Blog post checklist

1% DRAFT (revised by Justin Reynolds on Dec 30, 2019)

Below is a checklist for blog posts published in https://mattermost.com/blog.

• Does the post have an exciting title?

  • Make sure it’s in sentence case

• Does the post look good on mobile?

  • Shrink browser to make sure content is mobile-optimized, including images and videos

• Does the post have the author’s name?

  • Make sure bio and headshot have been added to WordPress profile and follow the guidelines below

• Have you selected the most appropriate category? Click the link below each category for examples if you are unsure. You can select more than one category when applicable.

  • CIO/CTO -- posts that appeal to the C-suite

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/27-things-enterprises-can-learn-startups-increase-productivity/

  • Community -- posts about our community

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/thank-you-to-our-open-source-community/

  • Company -- news about Mattermost, Inc. (e.g., Series B announcement or industry report)

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/yc-leads-50m-series-b-in-mattermost-as-open-source-slack-alternative/

  • Compare -- comparing Mattermost to other products

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/popular-slack-alternatives/

  • Customer stories -- case studies that appear on the blog

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/category/customer-stories/

  • DevOps -- posts about DevOps

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/connecting-remote-devops-teams-with-mattermost/

  • Dot releases -- dot release announcements

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/category/dot-releases/

  • Guest posts -- posts written by people outside of Mattermost

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/category/guest-posts/

  • Learn -- posts that teach readers something

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/category/learn/

  • Partnerships -- posts about partnerships and partner companies

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/mattermost-gitlab-chatops/

  • Press releases

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/mattermost-raises-20m-series-a-funding/

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/mattermost-named-a-cool-vendor-in-employee-engagement-and-enablement-in-the-digital-workplace-by-gartner/

  • Pricing -- posts about pricing changes

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/mattermost-enterprise-edition-e10-price-change-for-new-customers-effective-october-1-2017/

  • Product -- news about the Mattermost product

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/mattermost-plugin-marketplace/

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/introducing-mattermost-chatops/

  • Releases -- regular monthly release announcements

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/category/releases/

  • Security updates -- security release announcements

    • https://mattermost.com/blog/category/security-updates/

• Are all of the links working?

  • Make sure that there aren’t any broken links

  • External links should open in a new tab (see below)

• Does the post use sub headers?

  • In H2 style

• Does the post have meta data?

  • Make sure each post has a meta tag

  • All posts need to have an OpenGraph image that automatically populates on social shares

  • When you don’t have a specific image, use this

• Does the post have a call-to-action?

  • Make sure the reader’s desired next action is clear

• Is the post written by someone not affiliated with Mattermost? If so:

  • Add an editor's note explaining that at the bottom of the post:

  

• Does the post have images? If so:

  • Images should be crisp and clear (see: Screenshot and GIF guidelines)

  • Images that “bleed” into the whitespace should have a grey (#F7F9FA) 1px border on all four edges