DIffERENT
STYlES
Of blOG pOSTS
(Text below is
copied from British Council User guide for blogging by David Blundell)
When you start
out writing your blog, staring at a blank page can really make your head spin.
fortunately, just considering the different styles of blog posts you can put
together can give you some inspiration!
“How to” Posts
“How To” posts, give your
audience valuable information that shows them “how to” do something. How To
posts can come in a few different varieties for example:
A) Straight forward “How to”
The most common
way is to walk someone through a process of doing something.
For example: How
to pick a college to study at in the UK or how to create your own art
workshop. The best kinds of how to posts are ones which are very detailed. As a
result you might want to focus in on a specific but small problem.
So instead of
saying “How To Study In The UK” You might instead decide to write about:
·
How To Pick A College
·
How To Get Funding To Study
·
How To Apply On Line
Choosing a
smaller problem and covering it in a lot of detail is much more valuable to
your reader than to take a big problem and gloss over it.
B) Tips and techniques
Whilst your How To post generally leads you through
a process, tips and techniques can be short snippets of useful information, for
example tips for getting students engaged in a lesson, or ways to increase attendance
to an event. Smaller bits of useful information are easier to digest than
longer more details posts and it gives people techniques that they can use
easily. These styles of posts are generally a lot less involved than a How To post.
Inspiration
Posts
Inspirational
posts can be very valuable to your audience. Sometimes they don’t just want
information on how to do something, they want to read something that makes them
feel good about themselves or inspires them, motivates them or puts a spring in
their step. Inspirational posts are like cheering someone on. You might be
openly encouraging people to stick at their goals, or telling people how to
feel better when they’re struggling with a certain topic.
Some different
ways of writing inspirational posts include:
A) Success stories
If you have
something that you are proud of that you or your team has done, share it with your
audience, especially if they can feel like they could be part of the same. for
example, share a story of a student who struggled to learn English but overcame
their challenges and succeeded in their goals. If you can show someone solving
the problems that your reader is having it will build a connection between them
and your content.
B) Personal stories
Remember, your
blog is personal to you and the more your audience feels like they know a bit
about you, the more likely they are to come back and read what you’re doing.
If you’ve got
some kind of relevant personal success, or a story that you’d like to share
about overcoming an obstacle, this can be very engaging for your audience.
Interviews
Think about who
you could interview on your blog and don’t be afraid to reach out to experts
who you think might turn you down – you’d be surprised at how open people are
to giving interviews, especially if you can make them less than 20 minutes. Ask
yourself who would your audience like to see interviewed and what would they
like to find out from that person. You could even ask your audience to submit
their questions in advance and make them a part of the interview!
Reviews /
resources
Your blog
audience looks to you as an expert in your field and one of the ways to do this
is to provide honest advice and expertise.
For example, if
you can show people how to use whiteboards, how to set up an art workshop or
how to organise a science project, you might have tools and resources that can
help them do that. Is it software that you use? Is it a time-saving technique?
Is it a new online website? Whatever you’ve come across that you loved using
would make for a great review. And remember to be objective in your reviews,
listing the bad points as well as the good will get you a lot of respect from
your audience.
Current events
If there is
something topical that is relevant to your blog then write about it. This will
also help to keep your content fresh. Think about any events that you are part
of, or seasonal events that might be of interest to your audience.
Series idea –
taking a problem and slicing it thinly
A mistake people
make online is to solve too many problems at once, or solve problems that are
more advanced than our audience. A way to create compelling content is to take
an issue you know your community is interested in and slice it up very thinly.
For example… problem:
How can I use
the internet to learn English
Sliced thinly:
·
How to assess your level of
English online
·
Online resources for learning
English
·
Online communities to help
improve your English
·
How to use social media to
improve your English
Doing it this
way means you can drip feed people advice and tips on the same problem whilst
remaining on point, and more importantly, keeping your audience’s attention with
bite-sized tips and techniques.#
More information
about tips to write a blog can be found in following websites
