How to Create Your School Storytelling Team

Without endless staff or budget to accomplish each task, school marketers need to turn to on-campus resources. And every campus’ biggest resource? Its people. You don’t need to rely on one perfect person who can accomplish every task; you might need two, five or ten. Focus on collaboration and you can build an outstanding content creation team.

Now, who do you look for to add to your content-creating, school-story telling, idea-generating team?

THE BIG-IDEAS PERSON

Creative thinkers bring a lot to the table. They generate some wonderful ideas and their passion has a tendency to add enthusiasm to brainstorming sessions.

THE ONE WHO GETS IT DONE

If you can find someone who can take the big ideas and make them into a plan you can implement, you’re golden. Organization skills are key, and a perfection of the art of nagging is a huge bonus.

THE WRITER

Don’t have a dedicated copywriter in your organization? Not every talented writer makes it their career. You never know if you have a staff member with a passion for writing. Even if their skills require some polishing, an in-house writer can bring a rough draft to a professional writer for editing, which saves you money in the long run.

THE DESIGNER

Like the writer, you might have a secret designer in your midst. This person can help with graphics, layout and bring a creative mindset to the brainstorming table.

THE APPROVER

Don’t forget to involve the person who needs to sign off on your initiatives. While they may not make it to every meeting, keeping them in the loop is key if you want to keep the content flowing. The entire team will become frustrated if their hard work is held up by the approver as they ask a slew of questions because they weren’t kept up to speed.

THE INSIDERS

You know, the individuals who know the day-to-day aspects of your school. Who chat with the students and families. Who teach the classes. Who plan the future of your school. In other words, your faculty and staff: The admissions superstar. The beloved professor. The respected school counselor. The honored head of school.

These are the people who know your school inside and out. Make the most of this insight, expertise and loyalty: bring them into the content marketing conversation. You might treat this group differently than you do the core team members mentioned above, but their participation is what helps make your story and your content air-tight and authentic.

Now, how do you get them involved?

• Create an employee editorial board, and include faculty and staff from key departments.
  • Ask them to contribute stories and ideas – and show them how their knowledge is making an impact on your school’s story
  • Feature faculty/staff on your website or blog as part of the editorial team to demonstrate the thought leadership and expertise behind the content you are publishing
  • Hold quarterly meetings with the faculty/staff editorial board to brainstorm topic ideas
  • Allow key contributors to write (or ghost-write) articles in order to build their individual presence and impact—you’ll give potential students and families the chance to connect not just with your school as a whole, but with the people who make up that school

• Create a system that makes it easy for employees to submit their personal stories or ideas for blog posts and social sharing.
  • Build an online portal with a fillable form, or simply dedicate a person on your marketing team who will be in charge of collecting the stories via email
  • Explain the purpose of your website, blog and other communications, and how input will be used
  • Outline the types of stories you are looking for by detailing your content topic categories and goals
  • Provide a contact person whom faculty/staff can call or email directly for more information or to share their stories via conversation vs. written word

• Develop a regularly scheduled faculty/staff newsletter that shares the latest content. The newsletter should include:
  • The most recent top blog posts
  • A call-to-action to submit a story or idea
  • Ready-made social media updates that faculty/staff can easily share

By involving your faculty and staff in the content creation process, you will not only gain incredible insights and stories about your school, but also build a captivated and engaged audience from the inside, out. You’ll give students and families the chance to connect with the individuals that make up your school, all while showcasing the intelligence, compassion, creativity, and ingenuity that can be found on campus.

The people who can fill these roles already exist on your campus (and if you have to outsource some, that’s ok!). Bring these people together and you can tell strong school stories, showcase all the amazing things your school does, and do it all with consistency. After all, it’s teamwork that makes the school storytelling dream work.

Want to add Cursive to your dream team? Schedule a discovery call today.