For example, I find that I can tell people writing a blog will help to improve your SEO. But until I explain through basic story examples of things like spider food and the importance of keywords and show how that affects SEO, admissions offices never truly understand how effective a blog can be. How in reality it is more than just words on a page but a tool to improve one’s visibility and so much more.

Plus once I explain these basic principles the office can apply them to other technologies that they learn about at conferences or in passing.

So while it does come down to creating content, I truly believe that it is important to understand the, why do I need to create content and how creating content, in a strategic way can benefit one’s admissions office.

However, I agree completely with Cort. Since this blog post may be read by many people in the position to get a blog for their administrative office going, you really should provide a “call to action” as well as answering the “why” question better.

As a followup to Cort, a blog for any serious organization, such as an admissions office, should be first and foremost about establishing a dialog with the people who are using the office. It’s about putting a human face on an otherwise intimidating institution.

I believe that through direct contact with prospective students and their parents, an admissions office can greatly improve the amount of applications to their office (if that is the goal) or to improve the overall effectiveness of the office.

An excellent idea in all ways.

Those are some really good points. I talk to my clients all day about the importance of blogging from a brand building, link building, thought leadership, content creation, and yes even a SEO stance.

At the end of the day creating content and sharing it with others is extremely valuable. Really need to think through a more formal response, but content creation as a marketing startegy is extremely effective. The easiest way to create new content is simply through a blog. It really just comes down to that.

@Ross – Actually I’ve been advised by lawyers on numerous occasions that you do NOT need a formal release. If your school does it differently, then I would expect you to go by those standards.

Yeah, you might lose some of the spontaneity, but you also are protecting yourself from possible lawsuits about misuse of a person’s image. (Even if the suit is frivolous, the time you waste replying to email, talking to legal counsel, tracking down the image and removing it from your Web site will make it all worthwhile).

Why should an admissions office write a blog? In conjunction with writing a blog what should the office do to make the blog ’successful’. And the ultimate question… what is the purpose of the admissions blog?

I find many offices attempt to write a blog trying to reach multiple audiences, i.e. students, parents, college counselors, etc. Those blogs to me tend to be super confusing and disengaging. Knowing the target audience of one’s blog and the objective for writing it is super important!