My 2016 School Marketing Social Media Draft

In the spirit of this year's NFL draft, our district has put together our 2016 - 2017 Social Media Mock Draft.

Does your district have a ranking?  Are you ready for the new future of social media?

1. Facebook

This is our highest engaging social media platform.  Driven by parents (we don’t see students here much anymore), this social media powerhouse just reported record earnings fueled by advertising.  Our strongest demographic on the platform is women aged 35 – 44.

How Your District Can Benefit from Facebook Audience Optimization

You don’t get much bang for your buck with organic posts like you use to, but this veteran can score you some engagement wins with target and retargeted paid ads.  Ads can be very cheap compared to traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television.  Now with Facebook Live, you can broadcast live video straight to your timeline.  Game Changer!

2. Instagram

We get most of our student traction from social media on this Facebook owned platform (we are early into SnapChat with no official launch).  Students in middle school and high school don’t mind mentioning us on their feeds or interacting with our posts.

7 Awesome Ideas to Kick Your District Instagram Account into High Gear

Now that you are not limited to a square pic, and that you can post video, this is an awesome resource to reach your students.

3. Twitter

Unfortunately, this star has fallen quite bit in engagement and reach.  We do get some interaction from the parents and students, but we have noticed less and fewer students want to interact on Twitter.

We do think it still has some potential with the ability to post video and to conduct Twitter chats with parents and the community.  Twitter does work well with community and business partners, as they tend to retweet our content.  I think the company needs to overhaul some things to have a fourth quarter resurgence.

4. LinkedIn

This is on our list to great things for our district in the 2016 – 2017 season.  LinkedIn is not just a tool for HR.  It has become a content hub for professionals.

We feel this platform will be a superstar when it comes to engaging our community and business partners.  Now with “showcase pages”, we can provide strategic content to our different audiences.  We are looking to take our content marketing to the next level with this professional player.

5. YouTube

I do not really consider YouTube social media (it is more like a search engine for video content), but it still has some social aspects that allowed us to have it ranked number five in our mock draft.

Video is power in marketing.  With broadband internet pretty much the norm, you do not have to worry about the dreaded buffering pop-up like the past.  More and more marketing departments are investing in video.  It is time your district invests in the “number two” search engine in the world.

6. SnapChat

This will be a game changer in video marketing.  I am sure in next year’s draft; this young platform could reach number two. 

Millennials are now the largest demographic surpassing baby boomers… and they are all on SnapChat. Now with the Story Tool, this has become a powerful way to publicly communicate.

If you are scared to tip your toe into the SnapChat waters, there is still a way to be noticed on the platform.  I suggest Geo-Filters.  It is a great way to target SnapChatters in certain zip codes to interact with your brand or district.  Geo-Filters alone would make SnapChat a safe bet to draft this rookie at number five.

7. Periscope

This platform had a quick rise, but has lost much of its luster with Facebook introducing Facebook Live.

10 Periscope Ideas for Your School PR Department 

Periscope is still a great way to interact with your Twitter followers in a live setting.  I don’t mind picking it up in the third or fourth round.  Here are some suggestions on great ways to use the platform from an earlier post on my blog.

8. Pinterest

To be honest, our district needs more of a Pinterest presence.  It is still a powerful tool to interact with parents, especially moms.

The key is to be strategic with your posts and not go pin crazy.  We need a clean-up on aisle Pinterest in our district.  We do get some nice engagement using the Pin-It button on our blog visuals.  Try to find this WordPress plugin for your blog.

9. Vimeo

Not as widely accepted as YouTube, but it is a great for embedding clean video on your website and blog.  The best part is there are no ads or pre-roll to get in the way of your content.

10. “Mr. Irrelevant”

Google Plus

You would think Google would be able to get at least one hit in the social media landscape, however, this is not really a game-changer for our district.  We do use it to drive small traffic to our blogs, but other than that we rarely use this dying platform.

