Where the Rubber Meets the Road:Turn Leadership Communications

Goals Into Reality

Creating a more effective communication strategy by

doing what Will told me to do

When you come to a session like this, there is a tendency for speakers to create

from the many leadership teams I’ve either been on, or witnessed in the

Who in this room is responsible for your school’s message?

Show of hands:How many of you would consider yourself “in charge” of your school’s communication strategy? If it isn’t you, do you know who at your school is in charge of that plan?

And, of you, how many of you would call the work that you do every day based on an actual communication’s plan? One that your leadership team agree’s on?

This confusion is why schools can be ineff

THE ERA OF THE PERFECT DESIGN/IMAGE/NAVIGATION:

How we are sweeter yet smarter?Competitive but not arrogant?

School’s understood that people were going to the web, so they put

Schools put more content up, but they didn’t necessarily change the

The WOW is now in the User Experience

Present me relevant content about my kid (or class or team or volunteer experience)

and I’ll keep coming back for more

Rocket Science, right?

Is that what you do now?

How do we get there?

Is your school organized to take advantage of this?

What matters to the school?

EVery school has something different that they are trying to get across at diff

Sustainability

eff

SustainabilityRetentionFundraising

Educated Community

That is seen in core metrics of “buy-in”; RetentionFundraising- All members of your community Giving their hard earned cash to your worthy causeEducated Community- Your school’s universe should know what your school is all about today

How do we show our key audiences who we are, how we are different?How do we translate the enthusiasm of our best people - our teachers, our students, our parents, our board members - out to the rest of the world?How do we show current parents that we are worth coming back for again and again?How do we educate prospective parents that we are making their kids better than the free public school down the road?

How do we do this?

“Duh” goal # 1:Must have high log in

rates

ffice knows retention ratesffice knows how much you are raising

So where do you start your school’s story?

Think of a really good book, blog or magazine article you read,

Why was it good?

It had a good story arc, it made a particular good point that resonated with you, or it was really funny, or it was something that made you say “ man, I’m going to do that so I can change my life for the better”

ffective

Parents

Students

Alumni/ae

Teachers

Admission

Learning Management System X

Student Information System Y

Content Management System Z

Im a visual learner. LEt me show you what I think your current situation is. And how WhippleHill would approach it.

Answering that question from your parents perspective is way you must reframe your The answer to that

o Showing the sense of community.

Step 1 for Leadership Team:

Get on the same &%$*! page about your school’s story.

If you were to get your head of school, director of admission, Director of admission, and director of development in 3 separate rooms and ask

“what is it that all people need to know about our institution?”

“Tell us your plan for getting that word out”

Would they have 1 or 6 different answers?

Agree on your message

We are the best independent school in area code 02134 because we’re good enough, we’re smart enough

The power of “Duh”

Do your Navel Gazing

It is important that you agree, but don’t create a big process where

What content is relevant?

What do we need to tell the world about?

Why you should give us money?Why students should love us

Give them what they want consistently

Prospective Families

in here?

Is it worth it?

Do I like you?

Can I get involved?

Can I apply?

Current Families

Where is my child’s:homeworkteachers thoughts directoryschedulepick-up timepermission slipsoccer practiceattendance

Teachers/Coaches

Where can I:HomeworkBlogTestsVideoScoresShare info Find InfoMessage others

VolunteersWhere is my:

FriendsInfo you were going to send mePrivileged info from the Head? Way to talk to other volunteers

Agree on objective(s)

raise 1 million dollars ?Attract a different kind of student?More awareness of our IB programs?

What is the type of story that tells this?

Ok, now that you know what you want to get

across to your communities...

You need to agree that your communication strategy isn’t

about you.

Development Office: We need to tell people why we need their moneyAdmission Office: We need to tell families that we are better, cooler,

Implementation:

How do we tell that story?

How often?

To Who?

Who is responsible for creating that content?

Who’s arse is on the line if we don’t succeed?

To be eff

How do we take these very over used words and turn them into something that feels real?

Here is who needs to own the answers:

Who are we? How do we tell that story?

How often?

To Who? community group- parents, prospectives, alums, internal

Who is responsible?

I spoke with Carol DeMeli- who heads up our support group and whose team talks to many of the contacts at your school and I asked her if you could wave a magic wand and make school’s smarter what would you

school empower their communications folks to

Here is who should own what:

Good Advice

Give the “do-ers” the authority to