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Why Build an Educational Blog for your institution? Did you know that professional development (PD) costs an average of $8,000–$12,000 per year, per teacher? The kicker is that PD has been shown to be ineffective if it’s fewer than 30–100 hours, a threshold most programs can’t meet in a year.

But what if you could provide ongoing, on-demand professional learning opportunities to supplement your PD efforts for a fraction of the cost of one teacher’s PD budget, and in the same fell swoop build a culture of continuous learning, provide an avenue for feedback, and give the best of your faculty a voice to lead the conversation?

You can by building a blog designed to teach and inspire faculty and administrators across your institution.

And in this guide, we’re going to teach you how to do this in a cost and time effective way.

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it all starts With a story . . .Stories are more than just tales we tell our kids before bed. They are the fabric of human civilization. They hold our cultures, commerce, and communities together. Stories have the power to unite billions through common goals and understanding, laying the groundwork for cooperation, even on a global level.

Storytelling is the oldest and (still) the most effective way to spread ideas. But today’s stories have expanded beyond cultural narratives to include how-to’s, personal journeys, and thought leadership as told by anyone willing to share their ideas.

But what does all of this have to do with education?

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casE study: thE impact of an Educational Blog

When I started our blog, it was originally designed as a place to share new ideas and keep people up-to-date about things that were happening in the Office of Instructional Technology. As time went on and it was broadened to a team effort, we realized that it was helping to address both “just in time” and “just in case” PD needs. With the blog, we could post topics that would serve “just in case” PD sessions as additional resources or extended learning. But we could also provide a space for people to search for “just in time” topics that they needed at that moment. We started being much more intentional about what we were posting in terms of how it related to PD—and we saw the value in having resources in one place that were searchable, tagged, and able to be shared with a broader audience.

Kellie Ady, Former district instructionAl technology coordinAtor turned director oF instructionAl strAtegy

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What Educational storytElling can do for your institutionYou, your faculty, and your peers share an incredible wealth of knowledge, experiences, and skills. Documenting this collective intelligence and making it widely available turns every idea you share into a living lesson that continues to teach on its own … forever.

Sharing the stories and ideas from your educational community:

• Highlights educational leaders and successes

• Promotes institutional best practices and strategies

• Provides faculty a map for avoiding pitfalls

• Creates ongoing, on-demand PD opportunities

• Allows coordinators to elevate the conversation beyond the basics

• Encourages a culture of continuous improvement

• Provides a public forum for feedback

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Educational storiEs you could BE sharingTo bring this concept of educational storytelling down to earth, we wanted to share a few concrete examples of the kinds of articles and videos you could source from different faculty and administrators throughout your institution.

• How We Gamified PD and Boosted Our Engagement by 50%

• Practical Ways to Incorporate Flipped Learning in Your Classroom

• 5 Musts for Making Your First Day of Teaching a Success

• Strategies for Using Mastery Learning to Drive Instruction

• Course Design 101: How to Create Engaging Online and Hybrid Courses

• What We All Can Learn from Our Science Departments’ PLC

• Community Voices: What Do Your Peers Think About Our New LMS?

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Blogs arE thE ultimatE storytElling toolsThere are multiple ways to curate stories of successes, lessons learned, how-to’s, and best practices. The most effective is via a blog.

Blogging platforms are easy to use, allow you to delegate work to multiple people, provide the tools you need to promote articles, enable you to leverage a wide range of media—text, video, illustration, etc.

Beyond this surface utility, a blog can serve as the epicenter of your organization’s most important conversations. Just as with other published works, blog posts live forever. So long after your PD sessions end, your blog and the people who read it will continue to drive these critical conversations forward.

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noW for thE fun partOkay. We’ve beat WHY you should build an educational blog for your institution to into the ground. Now for the fun part.

For the rest of this ebook, we’re going to dive into the steps you need to take to build and manage your own high-volume, high-quality educational blog.

rEady? hErE WE go!

for Continuous Learning

“People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.”

- eArl nightingAle, AmericAn rAdio PersonAlity

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tips from an editor in chief: If you need to pitch this project to a superior, make sure to include language that will convey the benefits to them and your entire organization.

so . . . What arE your goals?The first step to building anything is establishing your goals at a high level. What purposes will this blog serve? What kinds of ideas do you want to share?

