Blogs.IFAS is a strategic communications digital space that serves as a platform for UF/IFAS Extension, Teaching, and Research employees to directly post content to share with their clients and stakeholders. If you have not taken a tour of Blogs.IFAS, we encourage you to do so. We currently have more than 900 bloggers feeding content regularly into more than 100 blogs! Below you will find some helpful links:
This award serves to recognize those who exceed expectations in their roles. Winners are selected from a pool of individuals who are nominated by UF/IFAS faculty and staff. Each nominee is evaluated, according to the Pro-Blogger award criteria.
The nomination period starts near the end of each year with winners announced quarterly the following year. The webteam will reach out to the IFAS community to request nominations for the Pro-Blogger award. Self-nominations are accepted.
The Pro-Blogger award replaces the Freshness awards. All previous award criteria are being revised at this time.
Thank you for your participation! View previous winners from the 2021 UF/IFAS Blogger Awards.
The Communicator Awards 2022 awards the Blogs.IFAS Website Redesign!
IFAS Web Services is thrilled to announce the launch of Blogs.IFAS 2.0. We’ve updated the look and feel and added features that will allow greater interaction to encourage readers to browse and read more of the amazing blog content you all have created!
-------------
Blogs.IFAS 2.0 Features & Functionality Training: https://mediasite.video.ufl.edu/Mediasite/Play/3c6449e563164305acacba922beb15f21d
This training includes:
-------------
Many of the improvements for Blogs.IFAS 2.0 were “under the hood”, including coding the site in HTML5, improving accessibility, improving YouTube analytics tracking, and other performance enhancements. These improvements help ensure that users can find our blog, use our blog, and stay on our blog.
And many of the updates you can see achieve these same goals, as well! We have updated the look to be sleek and modern to ensure users know that this site has fresh content.
The navigation is re-designed to retain more users and encourage browsing.
The homepage includes more blog posts and a new section for Featured Blogger, to highlight our bloggers on a weekly basis and give readers a chance to see the people behind the posts.
On blog posts pages, readers now have the opportunity to interact in a new way…with our new “heart” button!
In addition, related posts will be displayed below blog posts to encourage readers to explore more Blogs.IFAS content.
On Author Bio Pages, bloggers now have the option to include a Subscribe button that is unique to their blog posts, allowing subscribers to get updates on their posts. Also, if the blogger has written or participated in any blog series, they are displayed on their Bio Page distinctly below their posts.
Authors will also now have the ability to be listed as co-authors on a single blog post.
Adding Video Content to Your Blog
The best way to include a video in your blog post is to first upload it to YouTube (if your unit does not already have a YouTube account you can create one for free), then you can easily embed the video within your blog. This has the added bonus of YouTube captioning your video for you, providing ADA compliance and allowing users to turn on captions when needed.
Viewing Analytics for Videos
You can check the completion rates of your videos to determine how successful they are using the Video Event Report in your unit's Blog D.A.D. Dashboard.
Recording & Editing Videos for a Blog
You may want to edit out the first few seconds of your video--perhaps you were getting your camera set up or you were giving attendees extra time to arrive for a live stream. Check out the following video tutorials for great ways to trim out unnecessary video content and help keep viewers engaged!
Recording & Posting an iPhone Video:
Recording & Posting a Zoom Meeting:
UF/IFAS YouTube Channels
Visit the UF/IFAS YouTube Channels for videos you can include in your blog posts related to your content.
Featured images on blog posts must be 1650x470 pixels. Reach out to webteam@ifas.ufl.edu if you encounter any issue uploading your featured image.
A variety of photo-editing tools can be used to crop your photos to the required size, such as Adobe Photoshop, MS Paint, Pixlr, Canva and Gimp. Check out the following resources related to featured images.
Photo Release Form
The tags you assign to your blog post will help search engines to better understand what your post is about.
For a list of commonly used tags and their importance, check out the UF/IFAS Blog Tag Lexicon.
The categories you assign to your blog post determine where your post is organized:
When publishing posts in more than one language on the same day, use featured images that are different from each other but share a similar theme (i.e. different images from the same photo shoot via UF/IFAS photo database). This allows them to stand out in blog feeds across UF/IFAS websites and lets readers know that the posts are related. See our Multi-Language Posts Guide for more on posts published in different languages.
To ensure your blog post appears in the En Español blog, tag your posts with "Espanol". Bloggers should include accent marks where possible on posts. To add special characters, follow the steps in the screenshot below when editing your posts.
Tag: Espanol
All Florida 4-H agents should include these categories and tags on their content to maximize post visibility:
To ensure your blog post appears in the Florida Master Naturalist blog, tag your post with the tag "Florida Master Naturalist Program" and/or "FMNP".
