how to leverage social media for education

Facebook, Twitter & more: Hoo boy!

Communicating ina networked world

JD Lasica Founder, Socialbrite.org jd@socialbrite.org California State PTA 5/11/12

What we’ll cover todayLay the foundationFacebook tactics Twitter tacticsOther platformsStorytellingUse your communityQ&AHugs, tearful goodbyes

http://socialbrite.org/pta

Relax!

Creative Commons BY photo on Flickr by Tom@HK

Tweet this preso! Hashtag: #CAPTA12(Thank you Brad Waller.) I’m @jdlasica

Creative Commons photo on Flickrby Prakhar

Today’s Twitter hashtag

10 color handouts—be happy!http://socialbrite.org/pta

Socialbrite Sharing Centerhttp://socialbrite.org/sharing-center

Glossary for new termshttp://socialbrite.org/glossary Social media:

Any online technology or practice that lets us share (content, opinions, insights, experiences, media)

and have a conversation about the ideas we care about.

”“

BlogsSocial networksMicroblogs (Twitter)Online video Curation (Pinterest)WidgetsPhoto sharing PodcastsVirtual worldsWikisSocial bookmarkingForumsPresentation sharing

Types of social media T H E E C O S Y S T E M

77% of online US adults use social media on regular basis.

150 million active blogs; 1 million blog posts created per day

Social sites embedded atop traffic rankings: YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, VEVO, Craigslist, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp

Twitter: 100+ million active users, 250 million tweets per day

Flickr: 35 million people, 4 billion+ photos

YouTube: 3 billion videos watched per day

8 trillion text messages sent in 2011

Staggering growth

Communications among members of the PTA family have undergone a major revolution. PTA leaders, members, and others interested in education and child welfare can connect and mobilize through online social media.

Put social media to work N A T I O N A L P T A

1. Enhance educational experience at your school2. Promote your PTA, school or school district3. Involve the community in decision-making4. Feedback loop with community5. Enlist volunteers 6. Build online community of supporters7. Raise funds for a cause or campaign8. Get people to attend your events9. Enhance existing communications programs 10.Connect with peers at other PTAs

Why use social media?

Before you plunge in ...

Understand that social media is a series of stagesDo you have buy-in from top management? Do you have a social media policy that addresses privacy?Do you have a Social Media Action Plan in place?Are you listening to your community?Have you built a program before you turn to a campaign?Have you identified and trained your team members? Do they have the capacity to keep it up?Have you done outreach to head teachers/influencers?

L A Y T H E G R O U N D W O R K

Start with an Action PlanSpell out goals: What do you want to achieve?

Who are you trying to reach?

What are the best tools for the job?

Who’s going to do it?

Metrics: How do you know if it’s working?

What are those other guys doing?

Possible channels for your plan L A Y T H E G R O U N D W O R K

Newsletter (print, online), email updatesWebsiteBlogFacebookTwitterYouTube, live streamingCalendar of eventsCampaigns (legislative, fundraising)Curation: Storify, Scoop.it, CoverItLive

Set up a listening post (monitoring dashboard) to track what’s being said about your organization. Listen before engaging. Engage before an Ask.Supplement with a social media dashboard.

Monitoring resources: socialbrite.org/pta

Create a listening post

Pace yourself, don’t stress!

roundup:http://bit.ly/smdash

HootSuite

Tweetdeck

Salsa

Netvibes

ThinkUp

Crowdbooster

S O C I A L M E D I A D A S H B O A R D S

Spredfast

900 million members worldwide — 76% of US Internet users are on Facebook

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300

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TodayFacebook’s global growth rate, 2004-2012, in millions

Facebook: The social network F A C E B O O K

Why do Facebook?Remind parents of upcoming events.

Answer questions from parents & public.

Solicit feedback on events & programs.

Build community among parents.

Enlist volunteers.

Mobilize parents on legislative issues.

Educate parents on how the PTA benefits the school.

Discuss news & important issues. Tons of public education officials are on Facebook & Twitter.

Setting up a Facebook pageAssign responsibilities, share tasks, appoint adminsFind some good photos of your school or students for the cover imageUse school logo as your profile picFill in profile info, including links to school websiteCreate a friendly url: facebook.com/LincolnElementaryPTAGet traction before you publicizeCross-promote in other channels Monitor updates, comments on your pageUse Facebook Insights to recalibrate, set up auto-email

Get into those news feeds!Facebook rewards conversation, punishes ‘bullhorn updates’

http://bit.ly/edgerank-checker

Use a cover image K E Y S T O S U C C E S S O N F A C E B O O K

Don’t do this:

Rotate your Timeline

Try to foster engagement

Add photos to your posts

How to succeed on FacebookUpdate 1 to 2 times a day, more during events.Be interesting. Use photos & video.Share posts you spot elsewhere.Answer or Like all comments. Ask questions, stoke conversations.Create Events pages, invite people.Rotate your Timeline.Post polls.Be civil. Almost never delete negative posts.Cross-promote your Facebook Page in other channels/sites. Link to your blog, videos, Flickr pages.

