Students, prospective students and alumni are often fascinated to know what life is like for a faculty member, dean or department head. Use your blog to share a Q&A session with someone from your area. Here are some questions to start you thinking:

• What is your typical day like?
• What is one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
• What did you want to be when you grew up?
• When or how did you select your current academic field/specialty?
• If you could go back and give advice to your college self, what would you say?
• Give one great book recommendation.
• To someone in a non-academic field, how do you describe your research/job?
• What are you currently interested in that’s not related to your field?
• What person, place or idea inspires you when you’re feeling “stuck” or frustrated?

Sample post

Do a Q&A style format for greatest ease, or embed a short video of the interview!

Blogging tip

It may be very tempting to use multiple fonts and sizes within your entry, but the cleaner and simpler the better. When a screen is too busy, it distracts the eye and causes the reader to move on rather than continue. Also, approximately 30 percent of web page views now come from mobile devices, meaning the screen size is already challenging enough to read on.

Instead, use different heading levels to segment your post. Informative headings will help your readers scan your post, finding the information they need quickly.

Points of pride

You blog is a fantastic way to showcase the points of pride for your department – the things that make you great! For February, consider highlighting:

• Faculty members that have been in the news, sharing their expertise
• Students or faculty who have presented at conferences or submitted work for publication

Looking forward

Some important upcoming dates to share with your readers include:

• Upcoming departmental deadlines
• Study away opportunities
• The Public Affairs Convocation Lecture with General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), on March 20
• The General and Departmental Scholarship Application is due by March 1
• The FAFSA is now available online