Earlier today, this blog post was published on Edutopia.org that shares results of a recent survey by the National School Public Relations Association in the US.
The survey asked parents and non-parents (over 43,000 of them!) how they want to be kept informed about what’s going on at school.
The results were surprising in that social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter did not make the top of the list at all. In fact, they ranked below television and attending school board meetings!
Luckily for those with blogs, 4 out of the top 5 methods most requested can be taken care of in a flash. In short, parents like information to be on a website (which is really what a blog is) and they like email notification.
So be sure to setup email subscription notifications of new posts on your blog, and you should be all set!
You can see email subscription in action in the top right of the sidebar of this post – subscribe if you would like!
There are two methods to enable subscription described below – one for Edublogs.org and one for blogs on one of our Edublogs Campus sites.
Here’s how to do it on Edublogs.org blogs:
Step 1: Activate the “Widget Pack” plugin
Found in the Plugins menu of your dashboard – this will give you access to many cool widgets!
Step 2: Drag over the “Email Subscription” widget
Go to Appearance > Widgets.
Place the Email Subscription widget, which will appear when you activate the “Widget Pack” plugin, into one of the sidebars of your blog.
Step 3: Ask parents to subscribe!
That is really it!
Once parents put in their email address, they will get a quick email with every blog post you make. This way, you can keep all of your announcements, newsletter information, and the like on your blog and they can be notified when anything new is posted.
For Edublogs Campus Users
It is even a bit easier for our Campus users.
Just go to Appearance > Widgets and add the “Subscribe by Email” widget to a sidebar.
Then let parents know to subscribe. You can keep track of who has subscribed using the “Subscriptions” menu item in your dashboard.
Any other advice you would like to share on keeping parents in the loop? Share in the comments below!