For example, your primary goal may be to extend PD conversations, so you’d want to focus on how-to’s, modeling, and strategy. Or maybe your goal is primarily to give thought leaders a voice, making personal narratives and lessons learned more applicable.

You don’t have to pick just one, by any means. Whatever your goals are, just remember to write them down, because you’ll need to share them with your team (more on that later).

“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”

- BriAn clArK, ceo oF rAinmAKer digitAl, Founder oF coPyBlogger

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tips from an editor in chief: I like to pick particular people in my audience to write for who I know personally. Beyond giving me a deeper connection with my target personas, I can also solicit their feedback.

dEfining your audiEncENow that you know why you’re launching your blogging project, you need to know who you’re doing it for. Who are you trying to reach? What are their goals? What kinds of narratives, insights, or practices address the challenges they face?

You’ll even want to go as far as creating personas for key archetypes of your audience. On a single page, flesh out each audience persona with a picture and clearly list out who they are, what they do, their interests, fears, values, and goals. Having someone specific to write for gives you a rubric for relevance.

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tips from an editor in chief: Consider adding an optional short answer question at the end of your survey asking the audience if they have a story to share and what the topic might be. This is a great way to find people who are interested in contributing to your blog.

don’t Just dEfinE thEm, rEspEct thEmNever forget that you are not doing this project for you. Your audience is what makes a blog special. They will ultimately determine the success or failure of this blog, so it’s important let them help you shape the content.

One way to respect your audience is by sending out a survey before you start creating any content. You’ll want to know what topics they care about, the challenges they face, the format of content they prefer (short-form, long-form, video, etc.), and any publications they follow that you can emulate. This let’s them know you’re listening.

“Teamwork makes the dream work.”

- John c. mAxwell, Author And PuBlic sPeAKer

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Free Benefits for Blog contributors

1. Builds personal brand2. Amplifies their voice3. Lets them lead the conversation4. Provides value to entire organization5. Proves Educator Effectiveness Standards

yEs, you nEEd a tEamDon’t kid yourself—no one can do this alone, unless it’s all you do. You need people who are passionate about education, who can connect with your audience and speak their language, and who have differing opinions than you to create something special.

Luckily for you, your institution is full of creative people who would jump at the chance to contribute in one way or another. The only thing is, they have a day job and you can’t ask too much of them, so you’ll want to have clear incentives you can provide contributors.

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tips from an editor in chief: Editing, proofing, and managing are time consuming tasks. Setting the expectations that contributors should pitch you ideas and provide outlines before writing can save you lots of time.

thE BluEprint of a strong puBlishing tEamYour team should consist of three parts—the editor in chief (that’s the leader), content managers (a few people to edit, solicit new stories, keep things moving, write, etc.), and contributors (the people producing the majority of the content).

Look for some, if not all of the following types of people:

• Big ideas people and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts)• Writers, explainers, and speakers

• Visualizers, artists, designers• Editors and proofreaders• Project managers and organizers

“Content is king, but distribution is queen. And she wears the pants.”

- JonAthAn PerelmAn, heAd oF digitAl icm PArtners

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contEnt stratEgy 101Your blogging project is really shaping up at this point. You have solid goals, you know your target audience, and you have a small but spritely team of content managers to help make your vision a reality. The next step is to weave all these elements into a cohesive strategy.

With your team, consider your goals. How do they align with your audience personas? You’ll also want to take stock of your team’s skills—what you all have to offer and what you’re interested in developing.

With all this in mind, you’ll be able to develop a realistic style and strategy that will help you achieve your goals.

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EstaBlishing a VoicE, tonE, and stylEPart of your strategy should address the overall voice, tone, and style you want your blog to have. Clearly define these (with examples) on a one page living document that you can pass out to all content managers and contributors.

Voice—Your blog is a collection of many voices, but they should all mesh together at a fundamental level. It could be your passion for education or your desire to be helpful.

tone—This is all about how you want your audience to feel. The tone you set is affected by your collective voice and your blog’s layout, color scheme, and imagery.

style—Your style is really about how you use words, imagery, and format. Do you allow for humor and the showing of character? Do you explicitly avoid fluff? Is it better to show using images and GIFs rather than tell in a how-to setting?

