Community Partnerships

(Flatten the Walls of Your School)

Strategies to try...

Find Where Stakeholders Spend Their Virtual Lives

• Survey school families to find out their online preferences and use those to communicate.

Create a Calendar

• Make a list of all the great things happening in your school and add them to your calendar so when you get to school, you can post something on social media first thing in the morning and you already have an idea for what to post.

Leverage The Power Of The Hashtag

• Have twitter feed stream directly to the main school website and scrolls on large screens throughout building.

Connect Online Tools For Ease Of Use

• Save time by connecting the platforms so you only have to post to 1 place.

Set Goals For Communication

• Find a balance between two much and not enough for your community. For example: 7 positive posts per week about activities other than athletics.

Plan The Roll-Out

• Get people excited by communicating a great story, evoking emotion, and following up with leverage. Post pictures when possible. Make events a huge deal. Call the local media so they know something is happening and post it to your social media channels. When it's over, use the email distribution lists you have created to share the story with everyone. Your engagement on those pages will go through the roof.

Keep The Momentum Rolling

• Figure out what people are enjoying about your posts so you can maintain this attention. Social media changes the conversations at home, giving parents specific things to talk about with their children. Gaining knowledge empowers parents, so they will go back for more information. Continue feeding that bank of knowledge to keep momentum going with your platforms.
  • Stream your feeds to the main page of your school website in case parents don't use the social media platforms.
  • Give control of the social media account to a student for the day and make contact with the parents prior to the student taking it over.
  • Use a service that collates your tweets. Apps such as "Storify" allow you to create a social media story that can be shared with parents via email or printed off and sent home for those without Internet access.
  • Contests can feed the momentum. For example: The first 5 people to find you at a football game or music concert and tell you the vision of the school district will get a t-shirt. Or, post a picture of a sticker with the school mascot on it somewhere in the school and the first kid to post a picture of it will get a $10 gift certificate and t-shirt.