Success in Social Media depends on two key elements. High quality engaging content coupled with a design that is simultaneously aesthetic and functional. The Social Media presences that we Showcase are putting those elements into practice

About Cross Blog

Cross Blog is the official blog for the Oregon Red Cross. It is a two-column layout hosted on the Blogger Platform. The blog had a slow start in March of 2007, averaged two posts per month and concluded the year with 25 total posts. In 2008 they posted over 750 items and are on a similar path for 2009.

Content

The content of Cross Blog is a diverse mix of national preparedness themes, local stories, and disaster response notifications. The content is well composed for Social Media audiences including images and relevant links. Posting frequency varies from one post a weekday to multiple posts a day.

Cross Blog is engaging their audience through both interactive polls using the Twtpoll service and most recently with a Twitter contest. The contest asks participants to tweet #just1thing that they are doing to become better prepared for a potential disaster during September, which is National Preparedness month. This is obviously a group that understands the 140 character limit of Twitter and are modeling their engagement to fit within those limitations while still using their blog as a hub.

Overall Cross Blog is providing solid easily consumable content in a timely manner.

Design Elements

Header

The Cross Blog header is both well designed and functional. The key graphic is both aesthetically pleasing and links to the home page. Below the graphic is a header wide link to the Oregon Red Cross main site, and below that are links to the blog’s own Labels allowing a quick and easy search of the content.

Contributor Panel

I love the composition of this Contributors panel for a variety of reasons…

First it clearly identifies the fact that Cross Blog is a team effort. More importantly, it shows that the team is a diverse collaboration of the different services that the American Red Cross Oregon Trail Chapters provide. This provides both diverse content to readers and the opportunity for all departments to get their message out.

Another great thing about the photos themselves is that they are not your typical Contributor photos. The different poses that Lise Harwin and Robin Parker are captured in are both complimentary and comical, adding a personal touch to what could have been a stiff corporate image.

Finally, they link directly to their Blogger Profiles. This furthers their ability to connect on a personal basis with their audience by revealing a little bit more about their personal nature. Social Media is about being able to connect, and the Contributors to the Cross Blog give their readers every opportunity to do so.

Subscription Boxes

The subscription boxes that Cross Blog uses are highly important. While we often refer to things such as netbooks, RSS Feeds, SMS messaging, Twitter, and Smart Phones as ways to deliver our message, there is one method that has and continues to dominate them all in its effectiveness.

E-mail.

While it is probably the oldest method of electronic communication, it is also the most widely adopted. Having a blog that offers e-mail subscriptions is imperative to being able to appeal to as large an audience as possible in getting your message out.

Currently Cross Blog is running two different e-mail lists. One of them is a subscription through Feedburner for the actual blog content, and the other is for a newsletter. Having two different subscription boxes so close together can be a little confusing, but they did separate it by an image feed from their Flickr account. Sticking a Social Media spoke in as a divider between the two lists works… especially if the Flickr content freshens up once a week.

5,701 Pixels

This is the one thing that I would have to suggest an improvement on. The Labels in the sidebar run approximately 5,701 pixels long. Converted to a more standard measurement system, that means that if it would be a list just over 6 and a half feet long.

Unfortunately this isn’t an uncommon occurrence because of the way that Blogger handles Labels. I did find a tutorial about rolling the Labels up into a drop down box, which is really something I think they should consider from both an aesthetic point of view as well as from a usability aspect. At the very least, I would bring my dated archives above my labels.

In Conclusion

Cross Blog is a shining example of a Public Safety Agency blog. If you are running a Public Safety Agency Blog or are planning on one, definitely spend some time looking at how they are doing it…

- Teamwork across all departments/services
- Connecting to their audience on an individual level by displaying their own personalities
- Having their own unique voices
- Fresh and timely content
- An aesthetically pleasing and overall functional design

Kudos to Cross Blog, they are a true Showcase of Social Media done right.

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