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tips from an editor in chief: Regardless of the type of content, I always recommend breaking content into “chapters” using subheaders for articles, visual and auditory transitions in videos, etc. This helps the audience compartmentalize ideas and stay engaged.

considEr your dEsirEd contEnt formatsAs part of your strategy, you’ll want to consider which content formats to use. Remember, your blog can support all kinds of content, including articles, audio interviews, video tutorials, screencasts, infographics, and more.

Make a rough estimate of how much of each content format you’d ideally see on your blog (Text 60%, Video 30%, Infographic 10%). While this is alway subject to change, it can be helpful for making sure your audience gets a healthy mix of formats.

You also want to think about the general qualities of your content. Should videos be kept short? What does short mean? Is the use of subheaders to break up articles encouraged or mandated?

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What’s your outBound stratEgy? Even though consistently providing valuable content is the #1 driver of audience growth and retention, you need to get eyes on it first.

Before launch, build momentum by getting the word out via announcements and word of mouth. Then, make sure to share each new post with your audience via the social channels of their choice and have social share buttons on your blog articles themselves.

Finally, it’s worth considering an email subscription list, even if you have to send emails manually. The more ways you can get quality content to your audience, the better.

the Anatomy of an effective subscription email

1. Subject line that gets clicks2. Quick, one-sentence intro3. Main image, title, and synopsis from each article4. Obvious links to the blog articles5. Link to share via forward or a social channel

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”

- roy h. williAms, Best selling Author

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filling your toolBoxYour choice in tools for your educational blogging project is an important one, to say the least. The most crucial choice you’ll have is which blogging platform to use. Each has its own pros and cons, but lucky for you, even free platforms are often advanced and user friendly these days.

Do your research to find the blogging platform that meets your needs best.

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What to look for in a Blogging platformWhether you decide to use a free or paid platform, an anything-possible platform (Wordpress) or a more limited and streamlined platform (Blogger), you’ll want most if not all of the following features:

• An easy-to-use interface• A full featured Rich Text Editor (with the ability to edit code)• The ability to have multiple editors and permissions• Commenting and comment moderation• Mobile responsiveness• Built in analytics and stats (otherwise use Google Analtytics)• Ability to add plugins (social tools, post scheduling, etc.)• A search function for searching topics and authors

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tips from an editor in chief: Some file types will work well with your blog and others won’t. Keep that in mind because the time spent reformatting could be better used elsewhere.

choosE your documEnt managEmEnt toolWhether you choose to create your content in the blogging platform itself or draft them using another tool, you’re going to need an efficient way for contributors to … well … contribute.

Using a content management tool, such as Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, for this purpose makes it easier for you to gather stories in any format, provide feedback, and keep it all organized.

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tips from an editor in chief: I personally like to use email (with a folder and filtering system) to communicate with contributors and Trello to communicate with content managers. Not all contributors will follow your project management protocol, so just using a tool like Trello for everyone can become unruly.

hoW Will EVEryonE communicatE?It will come as no surprise that you’ll need to communicate effectively with your content managers, your contributors, and your audience.

For content managers and contributors—email and/or a project management tool such as Trello or Asana is helpful. These tools are free and they help you keep drafts, comments, et al in one place. Project management tools also make it easy to know what’s drafted, what’s ready to publish, what’s stalled, etc.

For your audience—your communication strategy should have variety. As mentioned before, you want to meet them where they are—most often social platforms and email.

“Cut these words and they would bleed; they are vascular and alive.”

- rAlPh wAldo emerson

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mEasurE your progrEss toWards your goals While this is normally the last thing people consider when starting a blog, we put it as the first part of this section for a reason. Before you publish any content, determine the metrics you’ll use to measure your success and figure out how you plan to track them—via your blog’s built-in analytics, a spreadsheet, etc.

If your blog doesn’t offer the analytics you need, you can always use Google Analytics. It’s free, easy to set up, and can provide a wealth of insight to help you manage your progress.

important metrics to track for any Blog

1. Sessions2. Page Views3. Time spent on page4. Top Viewed Posts5. Source/Medium6. Average Comments per Post7. Subscribers (if applicable)

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mEasurE your progrEss toWards your goals, cont.You may want to create a color coded spreadsheet (using conditional formatting like the fictional example below) to track your metrics at a glance.

