The Power of a School Blogsite
•Download as PPS, PDF•
0 likes•165 views
A presentation I gave at the 2009 School Marketing Aforia in Adelaide with CMS Centre for Marketing Schools. It was highlighting the power of a blogsite for sharing stories with a school community
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
The Power of a School Blogsite
- 2. neil PIERSON
- 5. the power of blogsites
- 6. Your choice tell your story miss out
- 7. WARNING
- 9. In the old days…
- 12. In the old days… “ How was camp?”
- 18. WARNING
- 19. what’s your story? www.marketplaceanswers.com.au
Editor's Notes
- Neil Pierson Covenant Christian School Belrose Sydney [email_address]
- Gday My name’s Neil Neil Pierson the Storyteller Yes I am a story teller so… Today I am going to tell you a story You may be asking Neil why are you on your knees Well I am trying to help you My name’s Neil If I kneel on my knees you are more likely to remember my name’s Neil Why do I call myself a Storyteller? On my door it says Development Officer What does that mean to someone outside of school? Sounds like I build apartment blocks It’s like “Registrar” What does that mean to someone for whom English is a second language I could call myself a Marketing Manager But I found people don’t want to be marketed to They don’t want to be sold to But they do want to buy So Storytelling is what I do because Australians love a story SLOWLY
- Let me be a match that lights a new thought for you But I will start by giving you a challenge Don’t just listen to my story and say that’s nice for you Neil Ask yourself what two things will I do differently at my school? Going to a School Marketing conference like this is great But sometimes you need to step outside the box In marketing we can become so consumed and focused in our little niche we miss ideas from other industries. I only work for Covenant Christian School two or three days a week. My other clients are corporate businesses. Jot down questions for later Here is the one key question I want you to consider in this presentation
- What’s your story Are you telling it? How? Do you believe it? Do they believe it? I am a Storyteller Most people think stories are made up I have found if I don’t believe the story then neither will the person listening Tell true stories So let me tell you a story
- Today’s story is about a Christian school in Sydney using a blogsite to help tell it’s story Firstly What is a blogsite? type of website regularly updated Each article is called a blogpost It allows readers comments – 2 way What is the biggest problem with websites? Old content If there is no reason to visit again you don’t. Let me take you a step back in time
- Covenant Christian School is 31 years old It had 750 students I live 12 minutes drive away I grew up in the area I am a Christian I have three children We are their ideal “market” Yet they had failed to get on our radar Northern Beaches of Sydney is spoilt for choice Good schools – state, private, Catholic Even three Christian Schools within 20 minutes of each other Covenant had grown by 60 students in the last 10 years. After six months helping the school better tell their story my wife and I was so impressed we transferred our three children there. In 18 months of better story telling the school has grown by over 60 students. It took 10 years to grow by 60 students Yet in only 18 months it has grown by another 60 The product hasn’t really changed Good teachers, good results, good facilities – new Principal, Business Mgr and Registrar It was good before I arrived
- A WARNING Never the job of a marketer to change the product Don’t tell lies Don’t over promise Don’t just tell the story you think someone wants to hear Deception in any marketing will cause you problems – Australians don’t like to be deceived So how do you tell your story? Well everyday I go to the Sydney Morning Herald website to read DAILY news Schools have things happen every day but no-one know about it So ONE of the things we did last year was create a blogsite.
- The old school website was OK Third one in 8 years It told a story Easy to get around Had about 30 photos (formating is better than seen here) But once you had been there once you didn’t need to ever go back It was a static brochure on the website
- In the Old Days … … if a child wrote an article, or featured in a photo, it may appear in the school newsletter. It would be put on the fridge at home They may even show Grandma next time they saw her It may be stored in a draw. Come on… Today Grandma is more likely to have email, broadband, a mobile phone. She may even have a facebook and twitter account
- Today with a blogsite the same article and photos can have an international audience. Let’s go to www.covenant.nsw.edu.au This is our main school website Fresh, clean, several hundred photos, You could spend over an hour there exploring it But that is another story SLOWLY
- But this is our school blogsite Separate address but all in together www.ourcovenant.com.au It is based on the Sydney Morning Herald website. Why invent something new Main story Seven other popular stories 420 old stories Plus Principal’s blog – just repeats his newsletter but good for visitors Unlike most online newspaper the article and photos remain there. A powerful search function is included.
- In the Old Days … you ask kids what happened at camp they could reply “nothing much” and you wished you could have been a fly on the wall. Who has ever felt that? Training staff to take photos and write reports Previously only in Year Book
- Search on “Mangrove” http://www.covenant.nsw.edu.au/_webapp_198939/Mangrove_Mountain_Year_8_Camp_2009 Today parents can read articles and see photo galleries of camps as well as events, assemblies, and school work. YouTube channel What’s more when Aunty asks how was camp you can send them a link to the website. We have international students and their parents love it. The student, their parents, their teacher can email, or facebook the unique website address of this article to their friends. The student, parents, teachers or friends can make comments for others to read. Have a four page weekly newsletter. There is no way a weekly school newsletter can contain that much information. If a picture tells a thousand words then Covenant’s blogsite’s 1500 photos, and growing weekly, tells quite a story. Kids and parents prefer pictures over words. But let me tell you a story about what has happened the past few weeks.
- http://www.covenant.nsw.edu.au/_webapp_219448/Hope_1032_invited_to_broadcast_live_at_Covenant Hope 103.2 is a Christian Radio station in Sydney. A good fit for our target audience They decided to have a competition for a school to host a live radio broadcast First time Interviews Videos 130 comments They were amazed Accepted as a finalist Online voting system We were able to send people to this page to learn about what was happening Facebook Alumni Email SMS Drove traffic to the site overload
- http://www.covenant.nsw.edu.au/_webapp_227794/Covenant_wins_Hope_1032_Live_Radio_Broadcast Took the call in a staff meeting Staff heard half a conversation so able to share it with them Up against a school with 50% more students 800 vs 1200 Order breakfast online SLOWLY
- On Friday last week I was at school before 5am Interviews Many missed it so blog allows us to extend its life Thank you Estimate it generated well over $10,000 of media coverage. We still have $4000 of advertising to use up SLOWLY Neil check time QUESTIONS
- Google recognises sites which constantly have new content. Google robot spiders visit our website every day We are deliberate with using search engine terms in blogposts and titles We do internal linking – Yahoo recognises over 1600 inlinks Google search on “ Christian School Sydney” 7 times in first two pages Covenant has generated over 900 pages of content in 15 months
- Blogsites like website die without fresh content Most schools have LOADS AND LOADS of content – they just don’t harness it Use students and teachers to write – it isn’t one persons job to tell your story Websites empower your parents and staff to do your marketing. Today even if a parent or staff member doesn’t know the answer they can hop on the blogsite or direct the person there to do a search. I am new. I manage the website. But the website helps me. I am at the state cross country and meet a parent from another school who I know. They have four kids. She asks me do they do AFL? I realise no one has asked me that before. I don’t know but search on “AFL”. That night I sent her links to those articles. More than a YES or NO answer. Stories and photos. We designed a Cross brochure to help empower our parent to do the marketing. In the old days a prospective parent might ask a current school parent “does the school do public speaking”. In a school with Preschool to Year 12 school parents experience is limited. They might reply – oh yes they are very good and win awards or they may say “I don’t know” and the opportunity was missed.
- Thank you and bow Questions