West of England Initiative Guest Blog Style Guide

It’s part of my mission as President of BCCI to invite leaders/partners from our region to guest-blog on issues important to Bristol and the West of England and/or showcasing/promoting Business as a Force for Good initiatives.

Please find below some tips to help your blog be accessible to the widest possible audience. When people search the Internet for the topic that you have written about, these guidelines should also help people find your blog quicker!

Subject and Tone

Business as a Force for Good: as this is our underlying theme there are questions I’d like you to address as part of your thought leadership piece. What personal challenges have you faced or are facing in order to connect your role to the global challenges? How are you working within your organisation to keep one eye on the greater social mission? How are you measuring success and how do you feel about the progress being made? Strengths, weaknesses, threats opportunities..

Keep it real: speak from your personal experience and perspective of what your organisation is doing. First-person accounts only please!

No Adverts/commercials/overt PR: this blog is not a home for that sort of content. Do instead get in touch if you’d like to sponsor content or events. We’re always up for that. Look good by doing good. Actions speak louder than ads.

Be Transparent: speak from your personal experience, from the heart. Report where you’ve been able to lead by example and your successes in achieving impact, evidencing those actions. But also share honest insights about challenges being faced by you/your organisation. Address elephants in the room be they about environmental action or human rights. 

Be Connected: Mention partner organisations you’re working with or those who can evidence your actions.

Readability and search engine optimisation

– Aim for no fewer than 300 and no more than 700 words

– Include the topic that you are writing about in the first sentence, or paragraph, of your blog

– Keep sentences shorter than twenty words, and paragraphs shorter than 150 words

– Include headings to help readers navigate and pictures that are relevant to the text 

– Avoid the passive voice, and try not to start consecutive sentences with the same word

– Include any helpful links, such as for the organisation that you are from or any projects/initiatives which you mention; we can add in links to related blogs

Authorship

– Include your name and any titles, i.e. jobs/positions relevant to why you are writing

– Include a head-and-shoulders photo, for social media

– Include your social media ids/links (linkedin, twitter)

Publication/Promotion

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When the piece goes live on the blog RT and tag in people mentioned in it. And me!