Putting Social Media to Work for School PR

Leave Lazy Behind: Putting Social Media to Work Texas School Public Relations Association 2011 Annual Conference

Controlling the chaos?http://www.flickr.com/photos/darktechsystem/4980326704/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/classblog/5136926303/

If Social Media is simply people having online conversations...http://www.flickr.com/photos/herculie/2370039001/

...then public schooldistricts should beconversing via Social Media.

Consider this... Social media accounts for ~ 25% of all time spent online over 35 minutes per hour – Nielsen In the US, there are 149M active Facebook users, 70% log in once a day – Ogilvy & BuddyMedia 17% of US online consumers have created a Twitter account – ExactTarget 78.6% of consumers have joined a company’s community to get more information on the company – Universal McCann

So what does that have to dowith school PR?

Social Media integration is no longeroptional for PR pros Opportunity for positive community relations outweighs risks of unknown fears. It takes some professional courage to get it right. Two possible realities:1. You started using social media, but youre not quite sure if youre doing it right.2. Something is keeping you from using social media tools in your district communications.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrottyshang/1598030392/

Effective school communication is amoving target. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/25/40641610_33dbbab6d9.jpg

Social media should be part of theoverall school district communicationsstrategy with defined objectives. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedro/29327236/

Who do you want to reach? AudienceWhat do you want to accomplish? ObjectivesWhere can social media improve or supplementour programs, services, communications?StrategiesWhat’s our available budget/time? BarriersWhat opportunities to pilot? Tactics

How much time does it really take?http://www.flickr.com/photos/russmorris/407778776/

How much time does it really take? The short answer is, it depends on the day. 30 minutes of monitoring 10-15 minutes sharing content (Twitter, Facebook, Video, Photo galleries) 5-10 minutes of promoting 1-2 hours of writing or preparing new content (press releases, blog posts, etc.) Note: These times are flexible depending on the other needs of the day. Its still school PR.http://www.flickr.com/photos/russmorris/407778776/

Keep it simpleThink micro content for socialchannels. Micro content doesn’thave to be new content. Reuse, repurpose,remix, recycleGuiding principles of social media: Be human and be honest http://www.flickr. com/photos/handles/2748048479/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alamodestuff/4351730264/

School District Blogging Tell your good stories Introduce ideas and plans Invite writers from other areas Feature writing Official statements Feedback through comments Moderate comments Be interesting Use text, photos, and video Shortform vs Longform http://yourmansfieldisd.blogspot.com/

School District Blogging Blog as newsfeed Press release posts Reverse-chronological order Built-in archive RSS enabled Sample Blogger --> http://sdusd-news.blogspot.com

School District Blogging Wordpress --> http://kcsdblog.wordpress.com/

School District Blogging Posterous --> http://ddschools.posterous.com/

Tips for school districts on Facebook Make sure Facebook link is easy to find on website Post links plus photos/videos Have rules for moderation "Tag" Campuses and other Pages (including media) Use Facebook events; free and easy to encourage community to "Share" Ask/answer questions Reply to feedback as appropriate You dont have to respond to everything

Tips for school districts on Facebook Teach your Fans to tag your districts Page. Using the “tag” (the @ symbol), they can tag the district’s Facebook Page in their own status that goes out to their friends. Shows active community on the districts Page Wall (Only useful if youve opened up your Page Wall for community comments.)

Tips for school districts on FacebookGet into the Facebook feed: Getting people to "like" orcomment on your Facebook content improves the chancesthat more people will see it in their feed, an algorithmreferred to as “EdgeRank.” Those who use social media to only push out their schooldistricts messages miss the opportunity to have an engagingconversation with their online community.

Facebook Impressions and Feedback Impressions: How many times a specific post was displayed within news feeds. Feedback: The percent of fans “like” or comment on a specific post. If you want to know how good your stuff is, then focus on “Feedback.”

Install Facebook"Like" box on yourwebsite or blogGet a unique orvanity FacebookURL addressAdd URL to printcollateralAdd URL to e-mailsignatures

For school districts, Twitter can be... a cost-effective (free) option to accentuate existing messages; a broadcasting tool to announce relevant information to specific audiences; and a (brief) conversational tool to appropriately respond to relevant inquiries and follow-up questions or comments.

Putting Twitter to work Broadcast vs. conversationalist Twitter as pages Twitter as media pitches Tweets for on-the-go posting Backchannel for PR Pros Engaging the media #Hashtags School districts tweeting once per week or less do not provide enough value in the medium and quickly become obsolete.

