March 12, 2009

Using Social Media to Build Community Support

for School Initiatives

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Is Your School District Social Media Savvy?

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Social Media Today

Internet = information hub where people increasingly spend their time learning, socializing, and entertaining

Stats 684 million visitors to Wikipedia last year 100 million videos viewed on YouTube per day 175 million Facebook users; fastest growing

demographic is 30 years and older 11% of online Americans; median age of Twitter user

is 31

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Social Media Today

Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008 50% of Internet users in U.S. read blogs 12% of Internet users in U.S. have a blog 900,000 blog posts/24 hours

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It’s Safe to Say…

School stakeholders are already communicating online through various Web 2.0 tools

Your district and its faculty and staff are being mentioned in online conversations

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Why Should Your District Pay Attention to Social Media? Changing media landscape

Print publications are disappearing and news staff shrinking

Movement to online publications; increased e-mail newsletters and RSS feeds

95% of top U.S. newspapers have reporter blogs

Economic Downturn Need community support now more than

ever as budgets shrink

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Why Should Your District Pay Attention to Social Media?

Engage your audiences where they live, work, play Businesses, government official and political leaders, 30 yrs.

+ affluent adults using social media

Credibility and trust Social media allows for more authentic, two-way

communications; opportunity to be open and transparent

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Building Community Support Establish communications/PR goals for your

district and initiative Define target audiences, determine the

communication channels to reach each audience and with which messages/news

Devise plan that includes tactics/activities to accomplish goals, timeline, and measures of success

Social media strategy and tools should be a part of the overall communications mix

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Social Media Plan in Action Listen and learn Participate Engage

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Step 1: Listen and Learn

Listen to online conversations to learn about your audiences

Monitor what is being said about your district and staff to: Learn about the community’s view of the

district, its leaders and more to reinforce positive messages and correct misperceptions

Inform decisions about policies and programs

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Monitor Online Conversations Search for important district terms

District name Key personnel such as superintendent and principals Initiative name Hot topics or trends

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Tools You Can Use to Monitor

Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts Technorati www.technorati.com Filtrbox www.filtrbox.com Bloglines Blinkx www.blinkx.com Twitter Search www.search.twitter.com

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Measure Online Conversations

Quantify conversations; record Number of mentions Positive, neutral, negative tone Type of medium (blog, microblog, online news site) Audience reach (e.g., no. of blog visitors/subscribers)

Track results over time Analyze

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Step 2: Participate

Read others’ blogs and post thoughtful, respectful comments

Share district photos, videos, and events on sites such as TeacherTube, YouTube, Flickr, and Zevents

Join online social networks such as Classroom 2.0, PBS Teachers Connect (client)

Provide a dynamic online newsroom with multimedia

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Multimedia News Release Online newsrooms are increasingly used by the media

as well as the public Incorporate keywords in news announcements to

boost search engine visibility (Google Keyword Tool) News releases should contain more than just text

Audio Video Links to supporting info such as documents, presentations,

research, and reports Downloadable photos and graphics Sample: http://www.cblohm.com/news/PBSTCH/PBST_090122/

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Step 3: Engage

Establish ways to lead online discussions about your district and initiative and key education topics

Involve community members, parents and others by asking for their feedback, advice and ideas

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Examples

Build an online social network (e.g., Ning, EdWeb) or create an organizational profile on popular services like Facebook

Share news and updates on Twitter Carefully plan and start a district blog

Author(s) Frequency Topic(s) covered Intended audience(s)

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Rules of Engagement

Conduct yourself online as you would in real-life social situations with your peers, employer, etc.

Once you post something, it lives online forever - even if you delete it

Online conversations should have “human,” authentic voice; avoid sounding like a robot

Post regularly and respond in a timely manner Moderate - take down inappropriate comments on

blog, network, etc. and guide discussion to stay on-topic

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Tools You Can Use to Create Content and Engage Audiences Blogs

www.Wordpress.com www.Blogger.com www.Typepad.com

Microblogs www.twitter.com www.plurk.com

Online social networks www.ning.com www.edweb.net www.facebook.com www.myspace.com

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Tools You Can Use Cont’d

Video Sharing/Streaming Sites www.youtube.com www.teachertube.com www.schooltube.com www.ustream.com

Social bookmarking sites www.delicious.com www.digg.com www.diigo.com

Events www.eventful.com www.zevents.com

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Tools You Can Use Cont’d

Wikis and online collaboration tools www.wikispaces.com www.pbwiki.com http://docs.google.com

Virtual Worlds www.secondlife.com

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Districts Using Social Media

Podcasts/Videocasts - Williamson County Schools, Nashville, Tenn. http://www.wcs.edu/podcasting/

Twitter - Broward County Public Schools, Broward County, Fla. http://twitter.com/browardschools Started March 2 and already has 223 followers

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Districts Using Social Media

Plainfield Public Schools blog

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Districts Using Social Media

Weld County District 6, Greeley, Colo. Special panel brings together

all stakeholders to address ways to improve schools

Online videos on TeacherTube Special Web page and blog

devoted to initiative

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Districts Using Social Media

Saline Area Schools Several blogs District Ning (148

members so far) Monthly poll on Web

site (e.g., How do you feel about the amount homework your child has weekly?)

Dynamic Web site with audio and video; regular updates; options to e-mail, print news

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Social Media Wheel

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Be Social Media Savvy

Learn and understand the uses of social media tools

Find out what tools your audiences use and what are they communicating online

Develop a social media strategy that aligns with district goals

Get started!

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For More Information

C. Blohm & Associates www.cblohm.com Charlene Blohm, President

Phone: 608-839-9800 E-mail: charlene@cblohm.com Twitter: @CharleneBlohm LinkedIn: cblohm