Brian Kelly has published over 1,000 posts on the UK Web Focus blog, with the 1,000th post announcing that Brian was runner-up in Computer Weekly’s IT Professional Blogger of the Year award.

But the blog is not one-way communication, nor simply another way to self-publish. For Brian blogging is an important aspect of the open practice he feels is particularly appropriate for those working in innovative areas in higher education. "Publishing my thoughts and ideas openly on my blog enables me to get timely feedback on new ideas," he explains. “Such feedback can help to gain a better understanding of how new developments in the online environment can be developed for the good of the sector.”

How could blogs form part of the research lifecycle? Brian explains that he floats initial ideas on his blog; these are then refined by the comments and by discussing them with colleagues on Twitter. He crystallises the arguments into papers, which are then peer-reviewed and made available on the University of Bath institutional repository. And so the process of refinement and argument continues.

But ensuring a strong conversation on a blog requires you to build up an audience for your posts. “The point of a blog is often to change people’s minds – or my mind,” Brian says, referring to the online conversation that is all important. “The 1-9-90 rule has been used to describe engagement in online environments: for every 100 readers, 90 will be lurkers, 9 will contribute occasionally and 1 will be an active contributor. There is therefore a need to build and develop a community if you wish to ensure that there is the critical mass required for the community to participate”.

Encouraging people to comment on your blog in this way not only boosts its usefulness to you, but also allows you to evaluate the success of your posts in a much more authentic way than merely looking at blog stats. You can look, for example, at whether key people have commented, or examine the spin-off conversations it’s sparked on Twitter, although comments on mailing lists and in real life can be more difficult to track.

Brian’s most viewed post ever received 1,420 hits in its first 24 hours, over four times the regular number of views, largely due to its content (the Russell Group on Twitter) and its viral success across the social web. The success of the post also allowed him to interact further with his readership through the many comments posted. Using survey forms to discover people’s views is another useful way to gain a deeper understanding of what the silent readership is thinking.

Read Brian’s most popular post.

Brian’s has many strategies to make sure his posts can be found from many different locations on the web. For example, he uses automated feeds to send out his blog posts on Twitter and Facebook the moment they’re published, and he also registers his blog in online directories to help find new audiences. And why bother? It’s because people can only engage if they can find your blog. Using an open platform like Wordpress ensures the technical end of things takes care of itself – so you can concentrate on starting the conversation.

You can read advice on making the most of the web on Brian’s blog UK Web Focus

Follow @briankelly