What should we blog about?

Rand Fishkin of Moz suggests we ask ourselves ‘who will share this and why?’ before we even think of publishing a blog post. Great #highered blogs serve a purpose. They answer questions for prospective students in their digital search process. They generate buzz around newsworthy events and trends. They celebrate campus research and accomplishments of your brand ambassadors to amplify your story.

CONVERGE INSIGHT

The latest blogging trend we’ve seen is a move towards mobile-optimized, easy to skim listicles like this.

When is the best time to publish?

Research shows that blog posts published on weekends average the most social shares. Another study reports that 12-1PM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the height of publishing times for blog activity.

There is no secret formula or magic solution that works for every blog. It’s important to A/B test different publishing times to get a good understanding of your unique audiences and their behaviors.

CONVERGE INSIGHT

A custom Google Analytics blog dashboard is a great way to test and benchmark your overall performance. We work with our clients to analyze key metrics like page views, time on page, source / medium and social media referrals.

How often should we be blogging?

Ideally, your blog will have fresh content every day. Generating this volume of content in higher education isn’t difficult. Colleges and universities have great stories to tell. What’s important is establishing a sustainable blog management process.

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Trello is a free tool that we recommend for streamlining your blog management and publishing.

Looking for a more sophisticated, paid solution? Check out CoSchedule. It’s a comprehensive editorial calendar that lets you plan, edit and publish blogs and social media all within one platform.

How long is the perfect blog post?

74% of blog posts can be read in less than 3 minutes. 94% of blog posts can be read in a maximum of 6 minutes. We recommend 700-900 words as a baseline for best practices, but it truly depends on the style of article that you’re producing.

CONVERGE INSIGHT

This post is 986 words and is our most-read blog post of all time. This listicle is another one of our top performing posts with only 382 words. Focus less on the length of your blog posts and more on the readability, search engine optimization (SEO) and value of the content. Those factors matter most.

Interested in starting a blog, but not sure where to start? Check out our Content Strategy services to see how we can help!