=e14/d14-1

=AVerAgeiF(d10:g10, “>-100%”)

=sum(c4:g4)

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tips from an editor in chief: A great way to elevate the quality right off the bat is by having contributors submit an outline first, reviewing it together, and then moving forward with the drafting.

nurturE Quality contEnt from contriButorsThe people you’re lucky enough to have contributing to your blog will all have differing skills and levels of experience in storytelling. You’ll need to set their expectations up front by sharing your style guide, your basic strategy, and relevant examples of content that meets your requirements.

It’s also a good idea to play to your contributor’s strengths. Not everyone will feel comfortable writing or recording. Helping them through the process—and having time built into your process for some commenting, revising, and collaborating—is a must.

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tips from an editor in chief: Issues will undoubtedly arise forcing you to shift your calendar around. Plan for this by having multiple posts on deck or having a list of old but still relevant articles you can republish.

puBlish on a consistEnt BasisEarlier in this ebook, we mentioned the importance of setting up a regular cadence for publishing. All bloggers struggle with this part of the practice. In fact, tons of people just stop blogging one day and never look back, leaving a digital ghost town in their wake.

If you’re serious about keeping this project up, you need an editorial calendar (a feature that’s built right into your project management tool) that you should do your best to stick to. If you’re plan is to post once a week or once a month, do it.

Consistency sets expectations with your audience and helps them form a habit of visiting your blog.

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tips from an editor in chief: Simply asking a topical question at the end of blog posts is a proven way to incite more engagement and get valuable feedback via comments.

EValuatE. EValuatE. EValuatE.How do you know your audience finds your blog useful? Are there any easy tweaks you can make that’ll improve their experience? Your analytics are helpful to gauge whether a change you made is working or not. But they hardly give you the insight you need to make the changes your blog needs in the first place.

Periodically surveying your audience is a great way to understand what’s working and what’s not. You can do the same thing with your contributors to gain insight into any kinks in your process. Single question microsurveys (“Was this content helpful?”) can even be embedded directly into posts for quick and easy insights.

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tips from an editor in chief: If you can introduce educational practices and strategies, convey why they matter, and provide tactical takeaways and realistic examples of how to put them into action, you’ve nailed it.

focus on “EVErgrEEn” contEntEvergreen content refers to content that is relevant every day, year after year. By focusing your efforts on providing evergreen content, you’ll create a hub of useful content on a range of topics that are accessible for new and seasoned faculty any time.

Giving your audience a reason to get “lost” surfing through your blog for more and more useful insight is never a bad thing.

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tips from an editor in chief: Creating derivative content—using existing posts to create new posts—is a great way to get more traction on important topics and create new content fast. Have a writer expand on the post in a separate piece, discuss its key points in a video conversation, turn it into an infographic, etc.

haVE a post puBlishing ritualPublishing a blog post comes with a rush of gratification, but just getting it out there isn’t enough. There are a handful of things you need to do after a post goes live to make it successful.

• Jumpstart traffic by emailing your subscribers• Blast your post out across social (more than once, on more than one day)• Enlist your blog’s biggest advocates to spread the word• Link your other blog posts to your new post wherever applicable• Review your blog post’s performance a week after it’s publication

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final thoughtsYou, your faculty, and your peers all have stories to tell. Your stories have the power to sew best practices throughout your institution. They have the power to inspire veteran teachers and equip new hires for success. Your stories can reshape both your present and your future.

Publishing gives stories life. You don’t need to be Stephen King or Steven Spielberg (or named Stephen at all!). You just have to provide valuable content in a way people want.

This is your opportunity to join thought leaders throughout history by publishing your ideas and allowing them to reach beyond time and space. You’ve got this. We look forward to reading your blogs.

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furthEr rEading: lEarn morE from ExpErt BloggErs“How to Launch and Manage a Successful Blog in 2017 [Free Planner]” by Kate Taylor Mighty, Hubspot.

“How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content that Connects” by Ben Sailer, CoSchedule.

“A Practical Guide to Creating a Blogging Strategy That Actually Works” by Alexandra Skey, Spokal.

“How to Develop and Maintain a Content Team” by Kyra Kulk, Distilled.

“8 Best Blogging Platforms Reviewed” by Karen Evans, Start Blogging Online.

“4 Useful Tips for Creating Evergreen Content (With Four Killer Examples)” by Scott Yates, Hubspot.

“10 Things You Need to Do After You Publish Your Blog Post” by Mary Fernandez, SmartBlogger.

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