Last week, we gave you plenty of ideas on how to use Google Apps for Education to make for easier and more efficient coordination and relations between administrators, teachers, students, and even parents!  Today, we are delving into the business world with the benefits of Google Apps for Education, but listen closely… we are looking at non-profits and how these organizations can benefit from Google Apps for Education.  Maybe a non-profit isn’t the first kind of business that comes to your mind when you envision the typical business structure, but rest assured, it’s beneficial for any kind of business to learn a little more about how Google Apps for Education can benefit a multi-faceted organization.

So, why are we focusing on non-profits today?  Google Apps for Education is free for any 501(c)(3) organization (a non-profit) that has less than 3000 employees.  Considering that many non-profits are on the smaller side, and often look for grants to fund their business, that’s a pretty great deal!  Therefore, we would really like to encourage any non-profit to take advantage of Google Apps for Education as they go through the web development process.  Here is why:

First off, Google Apps for Education gives users the ability to collaborate with others not only nationwide, but worldwide as well.  This could be extremely useful for a non-profit.  Partnering with an organization that maintains similar goals and practices could certainly help spread the good that two non-profits do for the community.  For example, two non-profits that house cancer patients in separate cities could coordinate through Google Apps for Education to sponsor 5k races around the nation to raise money for cancer patient housing.  The great organizational tools within Google Apps for Education, such as the ability to share spreadsheets and other documents, could help these two (or more!) organizations team up to find additional sponsors and keep tabs on financial stats for the 5k races project.

Secondly, let’s talk marketing.  Hey, a little marketing never hurt anyone!  Now, we don’t necessarily mean pay-per-click ads or social media campaigns this time around.  We’re thinking more along the lines of educational marketing.  A big part of a non-profit’s business practice is to inform the community about the problem (and, consequently, the non-profit’s solution) so that people are encourage and motivated to get involved.  Webinars and presentations can be archived and organized in Google Apps for Education by a non-profit business.  In turn, these non-profits can distribute these informative tools to other organizations.  For example, non-profits can connect with schools and universities via Google Apps for Education.  For any non-profit, a college campus is a great place to start giving people information about the organization, as college-aged students are often very interested in and driven to make a difference in the community.  Google Apps for Education can help get that process started, and hopefully make the entire journey a little more simple.

Last but not least, Google Apps for Education can help connect everyone in one non-profit organization.  Non-profits, although often small, are also often multifaceted when you consider that non-profits also include the surrounding community as part of the organization.  Let’s use the example of a non-profit that owns a community garden with 50 to 100 plots, and allows gardeners to sell their produce at a small neighborhood farmer’s market once a week during growing season.  Google Apps for Education can help connect the people within the non-profit infrastructure to the gardeners who own plots.  Everyone who works for and who supports the organization can find out who is selling what every week, can get input from other gardeners on the best growing practices, and can find out more ways to spread the word about what we will call the growing “slow food” movement.

We hope this series on Google Apps for Education has given you a few brainwaves here and there, it sure has for us!  What do you think Google Apps for Education can do for you?

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Last week we typed out a post about how to continually come up with blog topics for posts if you are on a tight blogging schedule.  This week we are going to continue on that track and talk about how formatting a post can not only help turn an idea into a full blown post but it can also help make the post more desirable for readers (and search engines at times).  As a Denver marketing company we have come to terms with each of these steps and their benefits and embrace them. 

