How to write great posts on Landcarer

What makes a great post?

When we post something on Landcarer – we hope that others will not only notice our blog, discussion or library entry, but respond to it. We hope that our friends, colleagues, and even the wider community will be so inspired by what we’ve written that they’ll comment on and share our post.

Even greater satisfaction comes from others being so motivated by what we’ve written that they’ll take action – they’ll come to our meeting or event, or read our website information or watch our video to find out about a program or activity that could help them.

Getting engagement

How can you make this engagement happen with your posts?

This is an age of information overload, where busy people are presented with more information than ever before, across multiple online platforms. This means that everyone can only actively and meaningfully engage with a small proportion of the vast volume of information they encounter in their daily lives.

As people scroll through Landcarer, what makes your post the vital piece of information that just has to be checked out? What makes people stop at your post, read it, follow or comment on it, share it, or even act on it?

Here are four easy things that you can do to stand out from the crowd:

  1. Clear and meaningful titles
  2. Directly relevant and clear featured photo
  3. Concise and appealing text
  4. Make it actionable


1. Clear and meaningful titles

As people’s eyes scan down the news feed of posts, what will make them stop at yours? You need a short but impactful discussion subject (for posts) or title (for blogs and library entries) that communicates the most important aspects of your post in just a few words.

If your title or discussion subject doesn’t immediately grab the reader’s interest, they’ll keep scrolling. Additionally, if your title or discussion subject isn’t directly relevant to what your post is about, then people might start to read your post, only to move on in frustration a short time later, disappointed that they spent their limited time on something that isn’t actually relevant to them.

Examples:

2. Directly relevant and clear featured photo

The featured photo that you use or is shown with your post should assist your title in readily communicating what your post is about. Avoid abstract photos – they might be very meaningful to you, but will everyone else feel the same when they will only glance at your photo for a couple of seconds?

Make sure that the photo is clear enough that it can still be easily understood when shrunk to thumbnail size on the website. If readers have to squint at your photo or reach for their glasses to work out what it’s supposed to show, they won’t do this – they’ll just move on. Remember that many people now browse the internet using the tiny screen of a smartphone. Will they be able to make sense of your photo?

Also make sure that you have copyright permission to use your featured photo. If you don't have your own photo or are unsure if you have copyright permission, another option is to use a relevant photo from a Public Domain Image sharing website. Public Domain Is a type of Creative Commons licence that allows an Image to be used freely. Popular Public Domain Image sharing websites Include pixabay.com and unsplash.com.

Examples:

3. Concise and appealing text

The text of your post or story should be concise and appealing.

Library entries and discussions. These are shorter than blogs. They typically have between two and four short paragraphs, with no more than a couple of sentences in each paragraph. The first sentence or two should provide a concise and meaningful overview of what the post is about. The remaining paragraphs should then concisely provide other key details – enough information so that the reader isn’t left wondering about important aspects of the post topic.

Blogs. Despite the realities of information overload, people still value and read long-form writing. Indeed, reading a good book remains an ever-popular activity. So don’t be afraid to write a longer story if that’s what’s needed to effectively get your messages across.

The opening couple of paragraphs of your blog should grab your reader’s attention, so they’ll be interested to read more. You’ll then keep their attention all the way through if your text is well structured and broken into logical sections. Stories can be as short as several paragraphs, or as long as several sections with several paragraphs in each section.

Each paragraph should have between one and four sentences. A golden rule of writing for websites is that online text is easier to read if it has shorter paragraphs than are found in printed text.

Photos can be included to further illustrate key aspects of your story text. As the saying goes, “a photo can tell a thousand words.” But, as with the featured photo discussed above, make sure that the photos you use are relevant and clear, including when shrunk to thumbnail size or shown on the tiny screen of a smartphone. Also make sure that you have copyright permission for any photos you use,

Example post from Landcarer:




4. Make it actionable

Reaching the ultimate goal of others being so motivated by what we’ve written that they’ll take action comes from deliberately making your post actionable. This means including a step where your reader is prompted to do something in response to your post or story, such as participating in your Landcare group’s meeting or event, or reading your group’s website information or watching your video to find out about a program or activity that could help them, and how to become involved.

For example, rather than a post reporting that your group held an information session, include a video or audio recording from the session. Doing this effectively requires some advance planning, but you don’t need sophisticated recording equipment for this. Mobile phone video can be just as effective, and that’s what you’ll find on highly popular sites such as TikTok. Alternatively, instead of (or as well as) a video or audio recording, you could attach the presenter’s PowerPoint slides or a relevant fact sheet that they have provided.

Example from Landcarer: