“We need to think beyond the blogging box and become really engaged with what we are doing, because we could create something that will attract viewers.”-Steven Hodson, Mashable
I look at blogs like I eat a McDonald’s cheeseburger: one bite, throw away the wrapper. Most money-making-tons-of-hits blogs are great at giving the reader bite sized information initially, then allowing them to re-read for the detailed stuff. But before you feel the need to have your bloggers bullet point, embolded headings, write small paragraphs and use italicization let’s talk about why Student Blogs are different.
The Difference
The typical student blog reader is reading for the experience. They’re not coming to each page needing tips on gardening or pet grooming; they want to feel like they’re at your institution. The difference between the mainstream blogosphere and Higher-Ed student blogs is in what the readers are looking for. The mainstream reader needs the gist first and the details second. Readers of student blogs need details immediately.
Video Application
You may find articles like this one that suggest that video may be bad for blogs because of the time commitment a reader must make. The great thing about the Student Blog is that readers come to the site ready to invest some time.
Viral Videos usually succeed if they are highly instructional or have the “i’ve never seen anything like that before in my life “quality.” Sure, your log videos may not be viral smash hits, but they will be experiential and that is what’s important.
The Rules
- Video content posted in a blog can be anything you want it to be, because your blog readers are ready to take the time to watch your stuff.
- Video content posted elsewhere should be instructional or entertaining.
Check out that Mashable article and subscribe to their feed. They post some great stuff about web communications.
Related Posts -
Video Tutorial: Lifestream, a Social Network Wordpress Plugin Here's a little screenflow movie that I made for my student bloggers re: Lifestream, a social network plugin for Wordpress. [vimeo 2355785] Lifestream is a great way to aggregate social network content and seamlessly integrate it into your blog. It requires php5, which means that you need to access the...... - Student Blogs: A different kind of Campus Tour As an admission counselor, I used to cringe when I heard this from a prospective student. It's not that I'm controlling (ok, I am controlling) but I want every student to have a consistent positive experience at my institution, or at least a chance at one. This is why we......
- Germs and YouTube: Viral Marketing and Recruiting I Obsess Over Restaurants Come to think of it... I obsess over a lot of things. If you have a couple of conversations with me, you'll know that I love this restaurant called holé molé, that I got my Macbook Pro for 400 bucks, and that there's an AAMCO just......
- Lots of Great Response and Additional Training This past week has been kind of exciting. I've received a ton of emails asking for the session materials as well as some questions to help get things started. The slideshows are available for viewing and download, as well as the audio/session notes. These sessions can help you begin to......
- Student Blog Training Materials, Part 1 I just went through a little bit of training with my newly hired, fresh out of high school student blog team. While preparing for training, I noticed that there was nothing under the large hand of google that was specifically targeted to the training of student bloggers, so I collected......
Related Websites -
Getting Smart About Corporate Blogging - Part Three The first two part of this series discussed a semi-recent post made by Matt Cutts, that covered a few things that corporate bloggers need to know. The last point that we'll cover in this series is what Matt had to say about blogging angry. There is some very powerful information...... - Wickedly Spooky Halloween Roundup Happy Sunday to all my readers! Today's all about the roundup. As usual we have the Fitness Health Network of which I am a part of so go ahead and browse through the posts. You'll find they have a lot of great things to say. A little further down are......
- Why Applying Video Marketing Is So Important In Increasing Your Web Site Traffic? It is widely known fact that video marketing is gaining popularity day to day as it is a really effective method of increasing web site traffic. If you want to achieve considerable success in generating traffic and promoting your business web site or blog, it is difficult to overestimate the......
-
Yahoo Blog Review This is a review of the Yahoo Search Blog. Yahoo! is a major website providing search services. One would think that the Yahoo! search blog would be full of jargon and technical terms that only a select few would have been able to understand. Surprisingly, the blog was full of...... -
Reading Between the Lines Blog - Most Popular Posts in June Check Out These Popular Posts from the Reading Beween the Lines Blog As the blog grows in posts and readers, Google seems to be giving me more and more love. As such, more and more people are finding their way to my little place on the web, and being exposed......
