Social media provides many exciting, accessible and affordable communication tools for school PR veterans and newbies alike. Learn about these tools and some applicable strategies for your school district.

1. Social Media Tools for School PR
Texas School School Public Relations Conference
February 2009
bit.ly/SocialMedia4SchoolPR

2. Social Media is...
quot;...a social trend in which people use technologies to get
the things they need from each other, rather than from
traditional institutions.quot;
groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies
Put simply, social media is
people having online
conversations.
http://www.flickr.
com/photos/herculie/2370039001/

3. So it looks Create
Connect
like this: Collaborate
React
People
Organize
Consume (quickly)

4. People Creating
Blogs, user-generated content, videos, photos, podcasts, etc.
Listen by reading blogs that talk about your organization or
company
Talk by commenting
Use Google Blog Search & Technorati
Examples:
Blogs - tried to put them all here, but computer crashed,
but here's one of our favorites
Video - YouTube (TCU channel & MISD channel ),
Teacher Tube
Photos - Flickr, SmugMug (MISD) , etc.
Podcasts - iTunes section of podcasts

5. Blog

6. YouTube channel

7. Teacher Tube

8. MISD Smugmug

9. People Connecting
Social networking & virtual worlds
MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, Second Life, etc.
Join as individual to get comfortable
If appropriate, districts could set-up profile
Examples:
Microblogging - Twitter
Facebook - Ohio HiPoint Career Center
LinkedIn - Terry Morawski
Ning - PR Open Mic, MISD KEEPS
MySpace - Parkland Family Planning
Virtual Worlds - Second Life

12. Ning network

13. People Collaborating
Wikis & Open Source
Listen by reading what is being said about your school
district & campuses on Wikipedia
Internal uses of collaborating web-based applications -
Google Docs
Examples:
Wikis - Social Media Training, English/Language Arts
Open Source - Linux, Firefox
This presentation was created in Google Docs

14. Google Docs

16. People Reacting
Forums, Ratings, and Reviews
Very common social media tool
Great for retailers to get feedback
on products
Examples:
Amazon - Groundswell book
page
eBay - feedback on seller
bakedhippies
Wal-Mart -Patio Set
ratings/review

17. People Organizing
Tags
Social Bookmarking
PR Hint - go to delicious and see how and how many
people have bookmarked your school district
Examples: Digg, delicious, StumbleUpon, YouTube, Flickr,
reddit, and on most blogs

18. People Accelerating Consumption
RSS & Widgets (gadgets)
RSS = Really Simple Syndication, basically a tool that
brings you updates from blogs and other sites
Excellent communications/marketing tool to push content
Transmitter (RSS Feed) --> Receiver (RSS Reader)
Examples:
RSS Reader - Google Reader , My Yahoo!, Bloglines,
Pageflakes, many more
Widgets & Gadgets - Google news gadgets, ESPN
Widgets
MISD RSS Feed
Want to know more? RSS in Plain English

19. It's the People
quot;...concentrate on the relationships, not the technologiesquot;
page 18, groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies
Be sure you choose the
social media tools in
which your community
will participate rather
than focusing on the
newest and coolest.
photo by: geishaboy500

21. It's the People
the new communication model
is a dialogue
we should be talking with our
people not just at our people

22. which means it's...
transparent
inclusive
authentic
vibrant
sincere
community-driven
and it's NOT going to always be...
controlled
exclusive
manufactured
product-driven
quot;on messagequot;

23. What this means for you...
no such social media silver bullet to effective communication

24. What this means for you...
listen first before entering the conversation

25. Reading list
now is gone ~ geoff livingston with brian solis
groundswell ~ charlene li & josh bernoff
made to stick ~ chip & dan heath
naked conversations ~ robert scoble & shel israel
personality not included ~ rohit bhargava
the medici effect ~ frans johannson

26. contact
Richie Escovedo Terry Morawski
richie.escovedo [at] gmail.com terrymorawski [at] gmail.com
nextcommunications.blogspot.com tmosgarage.blogspot.com
Twitter: @vedo Twitter: @morate
linkedin.com/in/terrymorawski
LinkedIn
delicious.com/rescovedo delicious.com/morate
links
Social Media Training Workshop delicious links