5 Tips for Parents Who Want to Blog About Education

Parents seeking ways to get involved in their children’s education sometimes look beyond direct interaction with the school community. Some parents wish to share their experiences and viewpoints with a broader audience as part of an effort to help other parents. Doing this via social media can work, but parents might have more to say than what can be captured in a tweet or a brief post. Blogging remains an option for those parents looking to discuss or even vent about education. What follows are some suggestions for parents thinking about starting an education blog.

1. Pick an Angle – Before sitting down to begin churning out text, parents should decide what the focus of the blog will be. One possibility is to write posts about happenings within the local school district, such as updates regarding decisions by the school board. These can be purely informational, or they can take an editorial slant. Another angle is to offer commentary about interactions with the school—positive or negative—as well as insights as to how other parents might be able to best advocate for their own children (parents should be at least somewhat wary of posting anything that could be considered incendiary). Parent bloggers might wish to write reviews of products, programs, or services. Still others might choose to share anecdotes intended to let readers know they’re not alone. A blog might host a variety of posts, each housed under particular categories. While this is an option, it might be best suited to a blog that has had some time to grow. A parent just starting to blog should work on developing a voice and control over a specific type of content before branching out.

2. Find a Platform – A new blog needs to live somewhere. Parent bloggers will need to decide where they will host their blog. Some of this will depend on how much they’re willing to spend, but also on what their needs for the blog will be. Do they want a visually pleasing layout adorned with graphics, or just a place to post a scrolling wall of text? Will they need to embed videos on the pages they create? Are they willing to allow banners and other advertisements on their blog? Regarding price, free sites abound. Popular sites such as WordPress and Blogger have options for free pages. Even Tumblr will permit a new blogger to post text for free. Naturally, bloggers willing to spend more for a unique domain will have more options for how share and customize their content.

3. Share – A blog won’t be worth much if no one is reading it. Attracting readers requires some effort. One of the most efficient ways to make this happen is by using existing social media connections. Parents can share a link to their blog on whatever social media they’re already using. They can use those accounts to promote their new blog by posting about it as often as possible. For parent bloggers with few online friends or followers, building a base of potentially interested readers will be crucial. Social networks have built-in ways to accomplish this. For example, Twitter will suggest people to follow. Taking these suggestions can be helpful for connecting with those who might want to read what parent bloggers have to offer. As a following builds, frequently updating followers with new content will help keep those followers interested.

4. Interact – Communities exist between bloggers, some specific to particular hosts. WordPress has its own community of bloggers who cross-promote and comment on one another’s writing. Parent bloggers will benefit from getting involved with a community specifically interested in their chosen content. A proverbial scratching of backs takes place in such communities. Bloggers will be more likely to like and even repost a new blogger’s work if that new blogger has shown interest by liking and reposting first. As an aside, some bloggers will be fine with having their content reposted, but asking is an appreciated courtesy. Commenting on what other bloggers post is a meaningful way to interact and build connections. All this is similar to how such interactions happen across social media platforms.

5. Images and Lists – Readers tend to gravitate towards non-text features while sifting through content. Images attract attention. Using relevant images is a smart way to draw readers. Parent bloggers just need to be certain their using images that are either free for anyone to use, or have been purchased for use through a stock image site.

Images are effective at attracting readers. The format of posts can do the same. Contemporary readers love lists. Designing list-based related to some topic might get more clicks than more traditional articles. To this same end, length can make a difference with whether or not readers finish posts. Those well over 1000 words can lose readers. Keeping under 1000 words seems to keep readers happy.

Parents wishing to find an audience for their message can do so by creating a blog. Getting started is the relatively easy part. Keeping readers engaged with content they’ll find helpful and interesting is where the real work lies. This can be a rewarding and engaging way for parents to stay involved in education.

Written by Jeff Hartman