Second in a series for Morris County NJ municipalities. This course offers a step by step guide for setting up a Blogger page and an RSS feed to post information from anywhere and use it anywhere. It touches on custom templates to create blogs that match existing website designs. The course reviews real world examples, such as recreation event notices, public meeting notices, emergency information and more. Finishing with the connection to Twitter and Facebook, this course shows local governments how to use these free tools to broadcast public information in the social space.

1. Building a Municipal
Social Media
Presence
Social Media Bootcamp
Carol A Spencer, Web Manager
County of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence

2. What you’ll do today
• Learn why this is important
• Set up a Google account
• Set up a blog on Blogger
• Learn about posting
• Set up an RSS feed for your blog
• Feed headlines to your web site
• Learn about custom Blogger templates
• Review an actual example
• Practice posting

3. The Morris County Process
PIO
issues a
press
Creates in MS Word
release
PIO posts on the website
using Blogger.
(Create a custom template)
Can use links and graphics, Using RSS Feeds,
even videos in the blog post subscribers sign up to get
notified via email or in a
reader.
Website Home page “What’s New”
is auto-updated.
Blogger auto-emails press
releases to whomever you
want.
Use Hootsuite to post to Twitter
and Facebook. Include a link to
website press release.
Twitter followers and Facebook
fans are automatically notified.
Automatic
Manual

4. Public Notices, for example
Public
Notice
written
Created in MS Word
Posted to the website on
your Public Notice Blogger
page. Using RSS Feeds,
subscribers get the notice in
an email.
Home page “What’s New”
Website is auto-updated. OR, if you
want a Public Notice section,
you can send feed there.
Blogger auto-emails public
notice to whomever you
want. If you’re also putting
in the newspaper, Blogger
can auto-email to the press.
Use Hootsuite to post to Twitter
and Facebook. Include a link to
the full notice on your website.
Twitter followers and Facebook
fans are automatically notified.
Automatic
Manual

5. Tools you need
• A website
• A Gmail account
– Gmail is a Google application
• Blogger
– Blogger is a Google application
• Feedburner
– Feedburner is a Google application
• Hootsuite or equivalent
– One post goes to multiple social networks
• Twitter
• Facebook

6. Step by Step
Carol A Spencer, Web Manager
County of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence

7. Getting Started
• Go to Google.com. Create an
account.
• Use a generic jurisdiction email address, or
• Create a gmail account, one that will stay with your
jurisdiction
• We use webmaster@co.morris.nj.us, but that’s a
problem for Facebook. Something like
MorrisCountyNJ@gmail.com would be good.
• Go to Blogger.com. Create an
account.
• Blogger is a Google product, so use the same email as
above.
• Create a blog. Use any simple blogger template. We’ll be
changing it, so it doesn’t matter.

8. Blogger 101: Getting there
Or, you can
go directly to
Blogger.com

9. Blogger 101: Getting there
Or, you can
go directly to
Blogger.com

10. Blogger 101: Log in
Going directly
to Blogger.com
brings up this
screen

11. Blogger 101: Identify
yourself
You’ll only do
this once.

12. Blogger 101: Create your
blog
This is where
you’ll create
all your blogs

13. Blogger 101: Create your
blog

14. Blogger 101: Set up your
blog

15. Blogger 101: Settings

16. Blogger 101: Settings,
Basic

17. Blogger 101: Settings,
Posts
Change to fit
your page
Change to
HIDE comments

18. Blogger 101: Settings,
Mobile
Sharing this secretword will
be a security problem.
Be careful!

19. Blogger 101: Settings,
Language

20. Blogger 101: Settings,
Other

21. Blogger 101: Ready to
post

22. Posting
Carol A Spencer, Web Manager
County of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence

23. Blogger 101: Posting
Cut and paste
text. Format font,
color, bold. Add
links, bullets,
photos, video.

24. Blogger 101: Draft or Live
Post
Publish: Live
Save: Draft
Preview: See it
Close: Save
without changes

25. Blogger 101: Labels
Like tags. Helps
people find what
they’re looking
for on Blogger.

26. Blogger 101: Schedule
posts
Schedule post
publication dates
so you can set it
up in advance.

27. Blogger 101: Published
page
Problems:
● header bar
● posted by
● about me
● links
All are fixed with
customizing the
Blogger template

28. Blogger 101: Records
Retention
Do not delete
posts. Revert
them to draft and
keep them.

29. Blogger 101: Records
Retention
Draft posts do
not appear, even
if they once did.

30. Blogger 101: Records
Retention

31. Blogger 101: Co-authoring
You can (should)
have multiple
authors for each
blog, with varied
permission levels.
Admins can
remove or add
authors for each
blog.

