This presentation was given at the 2011 Texas School Public Relations Association Conference. The purpose of this session is to give school PR people some strategies and tips beyond just simply having a Facebook Page or Twitter profile. Leave lazy work behind and put social media tools to work

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

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

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

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

5. ...then public school
districts should be
conversing via Social Media.

6. Why?

7. 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

8. So what does that have to do
with school PR?

9. Social Media integration is no longer
optional 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 you're not quite
sure if you're doing it right.
2. Something is keeping you from using social media
tools in your district communications.

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

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

12. Social media should be part of the
overall school district communications
strategy with defined objectives.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedro/29327236/

13. Who do you want to reach? Audience
What do you want to accomplish? Objectives
Where can social media improve or supplement
our programs, services, communications?
Strategies
What’s our available budget/time? Barriers
What opportunities to pilot? Tactics

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

15. 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. It's still school PR.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/russmorris/407778776/

16. Keep it simple
Think micro content for social
channels. Micro content doesn’t
have to be new content.
Reuse, repurpose,
remix, recycle
Guiding principles of social media:
Be human and be honest
http://www.flickr.
com/photos/handles/2748048479/

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

18. 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/

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

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

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

23. 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 don't have to respond to everything

24. Tips for school districts on Facebook
Teach your Fans to tag your district's 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 district's Page Wall
(Only useful if you've opened up your
Page Wall for community comments.)

25. Tips for school districts on Facebook
Get into the Facebook feed: Getting people to "like" or
comment on your Facebook content improves the chances
that more people will see it in their feed, an algorithm
referred to as “EdgeRank.”
Those who use social media to only push out their school
district's messages miss the opportunity to have an engaging
conversation with their online community.

26. 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.”

27. Install Facebook
"Like" box on your
website or blog
Get a unique or
vanity Facebook
URL address
Add URL to print
collateral
Add URL to e-mail
signatures

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. Twitter as webpages

31. Twitter as pitches

32. Twitter easy on-
the-go:
Embeddable
Event Pics

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

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

35. 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
channels
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharynmorrow/18753251/

36. Example

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

38. 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

39. Emded and share
Document stats
Simple solution
http://www.scribd.com/C-FBISD

40. School District news-gathering via
Google Docs Form
<-- Here's what they see...

41. School District news-gathering via
Google Docs Forms
<-- Here's what you get

42. 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

43. 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, don't make them download docs
Write things you'd 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

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

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

46. 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...

47. 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

48. Sources & Additional Resources
http://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-release
http://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.html
http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2010/08/facebook-for-school-districts-set-up.html
http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-writing-ideas-and-tips-for-school.html
http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2009/10/facebook-fan-page-rules-for-school.html
http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/2010/12/school-boards-twitter-and-media-machine.html
http://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-summit
http://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.pdf
http://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/best-social-pr-guides-tips-and-tools-of-2010/
http://socialmediatoday.com/heatherwhaling/258483/10-press-release-alternatives
Don't worry if you missed anything.
This presentation can be found on slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/rescovedo

49. Contact
Richie Escovedo
E-mail: richie.escovedo@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/vedo
Blog: http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rescovedo