Twitter as webpages

Twitter as pitches

Twitter easy on-the-go: Embeddable Event Pics

Putting Twitter to work When and how to respond Have a personality and be human Red Cross and #gettngslizzerd http://plixi.com/p/77743134

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharynmorrow/18753251/

Use video to tell your story Video content should be a key component of your social strategy. Some find communicating through video easier than feature writing or long blog posts. Most would rather watch a video than read. Many options, but stick with YouTube or Vimeo. Both free with easily embeddable videos for blogs/websites and can be shared on Facebook. If possible, try to keep videos short (3-5 minutes) Remember to repurpose, share across multiple channelshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/sharynmorrow/18753251/

Example

Photo Galleries Campus news/events pics SmugMug, Flickr, Facebook, etc. Community/parent submitted pics Embeddable slideshows Easily shared/linked Useful when theres no time to fully cover an event with article Parents enjoy seeing their kids

Documents Beyond saving/storing files on your district site Social publishing tools enable sharing/embedding What could tools like these replace or augment for your school district? Slideshare - the YouTube for presentations Scribed - shared writings and documents

Emded and share Document stats Simple solutionhttp://www.scribd.com/C-FBISD

School District news-gathering viaGoogle Docs Form<-- Heres what they see...

School District news-gathering viaGoogle Docs Forms<-- Heres what you get

Press Releases and Newsrooms 64% of journalists think access to newsrooms should be made available to everyone 98% stressed the importance of having a PR contact listed 60% expect newsrooms to be searchable with an easily accessible archiving system 90% said breaking news should be available on the newsroom, especially in a crisis situation Multi-media digital assets used by 60% of the traditional journalists (7% increase from 2010) 77% expect social media sites positioned within newsroom TEKgroup/Bulldog Reporter 2011 Online Newsroom Survey

Press Releases and Newsrooms Turn your traditional releases in social releases Include shareable content (links, images, video, audio) Using Word Docs or PDFs for pitches wastes time Since journalists rely on e-mail as the preferred method of news pitches, dont make them download docs Write things youd want to read Think hybrid approach for releases; focus on direct community outreach and journalist use Have enough info available for anyone reading A district news blog could be a good/simple solution

Monitoring That’s just a wall, Gary. http://www.themonkeysyouordered.com/post/1061277890/may-15th-2007

Listening Tools Google Reader Google Alerts/News/Blog Search/Analyitcs Facebook Search Search.Twitter.com Tweetdeck Bit.ly (shorteners & stats) IceRocket real-time search

Once you start using social media Follow through and use the tools. You don’t have to use every tool. Avoid the shiny-object syndrome. Tailor your social strategy to fit your objectives. You need to have a thick skin. Not always going to be nice and friendly. Anticipate challenges. Have a plan in place to deal with detractors Above all, foster a positive community experience. Keep learning and exploring...

Taking some next steps Mobile applications (iPhone, Android, etc.) Location-based tools like Foursquare & Gowalla Social media monitoring & sentiment analysis QR Codes (Quick Response) you could get creative with this technology

Sources & Additional Resourceshttp://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/21-ways-non-profits-can-leverage-social-media/http://jeffesposito.com/2011/02/14/social-media-facts-share-executives/http://jasonkintzler.com/5-ways-to-kill-the-press-releasehttp://www.johnhaydon.com/2010/11/facebook-offers-deeper-analytics-pages-10000-fans/http://mackcollier.com/red-cross-social-media-crisis-situation/http://www.liveworld.com/socialvoice/2011/02/11/new-facebook-pages-5-changes/http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2010/11/getting-in-flow-chart-of-social-media.htmlhttp://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2010/08/facebook-for-school-districts-set-up.htmlhttp://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-writing-ideas-and-tips-for-school.htmlhttp://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2009/10/facebook-fan-page-rules-for-school.htmlhttp://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2010/12/school-boards-twitter-and-media-machine.htmlhttp://www.tspra.org/news-a-reports/tspra-blog/2010/06/22/can-checking-in-to-foursquare-help-parental-involvement/http://www.slideshare.net/kanter/watech4good-summithttp://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/02/10/page-redesign-2011-guide/http://geofflivingston.com/2011/01/27/96-free-professional-blog-topics/http://www.connectsafely.org/pdfs/fbparents.pdfhttp://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/best-social-pr-guides-tips-and-tools-of-2010/http://socialmediatoday.com/heatherwhaling/258483/10-press-release-alternatives Dont worry if you missed anything. This presentation can be found on slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/rescovedo

ContactRichie EscovedoE-mail: richie.escovedo@gmail.comTwitter: http://twitter.com/vedoBlog: http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rescovedo

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Putting Social Media to Work for School PR

by Richie Escovedo on Feb 24, 2011

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Putting Social Media to Work for School PR — Presentation Transcript