Blogs and comment pieces

These guidelines set out the process for developing and drafting blogs and comment pieces that will be published on the NIHR website (blogs) and third party publications and websites (comment pieces).

Who are these guidelines for?

• NIHR communicators and other colleagues who wish to have a blog published on the NIHR website

• NIHR communicators and other colleagues who wish to have a comment piece placed in a third party publication

• Press Office team members who are responsible for reviewing and signing off all blogs and comment pieces prior to publication

Context

Thought leadership is a key pillar of the NIHR’s communications output, and comprises a range of different formats including speaking events, podcasts and written pieces such as blogs and comment pieces.

NIHR blogs and comment pieces are managed by the NIHR press office. We aim to publish 2-3 blogs per month on the NIHR website, and one comment piece per month in a third party publication (print and/or online).

Though blogs and comment pieces may still link to the news cycle at certain times, this is not always essential. Think pieces give us the space to deliver our views, visions, critiques and calls to action across those areas of health and care research that are important to us. They help us to establish a reputation for expertise and bold thinking, and inspire others to listen to us and work with us to achieve common goals.

Process for publishing blogs and comment pieces

1. Read guidelines below

2. Complete proforma

3. Meet/correspond with press office member to confirm idea

4. Draft/work with author on thought leadership piece

5. Submit final draft to thought leadership team

6. Edit if needed (either press office member or with press office guidance)

7. Pitch to publication (comment piece)/Upload onto SiteKit (blog)

8. Promote thought leadership piece on relevant NIHR channels

What are blogs and comment pieces?

Who is your audience?

Defining what is and isn’t a thought leadership piece is important in making sure that content meets with our organisational goals while keeping identified audiences engaged and interested. Audience is a key question when considering the format of your proposed piece. You will be asked to identify your key audiences when completing the pro forma (see below).

In brief, a blog is a thought piece that is published on the NIHR blog channel. As such, its content should be crafted to speak to an existing NIHR audience (e.g. researchers, partners & stakeholders, those with an interest in PPI). Given we are writing for a known audience that is demonstrably already interested in our work and will likely have an above average understanding of research issues, blog topics can be more niche and specialist than comment pieces.

Conversely, comment pieces are designed to appear in third party publications, such as news outlets (print and online) and partner & stakeholder websites. As such, their content should be drafted to be more generally accessible to readers who may not be aware of the work of the NIHR, or even know what the NIHR is.

What makes a good blog or comment piece?

Though there are a few things that differentiate a blog from a comment piece, they follow a number of similar rules. These work well:

✅  Bold and authoritative ideas and opinions, ideally that align with NIHR positions, on timely subjects that we know relevant audiences will be interested in

✅ Compelling content offering unique expertise, insight and perspectives and getting the author’s personality across

✅ A strong call to action for the relevant audience, and onward travel to parts of the NIHR website

These themes don't work well:

❌ Bland subject matter, content and language - e.g. merely describing a past project or process, or recounting an event 

❌ Lack of general topicality, or compelling idea or opinion

❌ Outdated content, with no real insight or expertise offered

❌ Poorly written content, or ‘waffle’ with too much jargon.

Examples of good comment pieces

Why covid vaccine studies are still needed

‘Research nurses are key to helping health services become better, stronger and more resilient’

Examples of good blogs

International Women's Day: How we can play our part in breaking gender bias in health and social care research

Can the NIHR achieve true racial equity? - Dr Esther Mukuka 

Dementia Research in the time of Covid - Professor Martin Rosser

Be Part of Research: reimagining the current paradigm in clinical trials

LinkedIn articles

Some blogs may be selected to feature as long-form written content to LinkedIn. This is because there is a trend across social media of platforms rewarding ‘native’ content over links to external web properties, meaning these blogs could reach a wider audience through LinkedIn than our website alone. Feel free to request your blog be considered for LinkedIn promotion if you think it is particularly relevant to the sort of engagement and discourse that LinkedIn promotes.

See:

• an example of a LinkedIn think piece

• the LinkedIn article guidance document

Agreeing the topic and timing of a blog

Most of the pieces the press office commission/draft relate to the areas of strategic focus and work streams as set out in our strategy document ‘Best Research for Best Health: The Next Chapter’. But we welcome ideas on any NIHR and/or health and care research related topic from any member of the NIHR family.