1. A 5 step program: For some reason people like numbered posts.  There has probably been research done on the thought process behind why people do, but we don’t have that.  We simply know that if you can sit down, look at your article idea and put 5 steps to it, not only will it give you more paragraphs to talk about, it will be something that a reader enjoys to see. (It doesn’t have to be 5, it can be 2, 3, 4, even 10 or 12 whatever fits for the post.)
2. Bulleted Points: Obviously 5 steps doesn’t solve everything.  However blog posts typically have some structure to them.  If you can pull key thoughts out, elaborate on them and highlight them this will expand your post rapidly. The unique thing about  bulleted points (and more so of bolding) it makes the post look different.  A change in text size and boldness can actually be detected by search engines and those phrases can be chronicled as the key topics for the post.  This also helps with readers knowing what to share about the post and remembering what they read from it.
3. Typing with an end in mind: Bloggers can be creative (that’s right, give yourself a pat on the back) but that creativity can get the best of us.  A great blog topic comes to mind, however it’s way too elaborate to fit into one post.  This is when you sit down, brainstorm, and determine how to get the topic out in a clear and concise message (all the while expanding the amount of posts you are developing).  All the sudden a blog idea that seems impossible has turned into a six part blog series.
4. Pairing like concepts: The exact opposite of the last point, sometimes there is a blog idea but you can only think of 100 words.  If you can’t implement one of the first three strategies then employ this one.  This happens often when we write posts, if we aren’t typing with the end in mind, then we are pairing like concepts.  A great example of this comes from our PR Principles blog series when we wrote about both Video News Releases and Micro-blogging.  In the PR world both of these are just starting so the information on them is very limit.  So we simply combined them under the PR Principles umbrella.
5. Examples: Sometimes there is a complex concept that doesn’t need to be expanded upon into multiple points however it needs to be explained.  This is where you can take a fun topic that you enjoy blogging about and make the complex become simple.  We did this when we wrote out our Inbound Marketing for Business series.  We used everyday social media examples to help understand deeper subjects.

We have provided with five different ways to format a post in order to get the most from it, if you have any more suggestions please leave them in the comments below!

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Last week, we gave you an introduction to Google Apps for Education.  Google Apps for Education was created to allow for easier streamlining and management of a variety of school systems, as well as to actually be used by teachers in the classroom to better help students learn.  Just another of Google’s breakthroughs in website development, this relatively new software can be used in a number of ways.  Today, we will outline some ideas on how Google Apps for Education can be fully taken advantage of by students, teachers, and administrators.  The variety of uses Google Apps for Education can offer are meant to allow for better teacher and student relations, and easier administrative and teaching techniques.  We think Google Apps for Education has a great likelihood for success in these areas, and hopefully, you will agree after reading the following ideas!

1. Google Docs for streamlining lessons by multiple teachers

A basic idea, but an important one nonetheless, Google Docs can be used by a number of teachers to coordinate lesson plan subject matter, timing, and more.

2. Google Docs for student response use

This idea could be especially effective in an English class, for example.  After reading a chapter of an assigned book, students can chart ideas and reactions to the chapter in a Google Doc file, where they can read other students’ reactions and give input to one another.  A little bit like each person in the class having a blog, except that all of the “blogs” can be in one very accessible location.

3. Google forms to record information

We’re thinking in terms of science here: using Google’s excellent variety of spreadsheets and chart-building abilities to record experimental data and statistics.  As in #1, another basic idea, but quite effective!

4. Google forms to create quizzes

Think about all the trees you can save this way…put quizzes and tests online!  Online quizzes and tests (assuming they are of multiple choice format) are also much easier to grade.  This idea certainly offers great strides in terms of efficiency.

5. Google forms for teacher evaluations

Especially in higher levels of schooling, students are often asked to give feedback on teachers and classes.  Anonymous feedback can be easily gathered with Google forms, and just as easily transferred onto an online spreadsheet.

6. Google Calendars for “check out” schedules

A great way to track which teacher has what books, overhead project, collection of microscope, etc. in a large public school (or a small private school) is to use Google Calendars.  The collaborative aspect of Google Calendars makes it possible for all parties involved to see a full schedule of book and equipment check outs.

7. Google Calendars to put administrators, teachers, and parents on the same page

How many school calendars that get sent out end up stuck behind a million other pieces of paper on the fridge?  Or in the trash after an accident involving spilt milk and Cheerios?  Google Calendars can allow administrators, teachers, and parents to always be on the same page schedule-wise.

8. Google Chat for direct communication

Sure, parents will still probably want a face-to-face parent-teacher conference.  However, Chat is a great way to get in some fast discussions.  Google Chat could also be great for student and professor use at a university, a much easier way to fit “office hours” into both schedules!

9. Class presentations and websites

Put yourself in the mind of a 8, 9, or 10 year old child.  Having a class website would be pretty exciting…a page about the class pet, a student of the week who gives an interview, a mention about the latest science experiment.  Google Apps for Education makes creating a class website easy!

10. Hosting student portfolios

For writing, art, any subject really…a database for each and every student to upload their own portfolio so that it can be accessed by each and every teacher.  Now, that’s an efficient dream come true!

