Chosen because Detroit Country Day School won Gold for Single Blog Post in the 2020 Brilliance Awards. We talked with Laura Korotkin, Director of Communications about their exciting win.

“This blog post reflects incredibly well on the school. Well written by a senior academic administrator, it is not just informative. It connects the school’s pandemic response to broader themes, blending honesty with encouragement.”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

The Gold 2020 Brilliance Award winner for Single Blog Post is Invisible Threads - Teaching in the time of a pandemic written by Tim Bearden, Chief Academic Officer and Upper School Director. It begins with a story about an exercise Tim had participated in called “Cross the Line.”

When students and adults crossed the line in affirmative response as to whether they had ever experienced abuse, or had a family member who was addicted to alcohol or drugs, or had experienced a death in their family, had been bullied, or had been discriminated against because of the color of their skin, their gender, or their sexual orientation, those who had not had those experiences were left face to face with the line crossers.”
— Tim Bearden, Chief Academic Officer and Upper School Director

In the post, Tim continues to eloquently deliver a message of hope, perseverance, cooperation, and empathy — just when his community needed to hear his words the most. The post was recognized as a stand-out by the Brilliance Awards judges.

“Parents reading this should feel proud to send their child to a school that treats difficulties with thoughtfulness.”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Benefits of a School Blog

Detroit Country Day School launched the Yellowjackets Blog in 2015. It was hosted then on Blogger, but moved to the school’s website when the new site was created in 2018.

A school blog, much like a podcast, is an effective vehicle for disseminating information, demonstrating expertise, communicating advice, and delivering targeted messages to specific audiences. While posts are often time-sensitive, many are evergreen and can be used over and over again, lightening the director of marketing’s load.

“I think as long as the blog shares information that may be of value to parents, teachers, students, or the community it is worth having,” Laura says. “It is a place where families can get better insights to teachers, students, and administrators at the school.” Then this information can be used in drip campaigns to prospective families and for inbound marketing on social platforms.

“I’ve seen schools where the blog page is mostly school news. I view that as something separate.”

— Laura Korotkin, Director of Communications

How to Gather Ideas

A blog is a school-wide effort with voices representing all members of the community.

Laura says, “Teachers typically submit their ideas for blog topics. Also, my social media team (consisting of teachers and some other staff members) comes up with ideas to propose to various teachers when we see an interest, a need, or a cool class or project that will spark ideas for a blog.”

Students and student groups have contributed to the DCDS blog, but that has fallen off during the pandemic. Laura hopes to reinvigorate those contributors as soon as possible to bring student voices back.

Formalize Approval Process

Having a formal approval process ensures proofreading, adherence to the school’s editorial style guide, and another set of eyes on the piece before it gets posted. “I have an assistant social media team manager who is also an English teacher at our middle school,” Laura says. They review and provide edits that they then send back to the submitter — a process that has worked really well for them. The teachers are usually very appreciative and receptive.

Schedule Posts & Cross-Post

Spreading out posts based on the topic and time of year is helpful in filling up the marketing calendar. “We usually get a number of submissions in May because that is when teachers apply for teacher of distinction awards,” says Laura. “Then we will put these blogs on the editorial calendar the following year.” DCDS aims for one blog per month but will add more if something is timely. Other schools may post more often, given the number of contributors and divisions in the school.

Don’t let posts appear only on the blog. “Besides the designated web page,” says Laura, “We share these blogs through our weekly newsletter and on some of our social media platforms.” There is no harm in cross-posting, and the benefit is finding a reader who may have missed the post elsewhere.

Create an Award-Winner

Laura notes, “Students and teachers in the school were happy to see an administrator, Tim Bearden, who had poured so much time and effort in preparing our school to continue teaching in a pandemic to garner positive recognition from those outside of our community.”

Besides “Invisible Threads,” DCDS’ most popular posts include:

Figuring it out together: The post election message to our students
Post Election Message: Don't Despair - REPAIR.
(Laura says that the two posts above were messages given to their older students through a Zoom assembly that she created into a blog post to share with parents.)
There's No Such Thing as Normal
Ready or Not, Time to Let Go!

Congratulations on your win, Detroit Country Day School. You are brilliant!

TEAM
Tim Bearden, Chief Academic Officer and Director of the Upper School

See All the 2020 Winners

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Liza Fisher Norman

Master Electrician, InspirED School Marketers

Master Electrician isn’t just a fun title for me. It’s how I feel about sparking school marketers to do their best work, connecting them to one another, and helping to make their jobs easier. After working with close to 100 schools in the firm I founded — Turnaround Marketing Communications — I realized that school marketers needed a place where they could find brilliant ideas and brain food and feel supported. InspirED School Marketers was born in 2013 to fill that void, and with the help of my fabulous Best Boy, Rob, we are on a quest to make InspirED a resource you can't live without.

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