Social Media Guide

Social Media Guide CoverUsing social media — and using it well — is becoming more and more critical to successful communication plans for school districts. Students “live” online in social media. Parents are a fast-growing group of social media and rely on it to stay on top of the news that’s coming out of your schools.

Be prepared, and have a guide help you on your way to implementing a complete social media strategy in your school district.

This WSPRA publication provides:

  • Step-by-step instructions to get you started on
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Youtube
    • Google+
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • More!
  • Tips on sharing content on social media sites
  • A list of resources on social media guidelines/policy
  • Lists of links to valuable social media tools
  • Glossary of commonly used terms

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Has your school district developed a social media communication strategy? Perhaps you have intertwined it with your overall communications plan. But if not, here are a few easy steps you need to think about. Get the guide and let it help you apply these great tips.

  1. Know your audience. Who do you want to engage in the conversation and who is already having a conversation about you?
  2. Define your goals. Perhaps it is as simple as wanting to share good stories about your school district or as complicated as changing public opinion about an upcoming referendum.
  3. Choose your metrics. Will you determine your success by number of followers, by the quality of the engagement, or a mixture of both.
  4. Be present where your audiences are. You may need to be on various platforms to reach the different audiences with which you wish to communicate.
  5. Listen to what your audience is saying. Are there complaints that could be easily remedied (e.g., a lack of signage), or suggestions that could be acted upon (e.g., parents would like better communication on a certain topic).
  6. Respond to their concerns. With the recent incident in Marinette, you may find that your parents are concerned about how your school district would handle a similar situation. If that’s the case, what information can you share to relieve their anxiety.
  7. Provide content that they value. Besides dates for upcoming events, sports scores, etc., what kind of information does your community value about your schools? Perhaps continued updates on a building project or how monies are being used from a recent referendum. Your community may also find it valuable to be provided information regarding school closures or lockdowns.
  8. Measure the results. There are many different tools to measure the influence and reach of your social media efforts. Watch for a future post which will delve into this topic in more depth.