“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 it’s an easy way to share

their work or write their thoughts

• To keep it active, it’s 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 group’s 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 group’s 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 group’s 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 don’t like and their

ideas

By Mister GC, www.freedigitalphotos.net

Interviews

• Part of a group’s 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 it’s 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 colleague’s

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?