Presentation to teachers and administrators at the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools conference 2015

1. How to use Social Media
in Christian Schools?
Practical applications
By John Roland, MDiv
Regional VP Dennis Baumann
Smart Tuition
Twitter: @jaroland74 and @baumann_dennis
Email: jroland@smarttuition.com
Email: dbaumann@smarttuition.com

2. Social Media Benefits . . .
Four main benefits:
• communication
• collaboration
• community
• collective intelligence opportunities
John Roland, @jaroland74

3. Social Media Revolution 2015
• https://youtu.be/jottDMuLesU

4. John Roland, @jaroland74

5. • Social Media (SM) and the Donut Factor---We can define social
media in terms of donuts, but think of SM more like an appetizer
or dessert in your marketing mix. It’s certainly NOT the main
entrée and won’t fill you up … yet.
John Roland, @jaroland74

6. “We don’t need social media.”
• You may be ignoring social media, but it’s not ignoring you.
• Ignore Social Media at Your Own Risk.
• Churches, Ministries, and the entire community are active
in social media.
• They engage in peer discussion.
• If you don’t engage with them, the conversation continues.
• But, it goes on without you.
John Roland, @jaroland74

7. John Roland, @jaroland74

8. 2014 Pew Research Survey
• The results in this report are based on American
adults who use the internet. Other key findings:
• Multi-platform use is on the rise: 52% of online
adults now use two or more social media sites, a
significant increase from 2013, when it stood at 42%
of internet users.
• For the first time, more than half of all online
adults 65 and older (56%) use Facebook. This
represents 31% of all seniors.
• http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/social-media-update-2014/#socialmedia
John Roland, @jaroland74

9. How does Social Media relate
to ministry?
• Social media is ALL about the
SOCIAL in the Social Media.
• Media will change, SOCIAL will not. It is ALL about
people. It is a tool to CONNECT to people.
• Sound familiar?
• Are you good at Pastoral Ministry? Social media is for
you!
John Roland, @jaroland74

10. Why Social Media? Think Dale Carnegie
• 1. AROUSE IN THE OTHER PERSON AN EAGER WANT (establish a
problem solver brand)
• 2. BECOME GENUINELY INTERESTED IN OTHER PEOPLE.
• 3. GIVE HONEST, SINCERE APPRECIATION
• 4. BE A GOOD LISTENER. ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO TALK ABOUT
THEMSELVES
• 5. TALK IN TERMS OF THE OTHER PERSON’S INTERESTS
• 6. REMEMBER THAT A PERSON’S NAME IS TO THAT PERSON THE
SWEETEST AND MOST IMPORTANT SOUND IN ANY LANGUAGE
• 7. SMILE (present yourself in a pleasant, happy way)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/significantly-improve-your-online-marketing-applying-seven-graham?trk=object-title

11. Social media is a super tool!
John Roland, @jaroland74

12. Social media can be
misunderstood
John Roland, @jaroland74
• https://youtu.be/lJ0yD-9CDwI

13. Cannot fool all the people . . .
• In the 15 years since Bill Clinton sat in the Oval Office, the Internet overwhelmed
the media "gatekeepers"—the few dozen priestly reporters and editors who
determined what news, opinion, and gossip the public would hear about.
• Today, there are 300 million people equipped to do their own reporting, writing,
and publishing. You can't keep the truth from them. You can't bully them all or
fool them all.
• That is why transparency, authenticity, and accountability are sacred attributes
of any modern leader. Whether you're running a church, a business, or a political
party, leadership is now a lying-free zone.
• http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/hillary-clinton-a-pay-phone-candidate-in-an-iphone-world-
20150310

14. Watch Out, Pastors: Millennials Are Fact-
Checking Your Sermons
• The one-way communication from pulpit to pew is not how Millennials experience
faith.
• By nature of digital connectedness, Millennial life is interactive.
• For many of them, faith is interactive as well—whether their churches are ready
for it or not.
• It's an ongoing conversation, and it's all happening on their computers, tablets
and smart phones.
• What's more, many of them bring their devices with them to church.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/october/watch-out-pastors-millennials-are-fact-checking-your-
sermon.html?paging=off

15. Top 4 Ways Millennials are integrating
technology & faith by Barna
https://www.barna.org/barna-update/millennials/640-how-technology-is-changing-millennial-faith#.VQ4rKY7F9yy

16. Watch Out, Pastors: Millennials Are Fact-
Checking Your Sermons
John Roland, @jaroland74

17. One-in-Five Americans Share
Their Faith Online
http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/06/religion-and-electronic-media/#electronic-forms-of-religious-engagement

18. http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/08/05/72-of-online-adults-are-social-networking-site-users/

19. Who are your followers??
• To truly take advantage of the benefits, we need to
know who is in our network or “tribe.”
• Seth Godin defines a tribe as “a group of people
connected to one another, connected to a leader,
and connected to an idea. For millions of years,
human beings have been part of one tribe or another.
A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared
interest and a way to communicate.”
John Roland, @jaroland74

20. What do you want to POST?
•P: People (Who do you want to reach?)
•O: Objective (What do you want them to
do?)
•S: Strategy (How to do it?)
•T: Technology (Implementing
Technology)
John Roland, @jaroland74

21. Pick 5 Social Media channels and stick
with them.
John Roland, @jaroland74

22. Facebook is still King! Even $5
ad can go a long way!
John Roland, @jaroland74

23. Top 5 best-performing
Facebook posts for schools
• 1. New principal selfie
• 2. Video to support an ill student
• 3. #ThrowbackThursday—old pictures
• 4. Elementary homecoming tunnel—
engaging with high schoolers
• 5. Special announcement
John Roland, @jaroland74

24. Twitter is a great
communication tool
John Roland, @jaroland74

25. Twitter is a great tool in a crisis
John Roland, @jaroland74

26. Twitter Chats for Teachers
John Roland, @jaroland74
• Chat groups form around a specific topic of
interest and meet regularly through
Twitter.
• Each group is defined by a specific hashtag,
the symbol #.

