Student Blogs in Higher Education. To Blog or not to Blog…
Over the last few weeks I have spoken to some VPs of marketing and recruiting who are reluctant to embrace student blogging because they do not want to give up control of their messaging. This blows my mind. Web 2.0 is based on the free flow of information. In the same way that I am publishing this blog entry, any student can (with or without a college’s blessing) publish a blog. By sponsoring student written blogs, you actually gain control – not lose it. Here are a few tips for those of you who are thinking about publishing student blogs on your website:
1) Pick the Right Students
You will want to select students who provide a good mix of culture, majors, interests and organizations. Don’t limit yourself to just the journalism students. Get an even mix of men and women from a variety of majors and organizations. Require a sample of “blog postings” from students interested in participating in your blog program. Just because a student wants to be a blogger doesn’t mean they are good at it. You need students who have a flair for writing interesting, relevant material in a fun, concise manner. For blogging, avoid the twitterer and, even worse, the dissertation author.
2) Help Your Bloggers
It can be tough for a student to sit down with a blank Word document think of relevant topics to write about. Help them by providing an ongoing list of topics which may be of interest to your prospective students. Perhaps there is a big sporting event, an annual tradition at the college or a ground breaking ceremony for a new building. You get the idea. You may also provide access to a professional editor/writer, such as a journalism professor, who can help your students improve their blogging skills.
3) Maximize Your Value
The value of a blog can be graphed on a two-dimensional X/Y plane. Call one axis RELEVANCE and the other one RECENT. A valuable blog is relevant and recently posted. If you are lagging in either of these factors, the value of your blog plummets. When you sign up your bloggers, ensure they understand the criticality of keeping their blog current. Have them sign an agreement that specifies a minimum posting requirement (we suggest one posting per week minimum). Monitor the blog activity. If a blogger goes past the minimum requirement timeline, send them an email reminding them to post. If missing the minimum becomes habitual, it’s time to find a new student blogger.
About the Author:
Tom Williams holds BS in business from The Ohio State University and an MBA in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He founded InnoGage while at Kellogg and moved the company to Columbus Ohio in 2006. Tom is married to a very supportive and loving wife and has two high-energy boys.
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7 Responses to “Student Blogs in Higher Education. To Blog or not to Blog…”
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J Feldman says: I feel that journalism students would make the best bloggers. But of those that especially do editorial duty, I wonder if that would dilute the content of both their blogs and their printed word. Can you cite a study of majors with high writing aptitudes?
Tony Catagnola says: You can avoid all this “poor blogging” stuff if you just pay your bloggers. College students can really deliver results when there is money on the line.
Kevin Smith says: I disagree with letting all the journalism students do the blogging… unless you are only trying to attract journalism students to your university. There are a lot of very talented writers across all the academic disciplines – the trick is to find them and entice them to participate. Don’t think you HAVE to pay them either…there are a lot of non-monetary incentives, such as free publicity, resume kudos, recognition…etc that carry weight with students.
Three really great tips to get started. When I first launched student blogs in 2005, I reviewed all the posts before they actually went live on the site, which went a long way in getting rid of the concerns that the higher-ups had. A few years later, I just let students post live directly to the site because I had so few problems and it took so much time to moderate the posts.
#1 is definitely the most important. Get the right students and the rest of it will fall in to place.
Hope to meeting up with you at NACAC if I decide to go. Looking forward to more from your blog.
@ Bradjward – Thanks for the comment. The InnoGagers will be at NACAC but not standing around in a booth waiting for people to walk by. Instead we’re going to propel the conference down a multitude of social media channels. Watch for tweets, vids, pics & blogs from all directions!
Solid points all around. Only thing I’d add is where to blog. I think its important to cover a lot of ground and not just the school’s site. Might mean maintaining a blog presence on myspace, etc. Just a thought…
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I feel that journalism students would make the best bloggers. But of those that especially do editorial duty, I wonder if that would dilute the content of both their blogs and their printed word. Can you cite a study of majors with high writing aptitudes?
You can avoid all this “poor blogging” stuff if you just pay your bloggers. College students can really deliver results when there is money on the line.
I disagree with letting all the journalism students do the blogging… unless you are only trying to attract journalism students to your university. There are a lot of very talented writers across all the academic disciplines – the trick is to find them and entice them to participate. Don’t think you HAVE to pay them either…there are a lot of non-monetary incentives, such as free publicity, resume kudos, recognition…etc that carry weight with students.
Three really great tips to get started. When I first launched student blogs in 2005, I reviewed all the posts before they actually went live on the site, which went a long way in getting rid of the concerns that the higher-ups had. A few years later, I just let students post live directly to the site because I had so few problems and it took so much time to moderate the posts.
#1 is definitely the most important. Get the right students and the rest of it will fall in to place.
Hope to meeting up with you at NACAC if I decide to go. Looking forward to more from your blog.
@ Bradjward – Thanks for the comment. The InnoGagers will be at NACAC but not standing around in a booth waiting for people to walk by. Instead we’re going to propel the conference down a multitude of social media channels. Watch for tweets, vids, pics & blogs from all directions!
Solid points all around. Only thing I’d add is where to blog. I think its important to cover a lot of ground and not just the school’s site. Might mean maintaining a blog presence on myspace, etc. Just a thought…