The EFCN Blog is hosted by the Environmental Finance Center Network (EFCN) and managed by the SWEFC at UNM. The blog features content on water and wastewater finance, management, and technical topics targeted towards small systems.
BLOG CHECKLIST
Before sending your blog to SWEFC for review, please make sure it has all of the following:
- Title as it will appear on the website. Please refer to the Blog and Podcast Title Guidance when writing your title.
- Author byline: In italics -“[Full name of author], [position title] at [name of EFC/entity]”
- Images and/or diagrams with descriptive captions that include the source and credit for the image. You can add images straight into the Word document or attach them to your email. If attaching, make sure captions are present in the Word doc or email message.
- An introduction and conclusion could be just a couple of sentences, but both need to be there.
- Spell out all acronyms when they are first used (and consider whether an acronym is needed; if you’re only mentioning something once or twice, it’s probably not necessary).
- Hyperlinks to works cited and resources – no footnotes or works cited list. For examples of how to do this, refer to previously published blogs.
- Length is not too long (around 400-1000 words).
CONTENT
Blog posts may vary greatly in topic—such as asset management, energy management, funding coordination, water loss reduction, leadership, etc. Check out previously published blogs to see what others have done.
Struggling to pick a topic? Think about the purpose of your blog. Are you trying to educate and inform your audience or share an interesting story? What might be relevant to your audience, and what they might need to know? We recommend searching water sector social media and industry news channels to identify trending and innovative topics.
AI tools such as ChatGPT can also be useful as a starting point to generate ideas and get the ball rolling.
WRITING GUIDELINES
- Length: Most blogs should range from 200-500 words in length, with a 1000 word maximum.
- Author byline: the first line in your text should be your byline in italics.
- For example, Written by Joe Schmoe, Program Manager, Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center
- The Message: Keep your audience in mind (and put it in Smartsheet): who are you writing for—utilities, lawmakers, other nonprofits, the general public? What’s the main message of the blog? State the theme (or the main message) in your introduction and conclusion.
- Tone: The tone should be informative and relatively formal, avoiding the first-person unless the blog is narrative-based.
- A compelling introduction paragraph: Catch the reader’s attention and make them want to read further by including a thought-provoking statistic, quote, or question.
- Subheadings: Use subtitles to break up sections of text. This makes your blog appear more digestible to readers. It also gives readers a snapshot of what they can expect when reading your blog.
- Stay away from technical jargon. Instead, use simple language (“layman’s terms”) and short sentences. Some topics are technical and need to use technical language to present information accurately, but try to limit jargon to only where necessary. Also, be sure to spell out all acronyms the first time you use them.
- Tags: Tags are important in driving traffic from search engines, so specify and list what tags you would like to use at the bottom of your blog. Still unsure of what tags are? Check out this helpful webpage.
- Hyperlinks: Consider hyperlinking to related information, especially when using direct statistics or quotes. Especially add links and hyperlinks to any used EFCN resources so that we generate internal traffic to our other media and resources.
Please note: Footnotes or a list of citations at the end of the post are not acceptable, use hyperlinks in place of other citation methods. If you are unsure how to add a hyperlink in your text refer to this helpful webpage.
- Pictures: All posts require a featured image that will be displayed at the top of the post and in marketing materials. It is also recommended that you include at least one image in addition to the featured image. Additional photos help to retain readers’ attention, break up large blocks of text, and make your blog more visually appealing. You can find free stock photos at one of the following royalty-free sites.
- PLEASE NOTE: Do not use any pictures for which you do not have the express consent to do so. Even where images fall in the public domain, it’s still necessary to credit them at the bottom of the page. For example, Image courtesy of Joe Schmoe, Smalltown Water System.
- www.freedigitalphotos.ne
- www.freeimages.com
- www.pexels.com
- Flickr.com
- MorgueFile and Public-Domain-Photos
- Graphs and Tables: If graphs are used, make them accessible, eye-catching, and easy for readers to understand. Additionally, make sure to provide the necessary context for the graph to improve clarity for our readers.
- Please also include source information as part of the image of the graph. For example: Analysis by the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina. Data Source: NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources
- Save the image as a .png or .jpeg file to submit separately with your post.
PUBLISHING POSTS
When your blog post is ready to be published on the EFCN website, submit the post and all related images via email to Mikayla Standefer (kaylajoy95@unm.edu). Also, make sure to cc Averi Davis (adavis02@syr.edu) and Cristen Crew (cgcrew@syr.edu) so your post will be included in a monthly blast to blog subscribers. After submitting the blog, there will be a review and possible editing process conducted by the SWEFC staff. It is important to keep an eye out for further communication and revisions from the SWEFC staff regarding the blog.