4 Quick Tips to Build a Better District Blog

Is your blog a strategic tool or a glorified newsletter?

Do your posts help your reader or do they just recap district news?

The type of content on your blog could determine the success of your blog.

Crafting content that is useful, or creating content that solves a problem for your audience, can help build trust and define your district as the leading experts in the field of education.

In this post, I will break down key elements of what makes our blog posts impact and drive engagement with our audience.

1. Headlines are Very, Very Important

Most parents won’t read past your headline if it is not engaging or personal to them or their child. You need to create headlines that describe your post, but more importantly, headlines should feel like they are talking to the reader.

Figure out key words that will trigger a response with your audience.  Here are three headlines from recent posts on our blog:

Notice that our headlines use key words that will trigger parents to click on our articles. They are all about helping our audience be better parents. We want them to think that if they don’t click on the post, they are going to be losing valuable information that can help their child.

2. Keep it Short and Simple

We are not writing War and Peace. We don’t want to waste our parent’s time.

All of your posts should use easy to read language, chunked into short paragraphs.  Lists and bullet points are a great way to deliver information quickly to your audience.

Here are a few examples of how we use short paragraphs, lists and bullet points:

http://schoolahoop.com/the-importance-of-social-studies-in-the-elementary-classroom-you-can-help/ 

http://schoolahoop.com/20-ways-of-identifying-gifted-children/

3. Encourage Your Parents to Leave a Comment

You don’t want to end the conversation when your blog post ends.  Your district is here to help. Encourage parents to leave questions they have about your post in the comment section. 

This gives you the opportunity to interact with your audience and further become their trusted source on childhood education.

4. Always Include Social Media Share Buttons

The best way to build your audience is by word of mouth.  Parents are more likely to trust other parents.  By enabling your audience to share your material is the best way to spread the greatness of your posts.

Some of the best buttons to include are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.  The more your article is shared on these networks, the more times people are going to see your posts.

Do you have other tips about building a blog for your school district? Leave your tips in the comment section below.