32. The Morris County Process
PIO
issues a
press
Creates in MS Word
release
PIO posts on the website
using Blogger.
(Create a custom template)
Can use links and graphics, Using RSS Feeds,
even videos in the blog post subscribers sign up to get
notified via email or in a
reader.
Website Home page “What’s New”
is auto-updated.
Blogger auto-emails press
releases to whomever you
want.
Use Hootsuite to post to Twitter
and Facebook. Include a link to
website press release.
Twitter followers and Facebook
fans are automatically notified.
Automatic
Manual

33. Feedburner
Carol A Spencer, Web Manager
County of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence

34. What the heck is a “feed”?
• Information that can be grabbed and
used in a variety of ways across the web.
• A feed can be an entire blog post or the
first few lines as a summary.
• People can subscribe to feeds.
– They don’t have to come looking for
your updates. Whenever you post an
update, it comes to them.
– They choose where to receive the feed: in
a reader or in email.
• Web designers can grab feeds to
automatically update “what’s new”.

35. Feedburner: Creating a feed
If you’re
logged into
Blogger,
Feedburner
will use that
same
account.

36. Feedburner: Creating a feed
Choose an
RSS feed.

37. Feedburner: Creating a feed
This is done
automatically
Only change
it if you want
it called
something
else.

38. You have a feed. What’s
next?
Done!
Now we’ll
grab some
code. This
is where you
will want
web help.

39. Setting up email
subscriptions
Allow email
subscriptions.
The press
loves these.
They don’t
have to keep
checking for
news.

40. Setting up email
subscriptions
Your web
folks can just
copy and
paste this
code where
you want it
on the page.
People
subscribe.

41. Send your feed to a web
page
Put short
snippets on
any web
page.
Customize
with these
options.

42. Send your feed to a web
page
Your web
folks can just
copy and
paste this
code where
you want it
on the page.
Posts show
up on a page

43. Send your feed to a web
page
Code copied
directly from
Feedburner.

44. RSS Feeds: They’re magic!
Visitor
subscription
choices Post archives
BuzzBoost

45. The Morris County Process
PIO
issues a
press
Creates in MS Word
release
PIO posts on the website
using Blogger.
(Create a custom template)
Can use links and graphics, Using RSS Feeds,
even videos in the blog post subscribers sign up to get
notified via email or in a
reader.
Website Home page “What’s New”
is auto-updated.
Blogger auto-emails press
releases to whomever you
want.
Use Hootsuite to post to Twitter
and Facebook. Include a link to
website press release.
Twitter followers and Facebook
fans are automatically notified.
Automatic
Manual

46. Publish to
Social Media
Carol A Spencer, Web Manager
County of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence

47. Publish w/social media; use blog
link

48. Publish EVERYWHERE!!

49. Let’s review our Public Notices example
Public
Notice
written
Created in MS Word
Posted to the website on
your Public Notice Blogger
page. Using RSS Feeds,
subscribers get the notice in
an email.
Home page “What’s New”
Website is auto-updated. OR, if you
want a Public Notice section,
you can send feed there.
Blogger auto-emails public
notice to whomever you
want. If you’re also putting
in the newspaper, Blogger
can auto-email to the press.
Use Hootsuite to post to Twitter
and Facebook. Include a link to
the full notice on your website.
Twitter followers and Facebook
fans are automatically notified.
Automatic
Manual

50. What you learned today
• Why integrating tools is important
• How to set up Blogger
• How to post
• About RSS feeds
• How to use Feedburner to create an
RSS feed for your blog
• How to publish one thing many places
• Where you can use this in government
– Public notices, recreation and special events,
– Emergency notices
• About customizing Blogger templates

51. Contacting me…
Carol A Spencer
Web Manager
County of Morris NJ
cspencer@co.morris.nj.us
webmaster@co.morris.nj.us

52. Building a Municipal
Social Media
Presence
Social Media Bootcamp
Carol A Spencer, Web Manager
County of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence

53. Customizing
Blogger Templates
*Requires HTML knowledge
Carol A Spencer, Web Manager
County of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence

54. Advanced Blogger: Custom
Templates
• Blogger allows Custom Templates
• Choose a “classic template”
• Modify the HTML to match your website pages
• Need someone fairly proficient in HTML to help
you
• What you need is code between
<blogger> and </blogger>
• Look at source code for:
http://mcprosnews.blogspot.com/
http://preparemorris.blogspot.com/
http://morriscountypr.blogspot.com/
• Keep your blog private until you have it set
• Need help figuring it out? Email us.

55. Advanced Blogger: Custom
Templates

56. Advanced Blogger: Custom
Templates

57. Advanced Blogger: Custom
Templates

58. Advanced Blogger: Custom
Templates

59. Advanced Blogger: Custom
Templates

60. Advanced Blogger: Custom
Templates

61. Advanced Blogger: Custom
Templates
→ List of Blogger custom template tags.
http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?
hl=en&answer=42070
→ Includes don’t work properly. Use full
code.
→ Add <base href=“ “> in header to not
have
to use absolute references.
→ Turn off comments (unless you want them).
→ Blogger does not allow FPT posting.
→ Must use blogspot.com.
→ Can point your own domain to your blog.

62. Building a Municipal
Social Media
Presence
Social Media Bootcamp
Carol A Spencer, Web Manager
County of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence