advocacy blog
4. How to make your blog a vibrant community of active volunteers
5. Tips to help blog activists stay safe online

In addition to the information provided above, the guide is also full of examples of advocacy blogs from around the world, to inspire readers with a glimpse of what is possible. These featured advocacy blogs have a variety of goals, ranging from freeing a jailed blogger in Saudi Arabia to protecting the environment in Hong Kong and opposing the conflict in Darfur.

The guide was written by Mary Joyce, a student of digital activism based in Boston, and was commissioned by Global Voices Advocacy, an anti-censorship project of Global Voices online.

If you found this guide useful when setting up your blog campaign, please email us to let us know.

Download Blog for a Cause!: in English and help us translating the guide in your language.

For further information please contact Mary at MaryCJoyce [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com or Global Voices Advocacy Coordinator Sami Ben Gharbia at advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] org