Aligned, integrated, strategicInclude social media logos on your PTA website

Public figure pages

Conversation, not marketing

Give your content a social life

Highlight student news H I K I N O

Identify your Twitter teamName the account the school name + PTA but keep it short

Make your Twitter profile keyword rich, include a link to your Facebook page

Use the school logo as the profile image For gosh sake, use a unique background imageFor gosh sake, don’t make it privateFind parents or staffers who use Twitter & follow them. Brand your newsletters, emails, flyers with your Twitter url

Getting set up on Twitter T W I T T E R

Staff should be trained on how to use Twitter.Not a broadcasting medium. Start by listening & observing.Be conversational, not officious. Tweet several times a day.Use it to solicit ideas, show support for students, announce events, mobilize action, educate public & students about current events, point to articles, identify experts.#1 traffic driver: retweets. Use ‘Please RT’ strategically.Tweets with a URL are 3x more likely to be retweeted.Twitter drives 4%+ of traffic to NY Times, 12% to AOL, Yahoo.

Make Twitter work for you T W I T T E R

See how other PTAs use Twitter

JD’s 60-30-10 Twitter rule60% retweets, pointing to value, sharing other voices

30% responding, connecting

10% promoting, announcing

http://search.twitter.com

Prospecting on Twitter

Twitter Advanced Search

Search by location

Tweeting about PTA in LA

Pinterest C U R A T I O N T O O L S

Scoop.it C U R A T I O N T O O L S

Get found in Google search. Integrate keywords into your organization profile.

Recruit staff or board members.

Host fundraising events.

Create community vibrancy.

Generate viral awareness.

Find connections & expert advice through Groups.

LinkedIn for nonprofits L I N K E D I N

http://learn.linkedin.com/nonprofits/

C O N T E N T & C O N V E R S A T I O N

The power of storytelling

Cave drawing, Lascaux, France, 17,000 years ago

Awareness > Influence > Action > Impact

Don’t look now but you’re a content creator! Using Animoto

Create lightweight media S T O R Y T E L L I N G

Find your internal storytellersList staffers’ skillsWho’s good at photos?Video?Writing?Facebook or Twitter?Create a Blog SquadWho’s good at campaigns?Open your blog to guest posts

Don’t be like this guy!

Creative Commons photo on Flickr byJason Means

Don’t do all the heavy lifting! U S E Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y

here’s an amazing difference between building an audience and building a community. An audience will watch you fall on a

sword. A community will fall on a sword for you.

— Chris BroganAuthor, “Trust Agents”

Build community, not eyeballs

Find your champions!

Find the big kahunas in your sector by using your listening post. Then, influence the influencers.Establish a rapport and only then reach out to try to convert them into evangelists & ambassadors for your cause.Scope out Twitter Lists that intersect with your organization or social cause.Connect with other social media influencers through their blogs and other networks.

Generate an Attention Wave to socialize your campaign

Use social love handles!

WordPress & its plug-insOpen Office, Google docsDrupal, Joomla

Free content! Free resources!

Free services!

Free photos Free videos (eg, TED talks)Free music & audio

Socialbrite.org/sharing-centerCreativecommons.orgTechsoup

Free expertise!BarCampPodCampWordCampSocial Media ClubFree software & platforms!

Google GrantsYouTube for NonprofitsGoogle Earth for Nonprofits

The awesome power of free

Creativecommons.orgRich source of free commercial & noncommercial images

Flickr: 220+ million licenses

Use them for your blog, website, email or print newsletter, presentations, etc.

Don’t just take. Share!

flickr.com/creativecommons

Streaming video tools: Livestream.com, Ustream.tv and Qik.com.

Video + chat = engagement

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, student journalism channel.

Community video L I V E S T R E A M I N G

Text 'jdlasica' to 50500

Create your own at http://contxts.com

Create a mobile calling card M O B I L E

Is your site mobile-ready?WPtouch Pro for mobile phones, Onswipe for iPad

Integrate social into the cultureCreate teams of participants.

Knock down the silos.

Get people using the tools. Use ‘reverse mentoring.’

Share monthly metrics reports.

Provide evidence of how social media moved the needle.

Shine a light on examples of employees doing social media well — reward best practices.

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Convert the skeptics

Begin with an aligned strategy, not with the tools.

Listen & measure! Evaluate, iterate, relaunch.

Tell stories!

Use your community — your biggest resource: your supporters!

Key takeaways

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you

are heading.

— Lao Tse

Don’t settle for the status quo

JD Lasica, founderSocialbrite: Social tools for social changeemail: jd@socialbrite.orgTwitter: @jdlasica @socialbrite

Thank you!

Tons of resources athttp://socialbrite.org/pta