So you want to start a [company] blog?
Why you should abandon ego for the sake of great content
As a kid, I was as much a voracious reader as I was a dedicated documenter, spending hours at a time both pouring over the stories of characters in novels and crafting my own, first by writing in journals and then (thanks internet!) in a more regrettable fashion online.
When I started college, I deleted the online journal but knew I wanted to keep crafting stories. So when, on the first day of class, a professor introduced the course by saying “Marketing isn’t just about selling an idea, it’s about telling a story,” I knew I’d found my calling.
So began the career path that led me to LearnZillion, constantly collecting and crafting and shaping the writings, graphics, and yes, stories that explain who we are as a company and what we’re trying to do in the education space.
But good storytelling takes work. And time. And I wasn’t sure I could, or should, do it alone.
Wanting to revamp LearnZillion’s blog but not sure where to start, I went searching for great examples and stumbled upon HelpScout’s post about building their own blog, which opened by announcing:
“Writing is a deeply personal and often emotional process, but publishing is a team sport.”
Bingo. Writing is that for me — deeply personal. But to make our blog resonate with a larger audience, it couldn’t just be me talking at all of you.
Inspired by the great work at Wistia and HelpScout, I asked for volunteers from across the company. Looping in the LearnZillion team — a humble group of insanely talented, diverse, and fascinating people — was a no-brainer.
We used Trello to keep track of story ideas and progress, Google Docs for sharing and editing, and Slack for motivation and praise. And after three months of hard work, I’m thrilled to introduce the new and improved LearnZillion Blog.
Expect a range of stories from former educators, current software engineers, and at least one former District of Columbia Teacher of the Year.
Have any topics you’re dying for us to cover, or thoughts about what you’ve read so far? Let us know in the comments. Happy reading!
Casey Manning is the Marketing Communications Manager at LearnZillion. Her New Year’s resolution is to learn how to cook real-deal Indian food.
