Blogging to Engage Families and Market Your Program
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Do you blog? Would you like to learn about how taking time to blog on a regular basis can help engage existing families and market your program to others?
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Blogging to Engage Families and Market Your Program
- 1. Blogging to engage families and market your program THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2016 While you wait for the webinar to begin, please text GIOVANNIARRO649 to 1.747.444.3548
- 2. . Welcome
- 3. Agenda 1:00 Welcome 1:10 What exactly is blogging? 1:15 How can you build a blog around families? 1:25 How do you currently engage families? 1:35 Is blogging marketing? 1:45 How does this help to engage my families and community? 2:00 How can I use what I’ve learned to engage families/market? 2:15 How can I set up a blog? How do I share my blog? 2:25 Wrap up 2:30 Adjourn
- 5. Lindsey Engelhardt MARKETING COORDINATOR AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER
- 6. POLL
- 9. How do I use the webinar software?
- 12. +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll) 436 599 286
- 17. What exactly is blogging? A blog (a truncation of the expression weblog) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order.
- 24. Different types of blogs Written: – Q&A – Paragraph/Stories – Lists/How-tos/Tips Other types – Video, Images, Audio
- 25. How can you build a blog around families? WHAT?WHO? WHEN?
- 26. Who are your families? Family Structure
- 27. Who are your families? Family Story
- 28. Who are your families? Family Daily Life
- 29. Who are your families?
- 30. When do they want to read?
- 31. When do they want to read?
- 32. What do they want to know?
- 33. What do they want to know?
- 34. What do they want to know?
- 35. What do they want to know? If you don’t consider your families’ wants and needs, you may well end up with a blog that no one reads.
- 36. How can you build a blog around families? WHAT?WHO? WHEN?
- 37. Survey Says… Practice your authentic voice Generate interest, anticipation, and excitement Develop a more intentional plan
- 38. ACTIVITY OR POLL
- 42. How can you build a blog around families? WHAT?WHO? WHEN?
- 45. How does this help to engage my families? Community?
- 56. How can I set up a blog?How can I set up a blog?
- 64. How do I share my blog? How do I share my blog?
- 65. Social Media
- 68. How can I make new advocates? Don’t assume e-mail is dead.
- 73. POLL
- 75. Questions?
- 76. Wrap up April 21 Tech Institute Chicago campus, NLU “Video: A Guide to Creating, Editing, and Sharing” May 31 Registration deadline for Taking Charge of Change™ May 12-14 Leadership Connections™ national conference Technology Track
- 77. GIOVANNI ARROYO | LINDSEY ENGELHARDT McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership At National Louis University | McCormickCenter.nl.edu lengelhardt@nl.edu | 847.947.5222 THANK you! @MCECL @GiovanniArroyo @LindsEngelhardt
- 78. Please visit the following link and complete the short survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3_2016
Editor's Notes
- Play classical guitar music in background starting at 12:30
- Make sure you share the McCormick Centers boilerplate + LC Conference. Also share. Introduce Lindsey
- Make a poll to add here. Multiple Choice Switch to Poll Everywhere.
- Screenshot
- Do you blog? https://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/7adpK4vrJ9BDv1o
- Full Screen
- Audio and Mute If you’re having audio issues, please call … (on next screen)
- Joining by phone or if you’re having audio issues, call one of these numbers. Or call Luis 847-947-5026
- Turn off Video
- Opening Chat
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- What State are you in? Use chat box.
- How to build a blog around families? (Lindsey) Engaging your families comes down to knowing your families. To establish a successful blog, you’ll need to consider three questions about them: Who are they? What do they want to know? And when do they want to read it? Let’s take a closer look at each question.
- Who are your families? (2 minutes) Family Structure Are they single parents? Or are there two parents? Are they grandparents? Are they another type of guardian?
- Family History Are they new to your program’s area or were they born and raised in your community? What’s their background story?
- Family Daily Life ( A day in the life of your families) When do they wake up? What’s their work schedule? How long is their commute? When do they go to bed?
- Take a moment to reflect on what you already know about the families in your program. You may know a great deal more about them than what we’ve considered in this webinar. That’s great! Make sure to include notes on what you know about your families close by as you flush out your blog plan. Because, who your families are will greatly influence the answer to our next question.
- Who your families are will greatly influence the answer to this question. For example, remember when I asked when do they wake up? Perhaps you have an overwhelming number of early risers. They might enjoy reading your blog in the wee hours of the morning. Perhaps most of your guardians work 9-5. They may prefer to read your blog during their lunch break. Do your families have a long commute? Perhaps a written blog isn’t the way to go. Maybe you should explore creating audio clips so your guardians can listen to your blog during their commute. Maybe your guardians are warriors of the night, who don’t go to bed until midnight. They may prefer reading your blog late at night. Or perhaps your families spend their whole work day in front of the computer and have no interest in being in front of a computer before or after work. Publishing your post on the weekend may be the way to go.
- Regardless of when you decide to publish your blog posts, you’ll need to be consistent. This will create an expectation so families will know when to look for your new posts. Which, in turn, decreases the chance that families will miss your post. If you’re thinking, ‘I don’t want to be posting blogs early in the morning, late at night, or on weekends.’ Don’t worry—automate instead! The great thing about blogs is that you can schedule a post to publish at any time. You could be sleeping at 4 a.m. while your post automatically shows up for your early bird families to enjoy. Giovanni will come back to talk a bit about this later in the webinar.
