You’re a nice guy (or gal). You’re considerate of others’ time, and you care about your staff and students. Heck, you think your school is doing a great job, but you can’t understand when parents don’t trust your motives, and you’re shocked when you lose a student to another school.
What’s a guy (or gal) to do?
Parents are swamped with information. It comes at them from all angles, so in order for your message to be considered, you have to stand out from the crowd, and in a good way. Gone are the days of posting basic information on your school website, updating the calendar, and sending home a newsletter once a month to keep everyone informed. Now you have to break through the noise. You have to be interesting.
The blog difference
As a school administrator, you will want to embrace the difference between a news article and a blog article. Writers of news articles typically remove themselves from the article to show their objectivity. Successful blog authors do the exact opposite, using subjectivity, inserting themselves and their humanity into their articles through story.
As a blog author, unlike a journalist who is typically basing his/her article on reporting, information, and facts, you should feel free to describe things from your personal perspective or from the perspective of the story teller. It is always helpful to validate your opinions when you can with facts and information, but a blog article doesn’t require it and readers today understand that. Go ahead and share a perspective about your school, student needs, and concerns using storytelling to engage, entertain, and influence.
The power of a good story
Our brains love a good story. Heck, we love even a bad story if it fulfills the requisite aspects of a story. Our brains use stories to understand and to learn, to live vicariously with experiences outside of our own while in the safety of our minds. We identify with the protagonist (sometimes the antagonist) and see through their eyes. This is why binge-watching six seasons of that show on Netflix is so compelling and listening to country music makes us cry or laugh.
So, the moral of the story is to write blogs that tell a story. If your reader can identify with the hero, you will be making an immediate connection and they will want to read the whole blog. If they identify with the hero, they will have to find out how it all turned out.
Your blog purpose
In the marketing world, this is called the call to action (CTA) or what it is you want the reader (customer) to do after reading what you’ve written. In the case of a school leader blog, it might be to trust in the strategies you and your staff are using to educate their children. It might be that they will pay for that tax increase because they understand how students benefit from the increased budget capacity. Maybe you are just sharing a story about one student’s success because they put in the work and applied what they learned as evidence of proof that your school and your staff rocks.
Each blog will have a purpose. Identifying it early will help you keep your blog article on topic as well as identify stories that will align with your blog’s purpose.
Your blog audience
Don’t be afraid to show your humanity when you write a blog. This isn’t a thesis or a governing board report; it is a blog written to humans by a human. As a school administrator, you have lots of stories at your disposal, many of which will be easy for your readers to identify with. Your readers will likely be parents who have school-age children. That makes your job much easier, right?
Keep an image of who you are writing for in your mind as you write (in the marketing world, this is called the “buyer persona.”) If you remember you are writing to that one person, the process will be much easier and more engaging for your readers. Keeping your blog audience in mind is critical to the blog’s success.
Your blog opening
Set the scene with a gripping first line. Sharing the human experience, describe what the reader wants (their problem or challenge) and how they feel when they don’t get it. They will relate and want to read the rest of the blog where you paint the picture of the solution (while giving them practical advice that will solve their problem). The sooner you can get to the story, the more likely your readers are to keep reading.
How to use stories in your blog posts
There are many ways to effectively use stories in your blog articles. Here are a few:
Tip #1: Include the essentials of a good story
Most writers will tell you there are three elements of a story. They are:
