blogging - university international office

BLOGGING

FIGURING OUT WHETHER IT’S RIGHT FOR YOU, HOW TO PRODUCE CONTENT AND EVALUATE SUCCESS

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about.me/johnwedderburn

@johnwedderburn

Universityusability.wordpress.com

JOHN WEDDERBURN

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BLOG EXAMPLESInternational Office Blogshttp://nuiginternational.wordpress.com/

http://cardiffinternational.blogspot.com/

http://blogs.acu.edu.au/international/

http://uclinternationalstudents.wordpress.com/

http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/gointernational/

Student Blogshttp://studies.ku.dk/arriving_and_living_in_copenhagen/blogs/

http://tuftsblogs.com/international/

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/

http://blogs.sweden.se/students/

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WHY?• What can a blog do for your students and partners?

- Service

- Define your staff as thought-leaders

• How will it help deliver your operational goals?

- Student recruitment

- Branding

• Increase the digital presence of Malmö University

- Search engines like good blogs

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BLOG FAILURE

• Did not have a dedicated blog editor• Did not embrace the blog’s multi-media potential• No interactivity• No promotion of the blog, online or offline• Not enough fresh content

• No coherent voice”at the outset we never really established why or whatwe wanted it to be”

Dan Reimold ”10 Reasons Our Student Newspaper Blog Stinks”

BLOG STRATEGY…EXPLAINS WHY YOU HAVE BLOG…AND HOW IT DELIVERS YOUR ORGANISATION’S GOALS…

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INTERNATIONAL OFFICE GOALS• Stärka marknadsföring och varumärke

• Öka antal inresande utbytesstudenter, säkra antalet registrerade av antalet antagna internationella studenter

• Öka antal utresande studenter och personal

• Förbättra service för internationella studenter

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BLOG GOALS• Give incoming exchange students up to date information

• Turn warm prospects into hot prospects

• Acquire new visitors to www.mah.se

• Provide a personal face for the international office

• Reinforce the picture of Malmö and Sweden as a good study destination

- Reading content, leaving a comment

- Leaving the blog to mah.se

- Attract visitors from Google

- Sharing other digital content

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BLOG STRATEGY1.Once we have a blog, we’ll be able to

2. People will read our blog, because it helps

them to……..

3. After reading, we want blog visitors to…..

4. …………., ……………., and …………….. will let people know we have a blog

5. We will create ……. posts per month, with …….. in charge of editorial and ……….. in charge of analytics

recruit new exchange students

make an application, see us as the right choice

comment, visit mah.se

Mah.se Facebook offline links

5 AnnaKnut

http://bit.ly/fvps50 Jay Baer ’Lifting the Fog of the Blog’

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6. Sample posts, and their headlines, include…….

http://bit.ly/fvps50 Jay Baer ’Lifting the Fog of the Blog’

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IS YOUR CONTENT WORKING?….IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM….

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BASIC CHECKLIST

- Referring sites

- Keywords

- Visits

Micro-conversions

- Clicking on a link

- Downloading a brochure

- Watching a film

- Leaving a comment

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VISITS

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REFERRING SITES

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KEYWORDS

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ENGAGEMENT• Comments and type

- Are they constructive?

- Are you answering them?

• Shares

• Subscribers

KILLER CONTENT….WRITE FOR YOUR TARGET GROUP…BUT DON’T FORGET ABOUT GOOGLE

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KILLER CONTENT• Post Title – Lets the reader know they have found

something useful; extremely important for Google

• URL – Include the keywords

• Meta-description – 2 sentences explaining what you are writing about (called the ’Excerpt’ in Wordpress)

• Blog Post Content – Include your keywords and link

• Length – appropriate to the task

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KILLER CONTENT• Categories – So your posts can easily be found

• Tags – Not the same as categories, use to associate your post with certain ideas, topics etc

• Duplicating and refashioning content you’ve published elsewhere is okay

• Guest bloggers

• Publicise YouTube clips, flickr groups and other blogs

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AFTER YOU POST• Put up a link on Facebook

• Tweet about it (several times)

• Include a link in any newsletters or emails

• Include it as news on www.mah.se

• Ask any partners to link to it

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STUDENTS BLOGGING

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COMMENTS

Source: Flickr – Miss Miah

• Hard to get

• Negative comments are not such an issue

• Positive and negative comments must be acted on

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• Don’t go on the offensive or defensive

• Be authentic

• Act quickly

• Don’t be afraid to fail

• Ask your community for help

• Consider raising the discussion on other platforms e.g. Facebook

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HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE?• Remember how long it takes to produce web content?

• Figure on 2-3 hours for each post

• Additional time for answering comments

- You have a responsibility as apublic authority

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WHAT CAN YOU MEASURE?• Visits to the blog

- Visitor loyalty

• Comments made on the blog (takes time!)

• Effort you’re putting in

• Referrals to www.mah.se

• Sharing of your content

• Links to the blog

• Student feedback

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NEXT STEPSHave a 1 – 2 hour meeting with these agenda points:

• Define the purpose of the blog: go/no go

- Is a blog the right tool in the first place? What problem will it help solve?

• Who will be part of the editorial team? Office staff and students?

• When will posts be published?

- Synchronise with admissions timeline?

- Create a calendar

• How will the blog be publicised?

• Who will be in charge of it and where will it be reported?

- What will success look like?

- Kill or continue review

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E-DELAGATIONEN• Need to say who you are

• Policy document

www.edelegationen.se