When you have an idea, and have read these guidelines in full, please:

1. complete the brief blog and comment piece pro forma 

2. email it to the NIHR press office at pressoffice@nihr.ac.uk 

Someone will respond initally within two working days. If needed, you can talk it through with them in more depth.

Please hold off from drafting or commissioning your content until you have corresponded with the NIHR press office.

To ensure the entire process is completed in good time, please contact the press office a minimum of three weeks before your desired publication date.

Search engine optimisation, readability and accessibility for blogs

There are a number of more technical considerations that are important when writing for web. These are familiar to most NIHR communicators, but you can contact nihrwebsite@nihr.ac.uk for help.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Including keyword or keyword phrases in your blog helps to ensure it can be found using search. Almost half of all users of the NIHR website come via Google search results, so optimising your content for search is a really important part of content production. Think about the word(s) or combination of words your audience are likely to be searching for to find the content they need and include these in your content.

Some key points to keep in mind:

• Headlines should be no longer than 65 characters and where possible should include your keyword or keyword phrases. Use the Moz Title Tag Preview Tool to check if your headline fits into the limited space provided on search engine results pages.

• Include your keyword or keyword phrases in the first sentence and the first h2 heading.

• Include your keyword or keyword phrases in the meta description, which should not exceed 165 characters in length.

For more detail, please read the web team's news story SEO guidance. You can also use the NIHR web team’s SEO checklist.

Readability

As indicated, all blogs should be written in plain English.

To ensure people are able to easily read our news stories, we recommend that you copy and paste your draft into the Hemingway App.

We aim for a readability score of 11 on Hemingway, this is not the same as the reading age of a 11 year old.

Accessibility

All blogs on the NIHR website must conform to accessibility legislation. The main areas to be aware of are as follows:

• Links - these must be descriptive, eg “click here” or “read more” may not be used

• Headings - if you are using headings, a heading tag must be applied in the content editor and must be applied sequentially (h2, h3, h4)

• Video clips - please only include if all the accessibility elements have been added. 

• Images - most images are decorative.  Please only add alt text if your image is descriptive (ie it provides content) eg a graph or infographic or text within the image (such as organisation names)

How to write a blog for the NIHR website - top tips

Here are some tips for writing thought leadership content pieces that can be shared with authors and other NIHR comms colleagues as needed.

1. Think of your audience - about who they are, what they know already, and how they like to be spoken to. Crucially, ask yourself what they want to know, not just what you want to tell them.

2. Write for that audience - eg patients will likely benefit from less technical language, whereas researchers in a specialist field will not. Don't talk down to people. That being said, simplicity should always be the first principle, whoever your audience, to avoid over-complicated prose.

3. Tell a story - take the reader from the beginning, to the middle, to the end. Use sub-headings for flow if appropriate.

4. Word length - the sweet spot is between 600-800 words depending on the topic. Only very rarely is longer better, and most pieces of prose are made more impactful through judicious editing and restructuring. Brevity rules!

5. Try to include new facts/data/views - boldness of thought, backed up by robust evidence, produces the most engaging content. As a guiding rule, try and think of three new facts etc as a good measure.

6. Link to other evidence/views where appropriate - this stimulates conversation/thought, increases the credibility of your views, and is good for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). However, please ensure links are included in an accessible manner, so that people with screen readers and other tech support can read your content as well!

7. Look to the future - avoid “what we did on holiday” type retrospective pieces that recount work that’s already been done in chronological order. It’s fine to evidence your future work with examples of work that has already been done, in fact it’s important to do that wherever possible to show lessons learned etc. But retellings of meetings that have now passed are generally only interesting to the people who were there or were invited but couldn’t attend, and there are better ways of communicating to those groups than blogs and comment pieces.

8. Calls to action - By which we mean asking and inspiring people to do something. This could range from providing links for further reading on (ideally) the NIHR website, to signing up to a specific study or sharing materials and messages on social media (eg for a campaign).

9. Have fun! This is a great chance to get your views out there to a wider audience. Show them what you've got!

More information

If you need help or support, please email pressoffice@nihr.ac.uk.