Creating Engaging Content

Irene Pateraki

When you plan an online group:

You should know your audience:

By understanding why they are members,

you can mould the group content

according to their needs.

Who are they? What are they? Why have they

joined the group?

Before launching your group:

It is good to make a content plan, decide on the design and how your content will be presented.

Members will also create their own content, but it is good to find a well organized place when they enter.

Your content can be a great marketing tool, to attract new members.

Setting your goals:

It is important to set your goals in order to decide the content of your Group.

What do you want to achieve?

a way to share information

get your members involved

get your members help each other

offer them a direct way to learn and communicate

Once you know what you want to accomplish, you are

ready to create the content.

Content has to be:

Very well organized, so new members can easily understand what they can do there

Concise and easy to navigate

Consistent (try to post and update frequently)

Simple as possible but not simpler, as A. Einstein has said

Useful and easy to be applied

In accordance with members needs (e.g. sense of community, source of continuous education, professional

development)

About Content :

Use a wide range of mediums to make your content more attractive

Web- friendly with short paragraphs/list-type articles

Present activities by introducing new tools

Post inspiring content that facilitates interaction among members.

Group roles

The moderator of a group is mainly responsible for the content

As a moderator you have to understand the larger vision and have management skills

In case you have many members, you can think of recruiting active members as subgroup moderators

You can also create an ambassadors group: active and experienced members responsible for welcoming new

members and make them feel at home

Types of content

Emails

Think of sending a welcome email to the new members to:

welcome them and encourage them to participate

offer some first information about the group and its purpose

give them your contact details, in case they need some help

give them some interesting links or even a tutorial on how to update their profile (upload a profile image, write some

information about themselves)

Send weekly/monthly emails to members to:

give updates

propose activities

highlight current conversations

Blog

You can use blog to offer updates/introduce new activities or write short articles

Blog gives the opportunity to members to comment and interact to each other

Members prefer to use blog as its an easy way to share their work or write their thoughts

To keep it active, its good to answer to members comments or hit like button in order members feel that

somebody reads what they are writing!

Sturat Miles, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Forums

Forums can engage members in interesting discussions

As a moderator, you can initiate discussions and you have to try to be there and reply to your members posts

Forum discussions can be related to suggested activities, webinars held in the group or members ideas and suggestions.

Stuart Miles, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Subgroups

Your content can be separated in subgroups according to your general topic. For example, if your Group is

about STEM education, you can create subgroups on

technology, science and mathematics.

Having subgroups, can help members find easier what they are looking for and share their work in the relevant

place

Content is better organized

One or more members can act as subgroup moderators to check on the content and activate members

Webinars

Another form of content with real time engagement

Members have the opportunity to have synchronous interactions and learn from each other or/and an expert

This content can be recorded and be uploaded in the group page for future reference

KROMKRATHOG,www.freedigitalphotos.net

eBooks

Members share their work on different topics

A nice way to keep everything organized, is to gather their material and create thematic eBooks

In that way, group has its online library with material easily shareable outside the group

A nice way to recognize members contribution and advertise your group to other teachers who are not

involved yet

Coffee corner

A forum or a subgroup where members can engage in light-hearted conversations

A nice way to establish comfort level with each other before sharing their work

A place where they can share pictures from their holidays or upload their favourite music videos

Content there can be about anything as long as it respects groups netiquette

Stuart Miles, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Photo Gallery

In a photo gallery members can upload photos related to

their work/projects/activities

Face-to-face meetings during events like conferences/PDWs

Group activities or competitions e.g. create groups logo

Stuart Miles, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Video Gallery

In a video gallery members can find:

Tutorials related to the group e.g. how to update your profile as well as Tutorials about different tools used in

projects

Videos related to groups activities

Members videos

Interesting videos on different topics that members can comment or replicate what they present in their own

class

Polls

Polls can offer instant feedback on different topics

Members with less free time can take part is short polls as they are not time-consuming

Surveys also can help you understand better members needs, things they like, things they dont like and their ideas

By Mister GC, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Interviews

Part of a groups content can be interviews of experts or group members

Interviews can have text/video or audio format

In case you use videos or audio is good to provide the transcript for people who have language difficulties

New interviews can be published on weekly or monthly basis and its good to follow the same format

Featuring members who describe their project/ an activity etc can be really engaging, as the member feels

that his/her work is being recognized and the other

members feel more confident to follow their colleagues example.

Calendar

A calendar of all the events that you plan to host in the group can be useful for the members to keep them in

their diary

Update the calendar frequently and inform the members for next events the soonest possible.

So, what other kind of content do you consider engaging?