NetSquared's Community Blog is the best way for Community members to share questions, ideas, lessons, and news about Projects, events, and more.  All registered users have the opportunity to create content and contribute to the Community Blog. For more information about how to post, see instructions below.

Why

What can you do with the Community Blog?   Why would you use it?
Community Members

• Share information about your organization, Project, or idea that combines social media and social change
• Learn from others and share your feedback on their stories

Project Participants

• Let the Community know about your Challenge submission
• Keep the Community updated with your progress and developments
• Ask the Community for feedback to help improve your Project
• Rally supporters to vote for your Project
• Thank supporters for involvement

How

In order to blog or edit your blog on the NetSquared site, you need to be a registered member and logged in.   For instructions on how to contribute, see the different options below.

To Register with NetSquared

• Register. (The prompt is in red at the top right hand corner of the screen.)
• Fill out the user account form.
• Check your email for your username and password.

To Post to Your Blog

• Login.   (The prompt is in red in the top right hand corner of the screen.)
• Click on, "Post to Your Blog," in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
• Title your post.
• Tag your post with the word "intro" if you are writing an intro about yourself; otherwise, use words that relate to the content of your post. Separate each tag with a comma. Do not include quotation marks.
• Write your post.   Similar to a Word Document, you can make your text bold (B) italicized (I) or underlined (U) by choosing the appropriate symbol in the top left hand corner of the "Body" box. You can also choose your text alignment (left, right or centered) and make bulleted or numbered lists.  Do not change the styles or format.
• Insert a link to another Web page by dragging your cursor over the word you want to link.   Click on the chain symbol. Type in the URL you want to link to (include http://). Beside "Target", select "Open link in a new window" from the drop-down menu. Hit Insert.
• Break a link by dragging your mouse over the word you want to unlink. Click on the symbol of a broken chain.
• Hit "save."
• If you do not see your blog post appear on the site right away, do not worry. Some times the moderation queue for content can take a while to process.

To Edit your post

• Login to the NetSquared site.
• Click on "My Account" in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
• Click on "View Recent Blog Entries."
• Click on the title of the post you want to edit.
• Click on the tab that says edit.
• Edit your post and re-submit it or delete it.   The delete button is on the bottom of the page.

Add a photo to your post

• Upload your photo to your Flickr account, or go to a Web page where your photo is posted, or choose a photo with a Creative Commons Attribution License:http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/
• Hold your cursor over the photo you want to post until a menu pops up that says, "copy image location."   Select "copy image location."   Nothing happens when you do this, you just have to trust that it is happening.
• In your blog post, hit the image of a tree in the top menu of the "Body" box. Paste the "image location" you just copied where it says "Image URL."   Surprise!   It really did copy the image location!
• Select the pull-down menu next to Alignment and choose how you would like to position your image in your post, i.e. "left."
• Hit "Insert."

You can make the image smaller by clicking on it until it becomes outlined with little white boxes.   Then click on a corner of the image while holding down the shift key and drag it towards the center of the image to make it smaller.   You can also drag the image up and down the body of the post with your mouse, but only within the alignment you chose (i.e. if you chose left alignment, it will always stay left).

As you type you may have to move text or the image around to make it all fit together.

add photo later

• Login to the NetSquared site.
• Click on "My Account" in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
• Click on "View Recent Blog Entries."
• Click on the title of the post you want to edit.
• Click on the tab that says edit.
• Edit your post and re-submit it or delete it.   The delete button is on the bottom of the page.