Three Quick Ways E-Learning Companies Can Keep Content Rolling Out — Even During Back-to-School Chaos

It’s the start of a new school year, and it’s all hands on deck for e-learning companies.

As an edtech leader, you spend the last half of August and the first half of September tending to your existing clients. You help them roll out new content. You train personnel on your tech. And you are constantly, constantly troubleshooting.

But back-to-school chaos doesn’t mean your blog can go dark.

We’ve all been guilty of it. In August and July, people go on vacation. Things are let go. Blogs can be neglected. Then the hustle of the school year sets in and it’s October before you know it.

You need to keep that content rolling out. Not only does a dead blog look uninviting to visitors (also, not having fresh content is not going to bring any new visitors) but the more you update your site, the more frequently your site will be visited and indexed by search engines.

“But I’m slammed this time of year,” you say. “I don’t have time to blog.”

Okay, fair enough. Here are three quick ways you can update your site while dealing with back to school insanity.

1.) Re-use your old content. Do you have an evergreen post? Something that was published on your blog as a Back to School piece last year or the year before, that may still be relevant? Time to make it work for you all over again.
Pull up that content and change anything that may be dated about it. If it refers to old events or offers or personnel who have moved on, delete that. Make sure the cultural references are up-to-date. (Does it reference Tiddleswift? Delete. “Uptown Funk” as the song of the summer? Plug in “Despacito.”) Add in new offers or events. Now comes the magic part.  Change the date of your post and update it. Et voila, new blog post.

2) Do a video. No time to type a post? Make a quick video. Not a slick video, just a quick one of you delivering the message you might otherwise type into a blog post. As a professional writer, I get it — blog posts take time. You have to do research, look up links, find art, make sure your words make sense. If you’re an e-learning founder, you might not have time for that right now. So decide what to talk about (answer common questions from your clients, for example, or talk about the work you’re doing to prep for the school year). You might even Facebook Live to take questions from your audience in real-time and then post the link to your blog. (Some of my colleagues are big Facebook Live-rs. Here’s more from content strategist Erin Ollila about how Facebook Live has worked wonders for her businesses.)

3) Create a round-up. Round-ups are the best. Do you regularly read about the e-learning industry? Do you spend a lot of time listening to edtech podcasts? Write a round up of the most interesting articles or pods you’ve consumed recently. What about tools you use or integrate with that your audience might find useful or interesting (LMSes, quick video creation tools, or Open educational resources, for example.) Do you have an active social media presence? Did you have a funny or informational exchange with someone recently? Tweet a story time? If it makes sense to do so, Storify that thread and present it in a blog post.

Done. You have now updated your blog and are free to return to the chaos of early September.

Let’s make sure this never happens again, okay?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? To make sure that next year, during back to school (or during graduation season, or midterms) you don’t let your blog lag, take the time to put together a content strategy. Plan what’s going to be on your site ahead of time. Write those posts ahead of time. Work from a schedule so you don’t have to worry about content when you’re crunched for time.

Need help? I’m a freelance content writer who specializes in e-learning. I can help take content off your plate so you can concentrate on your tech. Get in touch today. We’ll do a free 15 minute call to see if we work well together.

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Conducting Interviews: A Guide for Content Marketers

We’ve talked about interviews on this blog before. Showcasing your company’s expertise by interviewing your employees, partners, and happy clients is a valuable and powerful way to tell your brand’s story.

But how do you actually do it? And how do you get the most out of that interview?

As a former journalist (who has interviewed lots of people) I’m here to help. Here are my tips for getting an interview filled with the kind of great quotes and information you can use in your content.

Do your homework. Even if your interview subject sits three desks over from you at your start-up, do a little research. Don’t be a creeper or anything — your research doesn’t have to be exhaustive — but you are going to want to familiarize yourself with some basic information about who your subject is, how they came to be associated with your company, and what their story is. If it’s a client you’re interviewing, for example, you’re going to want to know when they started doing business with you and what problem you’ve solved for them. You’ll need this information for step two.

Write your questions. You don’t necessarily need a ton of questions, and they don’t need to be the best questions ever written. Just get the basics: Who are you? What do you do? Why did you choose to work with us? How do we solve your problems? Even if the questions seem obvious, write them down. In some cases (if you’re doing the interview on camera, for example) you might need the interview to stand alone and tell a story and those basic questions will provide important background information for your audience.

Send those questions ahead of time. You want your subject to be as comfortable as possible, so let them review your questions ahead of time. If they have some time to think about the questions, you’ll get better answers during your interview. Also let them know that you may need to ask some follow-ups or get some clarifications at the end of the interview.

Keep it as short as you can. Interview fatigue is a real thing. Most people you’ll be talking to aren’t used to being interviewed and a long list of questions might seem intimidating to them. So just get what you need from the interview.

Get good art. This won’t be an issue for video, but for a written interview, you want your audience to know whose words they’re reading. Get a good picture that shows your subject’s face clearly. If you’re doing the interview in person, take a photo (a headshot is ideal). If not, ask your subject to send you a photo of themselves. Many people have a headshot they use for all their professional online work. If your subject has a photo they use in all their branding, ask for that.

Get approval. Sometimes, you need to edit a written interview. This can be an issue when you’re trying to condense a long interview into one 1500 post, or if your subject heads off on a tangent that doesn’t quite fit. (Or curses a lot and your stylebook doesn’t permit vulgarity. It happens.) The problem with editing interviews? It changes direct quotes. Sometimes, it changes quotes a lot. To avoid putting words in people’s mouths, send the drastically-changed quotes to your subject, explain that you had to change them, and ask if the new quote is okay with them. Most people are pretty cool about changed quotes. Some will even help you edit them down or will ask if they can add to them.

Have fun. It’s okay if you’re nervous. I’ve been doing interviews for almost 20 years now and I am nervous before every. single. one. It’s just stage fright. You’ve got your subject, done your research, written your questions down, and you can just start by reading them. If it helps, remember that the interview isn’t about you; it’s about your subject. Take a deep breath — you’ve got this.

Need help? I’m a freelance content writer and, as I mentioned, a journalist. So if you need me to do your interviews, or write your questions for you, get in touch today. We’ll do a free 15 minute call to see if we work well together.

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