Ideas for a school blog
[These blogs are supposed to be short, punchy thoughts from our experts. Unlike the polished copy that we create for our clients, these thoughts and notes will be more informal and have a chatty and personal style. Enjoy!]
When it comes to school marketing, there are very few quick fixes. Usually, it takes time to make the changes necessary to make a school’s marketing truly effective. However, there are a few ‘quick-wins’ that a school can do to take a big step towards that goal.
One of those quick-wins is publishing regular school blogs.
Blogs should be published on a ‘blog page’ on your school’s website, and then re-formatted and/or linked (with channel specific artwork) to your social media platform. (Instagram and TikTok aren’t going to be good places to post the full blog - who reads descriptions…right? But, you can use these platforms to point your audience to your blog, hosted on your website or other platform).
Here are some benefits of utilising a school blog:
Keeps your school website fresh.
If you were to present your school blog weekly - your website will be ‘fed’ with new, fresh, and up-to-date information about your ‘product’. Google, and other search engines, love this. But, it’s not just about your schools SEO. Your audience will love it too. Providing them with up-to-date and relevant information about what is going on in and around your school shows that you’re proud of what’s going on.
Allows you to talk directly to your audience.
With school blogs, you’re able to speak directly to your audience (the reader) and give them the information that they need. Though it isn’t a two-way conversation, blogs can be used to encourage engagement, particularly on social media, by presenting one idea and encouraging analysis or response. Don’t be scared of encouraging a response.
Can be ‘broken down’ into micro-content
As you write your blog, your unique experience and experiences will start to come out in your writing. Interesting points, lessons, quotes and ideas will stand out from the writing. These can then be used as ‘micro-content’ for your social media - either to promote your blog, or as stand alone informative pieces that challenge your audience or provide them with something to engage with. Think, for example, along the lines of ‘We don’t just teach our pupils…stuff. We help them develop a love of learning. So even when their high-school experience is a distant memory - our impact on their lives will continue to help them develop.’
Allows a personal touch
Much like this blog, your blog can be more of a list of thoughts. Blogs don’t have to be perfectly written and polished. They’re really there to offer information and entertainment to your audience, and provide content to feed your social media machine. So be informal, offer honest opinions and be real!
Encourages creative focus
You’ll find that the more blogs that you write, the easier that writing them will become (I’m still finding it really hard, but it’s getting easier) - because as you write, you’ll come up with interesting subjects for the next blog, or other piece of content. Which is great!
I’m not saying that you should be un-professional when writing a blog, but you should allow yourself to be more informal than you would be, say, giving an assembly. Use your school’s blog as an opportunity to present ideas and thoughts that you wouldn’t normally be able to share in an assembly or during an interaction with a parent. Your thoughts don’t have to be fully formed, and can instead be a presentation of both what you’re thinking and the thought process that got you to this stage.
With all of that said, however, I know how difficult it is to come up with an idea for your school blog, or a theme for a series of blogs. So, knowing how difficult it is sometimes, I have created a list of themes/subjects for your next school blog.
And now, for what you’re really here for - some ideas for blogs that pretty much every school can create:
“A day in the life of our ‘Facilities Manager’.“
“What’s happened this week.“
“Headteacher’s notes.“
“The year so far.“
“What I’ve learned this term.“
“How we’re improving.“
“What does a school nurse do in 2022.“
“How to pick a school.“
“What do we look for in a prospective teacher?“
“How to become a teacher.“
“How I became a teacher.“
“Meet our head boy and head girl.“
“Alumni stories.“
“Meet Mr Smith - Head of Maths.“
“Teacher’s Grades - Mr Smiths GCSE results (from 1975).“
“Revision lessons.“
“How to apply for sixth form.“
“Meet a local entrepreneur.“
As you can see, once you start thinking in the correct way, it’s quite easy to come up with blog ideas for your school - and there’s loads of things to write about! So, how about writing one today? Give it a go!
As always and as ever, we’re here to help, and if you need any guidance on how best to do the above. Give us a call today or send us a message and we’ll get back to you.
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Company Ten helps schools all across the United Kingdom do marketing better. From video production and photography to social media management and training, and a lot of things in-between - we are specialists in helping schools use ‘digital’ to their advantage. We’re not just flogging our services either, we actually want to help! So that’s why we offer free monthly training in digital marketing - to help you and your school improve and do better. We want you to be able to utilise everything that the world of marketing in education has to offer.
