It’s back to school month here at Interactive Schools and schools in the UK.
The doors are once more open! Pupils and staff, old and new, are filing back in. Classes, which stood so eerily quiet only a few weeks ago, are open again for business. Yes! Welcome #BackToSchool.
Here are some of the best moments from schools getting back to it this week!
With social media and tech innovations changing trends on a regular basis, it becomes easy for "old-school" channels / platforms to go on the back-burner. The humble blog seems to be one such outlet that schools are forgetting about.
BUT: are we doing the right thing in pushing blogs away and focussing instead on the very fluid trends of the year / month / day?!! Do blogs still have a place in your school?
Let's take a look at the blog's place in modern #ContentMarketing for some insight:
blogging is the TOP form of content marketing: the top three content marketing tactics are blogging (65%), social media (64%), and case studies (64%) [source]
long-form content is "in" right now: the average blog post is now 1,142 words (up 41% since 2014) showing an appetite for more long-form content [source]
it's still popular with top businesses: 53% of marketers say blogging is their top content marketing priority, so emulating this seems a sound investment in time [source]
Google loves blogs: companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages than businesses without blogs, meaning it helps massively with SEO [source]
Looking at these states, there are two points worth noting:
blogging is even more relevant today than it was 4 years ago (despite trends in tech and social media)
people want to read blogs (and big businesses know this), or at least longer form content
Still not convinced? Then how about considering these questions:
does your school have current parents and pupils?
does your school have prospective parents and pupils?
are they online?
do they read online?
If the answer to all these questions is yes, then your school would benefit from a blog.
So you've decided that perhaps a blog could work for you, but what should the focus of it be? After all, there needs to be a strategy that leads it (as with any form of content you are producing).
Typically, we see three types of school blog:
[1] the head's blog: for many schools, their head / principal is a leader of not only the school itself but of the education sector. We work with many amazing head teachers who are thought leaders and influencers in all sorts of topics, ranging from education technologies to leadership; women in STEM to creativity in the classroom.
The primary purpose of the head's blog is to be an authority person for their school, to promote and drive conversation around what your school does. They are #DigitalAmbassadors and should be leading your school's online presence.
Take a look at Nicholas Hammond's blog for The British School of Paris, a great example of just this.
Grab your snorkels and step into your flippers as we take a journey into the endless depths and possibilities of your #ContentStrategy. Welcome to our new ‘Deep Dive Into’ series, first up, producing great video content.