Lessons learned on how to successfully manage a student and faculty blog at your school, either secondary or higher ed. Though this is specific to education institutions, this multi-author model can work across any organization, company, institution.

1. &
How to successfully manage a student & faculty blog
February 14, 2012
www.edsocialmedia.com www.gouldacademy.org/glog

2. Your fearless presenters.
Tucker John Abby Chris & Helen Doug aka El Jefe
(read) (read) (read) (read) (read)

3. What to expect.
• Why blog?
• The Glog
• Managing a student and faculty blog
• Successes, challenges good and the difficult
• How do I find the time to blog?
• What’s my process? Why do I write what I write about?
• Advice from grizzled Glogging veterans

4. Why blog?
Authenticity
“...a blog, unlike a diary, is instantly public. It transforms this most personal
and retrospective of forms into a painfully public and immediate one. It
combines the confessional genre with the log form and exposes the author
in a manner no author has ever been exposed before.”
! ! ! !
! - Andrew Sullivan, Why I Blog: The Atlantic, November 2008
http://tinyurl.com/4q3389

5. Why blog?
Credibility
“Use restraint with any promotional content.”
Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility, http://credibility.stanford.edu/guidelines/index.html

6. Why blog?
Credibility
“Use restraint with any promotional content.”
Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility, http://credibility.stanford.edu/guidelines/index.html

7. Why blog?
Authenticity + Credibility =
Your readers will feel more connected with their school and each other.

8. Why blog?
(http://gouldacademy.org/glog/2011/whats-in-a-pack/)
“He told me that the pack belonged to a ski
patroller who died in an accident on the
mountain.
I was allowed to use it for the rest of my two
years in the program....
I was immediately humbled.”
• Nearly 1,000 views
• 29 comments from faculty, trustees, alumni, past parents,
former heads of school, incoming heads of school
• Gould community shared story with each other:

9. Why blog?
Search...

10. Why blog?
...because your blog is always working for you.
Content visits last 30 days
(From May 23, 2011)

11. Why blog?
...because your blog is always working for you.
Content visits last 30 days
(From May 23, 2011)
Published November 2007
Published October 2010

12. By the numbers
• Launched in 2007
• Approaching 80,000 visits to date
• Over 1,500 visits in last 14 days
Audience
• Current families
• Gould faculty & students
• Alumni
• Prospective families
• The world (Donde viva el cerdo)

13. Perspective
• faculty & students = multiple perspectives
Consistency
• more contributors = more content, more likely to be current
Fun
• design, multimedia, voice = readership and sharing
Content
• freedom to write = the real deal

14. Managing a student and faculty blog
- The best bloggers are those who want to blog.
- Don’t choose bloggers based on interests alone.
- Give your bloggers tools.
- Let your bloggers find their voices.
- Get out of the way and let them write their stories.

15. Successes
- Creating great content on the web multiple times a week.
- Have a blog that is embraced by community.
- Glog was the catalyst for more social media.
- Glog sends traffic to Gould website.
- Creating a culture of content creation and sharing on the web.
- Increased number of Gloggers in 2011-12 due to interest

16. Challenges & Improvements
- A post every weekday of every week during the school year is a challenge.
- More media.
- Check in with bloggers more often.
- Push Glog via channels more.
- Optimize posts for search.
- More interest = good challenge to have!

17. John Abby Chris & Helen Doug aka El Jefe
(read) (read) (read) (read)
How do I find the time to blog?
What’s my process?
Why do I write what I write about?
Other questions and advice from grizzled Glogging veterans?