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As a Denver Marketing company we spend time writing blog posts.  After many years of typing up posts on a weekly basis we began to wonder how other people continue to come up with weekly blog topics.  We even took to LinkedIn and asked three different professional groups how they continued to generate blog topics and keep readers coming back for more.  Sadly, no one took the time to answer any of the questions we asked, so we will be putting this article together on our own.  However, we believe that we have a relatively comprehensive guide here that can help generate post content for years to come.

Blogging about updates

One of the easiest things to blog about are updates in relation to your business.  Whether it’s technological updates, pricing updates, or government updates, updates allow for instant blog topic material.  The great thing is that as a person blogs about updates they become even more highly recognized as experts in their field.  This causes people to continue to return to the blog every time there is a new update, leading to more traffic coming to your site.

Blogging about your expertise

We are all in business for a reason.  One of the best ways to avoid typer’s block is to blog about what we know best.  Not only does this  make a business seem more reputable, but they also can stand out as an expert in their field.  This definitely makes it easy to come up with topics to blog about and it also can help generate leads for business.

Blogging about your services

Yet another great topic of knowledge for a business is the services they offer — very easy to write about and a great way to keep customers updated whenever services change.  Being open about the services offered allow for potential clients to feel that the company is going to work well with them and not hide anything from them.

Blogging about lessons learned

The saying “You learn something new everyday” applies here.  We are constantly learning in business.  If there is a certain aspect of your job or company in which you learned a lesson, share it.  Even though “history may repeat itself,” posting lessons learned can help shorten the learning curve.  Being able to relate a lesson learned back to a particular aspect of business or experience can also help people remember the lesson learned better because people remember things better in story form.

Blogging about research 

We all do research in business.  Granted, some research we want to keep to ourselves, but some research is great to share with the online community.  Sharing research can be a great conversation starter.  It can also help readers see that your business is dedicated to staying current as well as continually searching out the best way to do business.

These are five great ways to generate blog topics. Are there ways that you generate topics that we didn’t list here?  Please share them with us in the comments below!

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Recently, Google has been branching out even more with the apps it offers.  Now available is Google Apps for Education, also known as Google for Educators.  Google Apps for Education is a whole range of apps catered specifically for teacher use to improve student knowledge.  The aim of Google Apps is to simplify the technical side of education for teachers and administrators.

One of the most neat things about the Google Apps for Education package is that the service is available for free.  Teachers and administrators can take full advantage of these Google apps for no charge:

• Gmail: undoubtedly the most widely used email server
• Google Talk: calling and instant messaging to any contact
• Google Calendar: with sharing, synchronization, and simultaneous viewing capabilities
• Google Docs: with sharing, synchronization, and simultaneous viewing capabilities
• Google Sites: simple building and collaboration tools

Google’s approach to the broad array of apps that teachers can use is to organize apps by grade level and subject matter.  Apps range from dealing with maps to news to computer science.  Besides the apps themselves, Google for Educators offers content to help teachers learn the appropriate way to help students with Google’s tools.  According to Google, Apps for Education can help schools:

• save money with so many easily implemented services in one place
• maintain administrative privacy with creditable protection
• ability to work with others across the globe
• prepare students for dealing with current technology as well as the technology of the future

Additionally, Google offers customer service and support for any questions, concerns, or bumps in the road that customers may experience.  It’s also pretty cool to remember that Google uses their own apps to support their site…so Google Apps must be pretty reliable, wouldn’t you think?!
To add on to our earlier comment concerning “the technology of the future,” Google Apps for Education has also taken the important step in website design to make services available on mobile devices.
Now that we have given you a little background on Google Apps for Education, let’s take a look at Google Apps Marketplace.  Besides just offering tools for educators, the marketplace showcases apps for government, non-profits, and other organizations as well.  Google Apps Marketplace can picked through with keywords.  Searching “education” alone brings up 240 apps!  Here are a few examples we found interesting:

• Weespr: for online magazine and newsletter publishing (and it’s free for basic usage!)
• Free Gradebook and Lesson Plan software: pretty self-explanatory (and surely extremely useful for teachers)
• SlideRocket: in lieu of Microsoft Powerpoint
• OpenClass: for a different, more open way of teaching
• Digitcation E-Portfolio: just as it sounds, a way for students and teachers to upload and share work online
• ChemVantage: an app for the basic concepts of chemistry

…And the list goes on.

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