Saturday, July 16, 2016

C.H.I.C.A.G.O: Getting the Most Out Of NSPRA 2016

As I was waiting in line for Chicago pizza last night, I realized I never posted my traditional NSPRA blog post I do each year.  I could have used a pizza metaphor for my post, but I ended up ditching the long line at the pizza joint and I ate at the hotel. Then it hit me when I was poking at my chicken, why not focus on the wonderful city of Chicago?
 

NSPRA is different for everyone, but I still feel there are some general things you can do to get the most from the conference. 

Here are my seven tips to have a successful NSPRA 2016… Chicago Style!!!

C.H.I.C.A.G.O Style

C – Challenge Yourself

Challenge yourself to breakaway from your tribe.  There are so many great minds at this year’s conference; you really need to challenge yourself to find them. Talk to everyone.  Make a connection.  Some of your best sessions will be the ones where you are sitting in the hotel lobby sipping on Starbucks coffee and talking with a fellow School PR friend.

H – Help Others

It is ok to share your ideas. We are all here to promote the awesome things happening in public education. Helping others will help you get better, and also fine-tune your creative ideas. And if you share with people, they are more likely to share with you.

I – Implement a Strategy

Make it a goal to take a strategy from a session you attended and make it your own.  It is not stealing… it is creative peer collaboration.  Find that one golden nugget that will help you transform one of your district’s communication goals from good to great.

C – Create a Plan

Have a plan each day to get the most from the conference.  What are your district’s goals? What sessions can you attend to make your district strategy and your own personal goals better? Don’t go to a session because it is the bright, new shiny trend. Go to a session because it’s going to help you get better.

A – Attack the Presenters

Not literally, but make sure you approach them after their session. If you attend a session that really aligns with your district strategy or you felt was just plain awesome, let the presenters know. They could have much more information after their session that they did not have time to go over in their allotted time. Make a contact, and have them send you their slides or additional information that will make you successful.

G – Go Social

To get the most out of your time at NSPRA 2016, you need to be in the social media loop.  Follow the important hashtags on Twitter: #schoolpr or #Nspra2016. Make sure to like NSPRA’s Facebook page.  They will be posting valuable content from presenters and presentations. And most importantly, interact with fellow conference goers.  Gain from their insights. Find their gold nuggets you can make your own.

O – Organize Your Notes

You brain is going to feel like it is going to explode each day with all the information you are going to receive.  And if your brain is anything like mine, you will have no clue what much of your notes mean because there was just so much information.  Your best bet is to go back to your hotel room each night and organize and make sense of your notes from each session.

Now go forth and conquer Chicago and NSPRA 2016! The power is in your hands. Make you school district proud!

Do you have additional tips you would like to share? Leave them in the comment section below

Sunday, July 3, 2016

My 2nd Annual Summer School PR Guide to Beating the Competition

As I stated last year, the main thing I remember from all of marketing classes in college are that you have to market during the good times, and you have to market during the slow times


For us as communicators in education, it is crucial that we conduct our business during the school year, but it is especially important to concentrate our efforts during the summer months as well.

Related Post: Your Quick Summer School PR Guide to Beating the Competition [2015]

Why is this the best approach? Because most of us don’t do it. By putting in the extra effort during the summer, you can beat your competition that is sleeping in and not working on Fridays.

In this year’s article you’ll four brand new initiatives to concentrate on this summer to rock your marketing during the off-season.

Here are four new tips and strategies to out-market the competition:

1. Facebook Live

With over 1.5 billion active users on Facebook, it’s probably time to make the shift to the “King of All Social Media”.  Facebook has done so much in the past year to make the platform better for the individual and the business; it is most likely going to hit live video out of the ballpark.


If you are really serious about Facebook Live, Facebook has a nice website setup to learn more about their live streaming feature.



Here are their 8 Tips and Tricks to be successful on Facebook Live:

1.Tell fans when you're broadcasting ahead of time.
2. Go live when you have a strong connection.
3. Write a catchy description before going live.
4. Ask viewers to subscribe to Live notifications.
5. Say hello to commenters by name; respond to their comments live.
6. Broadcast for longer periods of time to reach more people.
7. Use a closing line to signal the end of the broadcast.
8. Be creative and go live often!


A more in-depth explanation of each tip can be found here:


I think the best thing to do is to practice.  Live video can be tricky sometimes.  Some people tend to overthink things and complicate things.  Be natural, and always try to tell an engaging story.

2. SnapChat 

Once upon a time you swore on your first child that your district would never be on Facebook.   Look at you now, your district is probably seeing higher engagement on your Facebook page then your website.  However, now you have to deal with that crazy algorithm, and the fact that none of your students like your posts on Facebook.



The reason they’re not sharing your posts is that they are all on Instagram and Snapchat.  And that’s exactly where you should be.  Don’t be scared of Snapchat.  There are thousands of tutorials online to be successful on the platform.  You can also borrow from companies like ESPN and BuzzFeed who are both successful at snapchatting. 

Here is a post from Social Media Examiner: Snapchat Gains Momentum

Even if you scared to dive into posting pictures and video on Snapchat, you can still get into the SnapChat Ballgame with Geofilters.  Geofilters are graphic overlays that you can create for SnapChat users to place on top of their pictures and videos they post on the platform. 

Geofilters are displayed to users in a certain geographical region that you define when you create your filter.  It is a great way to target a younger audience around a certain school or district event.


Here is a great post by Social Media Examiner 

5 Creative Ways to Use SnapchatGeofilters for Business.   

They provide some great ideas you can use in your district.

A great resource for all things SnapChat is Carlos Gil. 

He always posts excellent tips and suggestions to excel at SnapChat.   

He has an excellent beginners guide on SnapChat that can be found here: The Beginners Guide To Using Snapchat

3. Analytics

Always be checking your analytics. You need to determine what is working and what is not working. Study them closely. Look for the trends that will help you develop a strategy for the upcoming school year.


The best platform we use to track all of our websites is Google Analytics.  If you do not have it setup on your website, do it ASAP.  Don’t know how… Here is a video tutorial of how to install it on your site:


Here are some great articles on what to look for in your Google Analytics:

The 8 Most Important ConversionMetrics You Should Be Tracking
The Top 10 Essential Google Analytics Metrics  
FiveGoogle Analytics Metrics Every Business Should Run  

4. SlideShare

SlideShare is an excellent visual way to repurpose your content from you your blog or other publications.  Think PowerPoint, but on a LinkedIn network of power users.  It's an excellent way to reach educated influencers on certain topics.




My district has had great success on the platform.  In one year we have had our slideshows been viewed tens of thousands of times and some of our top content has been downloaded or shared thousands of times.

Here is a link to our SlideShare site for CFBISD to give you some examples of content we share on the platform. 



The key is to be strategic on what you post and make sure to be very visual in your presentation.

That's it for this year's summer tips.  Have a great rest of the summer and remember... Always be marketing.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions? Leave them in the comment section below.