Tag: Florida Master Naturalist Program, FMNP
To ensure your blog post appears in the Master Gardener blog, all Master Gardeners should tag their posts with the tag "Master Gardener Volunteer". For bloggers with non-ufl.edu email addresses, the Master Gardener Coordinator will post their blogs on their behalf. New Master Gardener Coordinators can submit a Web Services Request to set up this access.
Tag: Master Gardener Volunteer
All Florida Sea Grant agents should include these categories and tags on their content to maximize post visibility:
Three simple steps!
Read more about Getting Started on Blogs.IFAS.
Writing a blog series is a great way to break up content into easy-to-digest posts and get readers excited about upcoming content. Here are the ways to identify a post as part of a series.
Follow this guide: Create a Blog Series and Add to Your Author Profile.
A post that is part of a blog series will have one or all of the following:
*A series is required to have a unique tag to identify the series. Ensure your tag is unique enough to only capture your blog series. Reach out to webteam@ifas.ufl.edu for guidance on developing your series' tag.
Reach out to webteam@ifas.ufl.edu to ensure our series appear on your Author Bio Page!
Yes! The Delay Publish option can be a great way to manage when your posts are published. You may want to use this option when you have several posts ready at once, but you don’t want to publish them at the same time. It is a best practice to publish only one post in a day: this will allow your content to be displayed in multiple email digest alerts, giving readers additional opportunities to find your posts. You may want to delay publishing for another reason. Follow these steps to Delay Publishing a Blog Post.
Have you ever struggled to come up with topics for your blog posts? Try out these...
Top 5 Blog Brainstorming Questions!
For more tips on what to blog about and which blog formats perform better than others, check out this blog post or this guide: What to Blog About.
For more ideas for your blog, check out the Blog Events Calendar, also at the bottom of this page!
Bloggers who meet blogging basics criteria under Blogs.IFAS:
Write about their expertise or discipline.
Complete their author profile.
Publish posts.
Label posts with tags and categories (The Blog Tag Lexicon lists commonly used tags that you can assign your posts.).
Resize and/or crop images, which includes meeting the size requirement for featured images (1650x470 pixels).
Follow these best practices to ensure your content stands out and attracts high engagement.
Choose a trending topic or an interesting topic that few people have heard about. (See the Search Console report in your unit blog's D.A.D. Dashboard.)
Use language that is conversational but still informative.
Break up text into smaller paragraphs.
Add headings to create sections within long posts, which organizes the content and provides a better reading experience.
Add images throughout the text to create interest.
Include a caption + credit line under each image used in the body of the post (For featured images, add a credit line only in the bottom of the post).
Label posts with the correct tags and categories, which helps with ranking in search engines and makes it easier for people to find your content.
Share posts via social media, newsletter, etc.
Having an author profile can boost your readership and let readers know a little about you. Here are our recommendations for a great author profile, including how to format your email to avoid spam.
Author profiles should:
Be complete sentences
Be in the third person
(optional) End with preferred contact information
Email, formatted: name [at] ufl [dot] edu or
Social media handles
Include a profile photo or avatar
If you have a blog series, it will display below your blog posts. Reach out to webteam@ifas.ufl.edu for more information on developing a unique blog series tag and displaying your blog series on your Author Bio Page.
You can edit your profile by clicking on your username in the upper-right corner when you are logged in to WordPress. Biographical Info is your profile and your Avatar is your profile image.
The webteam already has analytics running on your blog, so, if you would like to access them go to https://branding.ifas.ufl.edu/dad/.
Follow these tips when writing your blogs to ensure that all users can read them:
All images that you upload (including featured image and images placed within blog posts) should include an "alternative text". Screen readers will use this alt text for visually impaired users to communicate the content of the image, so ensure that the alternative text is descriptive.
Alt text also helps search engines index your images.
Use headings to organize your post
Screen readers use these headings to jump through the page to help the user determine which section to read.
Use PDFs that are ADA compliant if embedding into a blog post
Reach out to the Graphic Design team for assistance
For more information on ADA compliance, check out this ADA compliance webinar.
An Event Story allows you to share a past experience to promote an upcoming event. Event Stories help you reach a wider audience through its automatic dissemination to multiple platforms and websites, so more people know about the events happening in your area.
See our Event Stories Guide for more on how this feature works.
Check out our Event Stories FAQ's.
Watch our Creating a Blog Event Story Video Tutorial.
After you write a blog post, we encourage you to promote it on your social media accounts.
Tag the UF/IFAS social media accounts in your posts:
Facebook: @UFIFASNews
Twitter: @UF_IFAS
Instagram: @ufifas_solutions
YouTube: @IFASVideo
Also, here are some great hashtags to include in your posts!
UF/IFAS Anytime Hashtags
#UFIFAS, #IFASExtension, #IFASResearch, #IFASAtWork
For more hashtag recommendations, check out the UF/IFAS Hashtag listing.
Comment Moderation/Private Information:
All Blogs.IFAS content should be public.
Check out this guide on Moderating Comments on Your Blog Post.