- So, now you’ve reflected on who or families are and when they’d like read your blog. Don’t stop there. You’ll need to know more. You need to know what your families want to know. Do your families want more stories from the weekly happenings of your program? Perhaps your blog focuses on telling stories of the children’s activities. You could even include information on why your program opted to do these activities in particular and give ideas for how families can accomplish the same learning objectives at home.
- Do they want child development resources? Perhaps your families want you to share more information about what you know in child development. Why not focus your blog posts on resources you’re currently reading? What resonated with you from this resource? Why would that matter to a child’s guardian? You know what children need, and a blog is a great place to share that information with your families—especially if that’s what they want to read.
- Do they want another opportunity to connect with other families? Blogs have a great potential when it comes to building a community. Beware though! Rome wasn’t built in one night. And even though you can build a blog in one night, don’t expect your blog community to take off the next day. Building a blog following takes time, just like building a relationship takes time. Perhaps your families don’t have time during the day or week to connect in person with other families. You might consider intentionally encouraging comments on your blog by including a question such “What are your thoughts on this topic?” at the end of each and every one of your posts. With this strategy, you can create a space where families can begin to build those relationships without the requirement of meeting face-to-face.
- Reflecting on what your families may want to know will enable you to begin thinking about what topics you might highlight on your blog. If you don’t consider your families wants and needs, you may well end up with a blog that no one reads.
- Reflecting on these three questions will provide you with a base for building your blog. But what if you could find data-driven answers to these questions?
- Creating a survey and distributing it to your families could provide you with insights to these three questions. And it can actually help you in many more ways. (Slide headline: Survey says (1 minute) You’ll have the chance to practice your authentic voice. If you were to ask your families these three questions in a conversation, how would you phrase them? That’s how you’ll want to phrase the questions in your survey. Being an authentic writer is another key to creating a successful, engaging blog. A blog is a place to be personable and approachable. Let your professional personality show! Think about any blogs you regularly read. Why do you read them? It’s most likely because you feel a connection to the author. Families will respond better when they feel like they’re talking to and interacting with a person rather than a robot. Your survey can help you generate interest, anticipation, and excitement for your blog. Simply by sending out the survey, you are letting families know a blog is on the horizon. And, you’re creating it with their input. Who doesn’t want to be part of something they helped create? And finally, the data from the survey can provide a clearer, more intentional plan for your blogging and engagement efforts. You’ll be able to see when you should publish your posts, and what the content of your posts should focus on. Speaking of surveys, let’s take a quick one question survey now to find out how you already engage with the families in your program.
- How do you currently engage families? https://www.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/GCxRqSqNBfnCY94
- No longer promotion only.
- Marketing is now engagement. It is about sharing your unique story.
- Marketing is now engagement. It is about sharing your unique story.
- Marketing is now engagement. It is about sharing your unique story.
- We’ve already talked about how you can use your blog’s comments section to engage families and build an online community. But how else can you engage your families? And how can you use your blog to engage the larger community?
- It’s so important that it bears repeating: Always encourage comments within your blog post. This will remind families that this blog is meant to be a two-way street.
- Another way to encourage blog activity is to provide your readers or your intended audience with an opportunity to write a guest blog post. Families: For example, perhaps you have a family who would be interesting in writing a post about Cinco de Mayo, what it means for their family, and how they celebrate it. Staff: child development best practices, cultural diversity Community members: School district, business partners Other pros: Saves you from writing. Builds your relationships with each different group Spreads awareness of your blog and program Ask them to share with their networks Diversify the perspective and type of information Creates buy-in
- Remember, you’re steering the ship—you should guide the topics of these guest posts and ensure they stick to what your families have shown they want to read.
- Q&As (maybe you or your guest bloggers still don’t have time to write and edit your posts. What else could you do? Brief Q&As make a great alternative) Local experts: Doctors or nurses Nutritionists Local school district administrators Benefits of Q&As Can do them in writing or by video
- Remember, you’re steering the ship—you should guide the topics of these guest posts and ensure they stick to what your families have shown they want to read.
- Marketing your program Family and community partnerships Involvement get access to their networks through them sharing it new type of word of mouth Reaching out to other local experts involved in caring for a child builds a local support network for advocating on behalf of children and families
- How can I use what I've learned to engage families / market? https://www.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/9z2udDuC1jAhnCE
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- .org vs .com Want to use .com because .org is for more advanced for web developers. Easy place to set up blog if you don’t have one set up already in your website. With the .com version you can easily transfer blog posts into your website. Wordpress is a great tool to use to get used to writing, publishing, and managing your blog and its followers. It’s a great place to experiment with all the potential ways you can use a blog. So, start at Wordpress.com
- Go
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- UDPATE
- Website
- No matter what the latest survey says. For our industry email is very much alive. It has to be part of your planning and marketing strategy. Last Longer More engagement Great Return on your time! It can be virtually free. Check out my favorite tool, Mailchimp
- The center piece should be a blog. Wordpress.com
- Place to add content and branch this information out. Think about what parents and staff would like to see.
- What does SEO mean? Search Engine Optimization. Relevant text: “hot dogs” won’t help. Think like your families—what would they be searching for on the internet in order to try and find you? What does this mean to me?
- Follow up e-mail with resources, answers to any questions we aren’t able to get to, and a link to complete a survey about this webinar.
- UPDATE
- UJPDATE
- Gateways credit is available for all three of these trainings. And, you can earn college credit through Leadership Connections or Taking Charge of Change.
- Thank you and one last thing.
- https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3_2016