27. Twitter Chats for Teachers
John Roland, @jaroland74
• To join a group, simply type in the group
hashtag which allows you to follow the posts
and contribute to the conversation.
• To contribute, simply post each tweet
followed by the hashtag – now your tweets
appear in the running feed for the group.

28. Twitter Chats for Teachers
John Roland, @jaroland74
• Grade Level Chat Groups: For instance,
#kinderchat, #1stchat, #2ndchat, and #
• Content area chat: #mathchat, #sschat, #alg1chat,
#scichat, and #pechat.
• State & Country Groups: #wischat, #iachat,
#edchatri, #INelearn, #ohedchat, and #njed.
• Administrator & Leadership Groups: Check out
#edleadchat, #21stadmin, #edleaders, #cpchat, and
#satchat to connect with lots of great leaders.

29. Twitter Chats for Teachers
John Roland, @jaroland74

30. Google Hangouts
John Roland, @jaroland74

31. Google Hangouts
John Roland, @jaroland74

32. Comments on Google Hangouts
• FREE—just need a webcam and a gmail account.
• Interview subject matter experts to provide a
value add to your parents and prospects.
• Framing your school as experts in education,
parenting, Christian faith, etc.
• Focus on authenticity rather than flashy
videography.
• Posts on YouTube channel automatically.

33. Comments on Google Hangouts
• 1. Inviting Expert Guests to Speak to
students who live elsewhere.
• 2. Broadcast or Archive Live Faculty
meetings or Parent meetings.
• 3. Converse digitally in groups or one-to-
one: Up to 10 on a screen.
• 4. Virtual Office Hours. Talk with staff from
home by video.

34. Mobilize Parent Ambassadors
John Roland, @jaroland74

35. Mobilize Parent Ambassadors
• Parents are often overlooked as brand ambassadors,
an ideal role when word-of-mouth is important to your
enrollment numbers and overall image.
• Empower parents to write recommendations for your
school.
• As they like, comment, and forward your posts, they
are expanding your reach exponentially.
• Encourage all your parents at parent meetings (“pull
out your phones”) to “like” your page.

36. Mobilize Parent Ambassadors
• Make heroes out of parents. You then co-brand with
them and engage their contacts (potential parents).
• Interview your professional parents for value adds to
the school and highlight the quality of families you
attract to your school.
• Make 30 second video endorsements of your school
from past and present parents of WHY they chose your
school. You only need an iphone.

38. Engage your local ecosystem
• Highlight your local partners on social media.
• You can co-brand with popular partners and engage
with their followers.
• Highlight the police, fire department, municipal
sports, local heroes.
• Promote community events and be seen as an active
partner to your fellow community leaders. Seek for
them to reciprocate with referrals to your school.

39. • Tremendous opportunity to network with
your parents.
• Endorse people, recommend them in their
areas of excellence.
• Wonderful tool to connect and support
people where they are.
John Roland, @jaroland74

40. Listen to the voices . . .
• What is being said about you in Social Media?
• Set up Google Alerts that notifies you when someone
mentions you on the internet.
• Set up a listening station. Great example on how to do it:
www.zephyrmarketing.net
• Social Mention* searches across multiple channels for
mentions of you or your ministry in real time
John Roland, @jaroland74

41. Tools to manage Social Media
• Hootsuite.com
• Buffer.com
• Both FREE sites allow you to schedule
your posts and bring some balance to
your social media activities!

42. How school administrators use
social media?
• Thank teachers & staff by name using their Twitter
account handle. Make heroes out of them.
• Encourage by endorsing and recommending parents
and volunteers on LinkedIn.
• Include as many pictures & videos (with permission) of
people and volunteers in your posts as possible.
• Create authentic online connections (Google
Hangouts) to thought leaders.

43. How staff use social media?

44. Future of
Social Media?
John Roland, @jaroland74

45. Future of Social Media?
• Everything is going to mobile devices.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRi
wUCXPo8U&list=PLEkF__EZwFZKYfGAqPt
FWa_oz2geAfucE&index=9

46. Future of Social Media?
• It is all about short, quick video.
• Posts are viewed exponentially more
when a picture or video is attached.
• Meerkat, Vine, Instagram, & Snapchat
are expected to grow tremendously.
John Roland, @jaroland74

47. Future of Social Media in
ministry?
• MOOCs teaching classes.
• Interactive sermons (live tweets, texting).
• People taking selfies of them living out the
theme of the message.
• Continuous dialogue with ministry leaders is
expected. No more gatekeepers.
• More video conferencing for conventions.
John Roland, @jaroland74

48. Do not be afraid!
• Social media is ALL about the
SOCIAL in the Social Media.
• Media will change, SOCIAL will not. It is ALL about
people. It is a tool to CONNECT to people.
• Sound familiar?
• Are you good at Pastoral Ministry? Social media is for
you!
John Roland, @jaroland74

49. John Roland, @jaroland74