The Death of School PR: Mad Lib Edition

“The sole purpose of marketing is to get more people to buy more of your product, more often, for more money.” – Sergio Zyman

“When you understand that marketing is what you do to sell stuff, then the money you lay out is an investment instead of an expense.” – Sergio Zyman

We were very excited the morning after we had filmed one of our middle school principals being duct taped to the wall.  The video got a lot of views on YouTube, it had close to 100 likes on Facebook, it was at the tipping point of becoming a mini-viral hit within our district. Then we decided not to repost it or Tweet it again.

Why would we pull the brakes on something that was getting us likes, something that was being viewed over and over again?

Because looking closer at the data, and analyzing the analytics, the video was doing nothing to drive more parents, more often to our program and school webpages or getting them to attend informational events.   From a marketing standpoint, it was not bringing in the results.

Does that mean we are never going to film fun events like this?  No way.  They’re fun. They make people laugh.  We are going to keep filming as long as our priniciapls are willing to be daredevils.  However, we are not going to rely on “viral videos” to push our message.

Well… I was going to finish this post with some thoughts on the future of School Public Relations and Marketing, but decided for you guys to finish the article. 

Tweet me, email me, or leave a comment on where you think the future of School PR is heading… Because just like a shark... you have to keep moving or die!

Tis the Season of Giving: Bring the Joy of Content Marketing to Your District

Does your district have a giving attitude going into the holiday season?

Do you want to tap into the exciting world of content marketing?

Using content marketing to form a trusting relationship with your target audience is a powerful way to motivate your students, parents, staff and community to engage with your schools and school district.

In this article you will discover ways you can create a more giving marketing approach using useful, engaging content.

 

Your Blog is Your Foundation

In the book Born to Blog, authors Mark W. Schaefer and Stanford A. Smith present that blogs help attract a loyal following and generate new, engaging customers.

A blog should be the cornerstone of your content marketing strategy. Born to Blog states that blogs are the content engine that’s driving the social web and businesses digital marketing initiative (p. 1).

Your blog must provide useful information that educates and helps your readers.  Blogs are not a platform to brag that your football team won the district championship.  A blog should be your way to give useful, sought after information to your audience. 

For example, instead of writing about football awards, write an educational article about concussion in football. This type of useful information is what your audience is craving.

Schaefer and Smith offer six common traits of successful bloggers:

1. Find Your Voice – clarifying your niche makes your focus clear

2. Tenacity – don’t give up. It takes time to find your voice.

3. Focus on Passions – your words will be full of energy if you write about what you love.

4. Flexibility – be willing to change to find your voice

5. Consistency – your reader needs to be looking forward to hearing from you.

6. Courage – put yourself out there. Write and hit publish.

Video Killed the Print Guy

Video has always been a powerful platform.  YouTube revolutionized how people consume and interact with information.  Facebook recently allowed their users to upload video directly on their platform, which is one the best ways to get your content in front of viewers, and produces very high engagement returns.  And now with Periscope and Blab, it is time for your district to get serious about their video strategy.

And speaking of strategy, different videos are needed as your customers work their way through your marketing funnel. In Gary Lipkowitz’s article, Plain Talk About Video for Marketing Executives, he walks marketing professionals through video marketing uses relevant to content marketing.

Here are Lipkowitz’s thoughts for each part of the sales funnel:

1. Top of Funnel – advertising (not exactly content marketing) drives your audience to your content.  Posting videos on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube gives you the “fuel” to drive your viewers to the next step in the sales funnel, which might be blog content or a specific landing page offering premium content.

2. Mid Funnel – educational content is what content marketing is all about.  This should be your sweet spot to win-over your customers. Lipkowitz suggests posting your videos on your blog, your landing pages and inside your email marketing.  If you are educating with your videos, your audience won’t think you are invading their space and trying to sell. They will look forward to your videos instead of hiding from your sale’s pitches.

3. Bottom of the Funnel – Lipkowitz states that when your customers or your community reach this part of the sales funnel they are very interested in the “who” rather than the “what” or the “how”.  When two competitors are close on quality, trust can be a big deciding factor on which company or school district they choose. Video is an excellent medium to brag about the “who”.

4. PR and Communications – Lipkowitz’s last category has to do with communicating and moving your customers quicker through the sales process.  Sometimes you have to remind your audience to take action.  Great video does a excellent job moving your customers to action.

What Other Content Might Look Like

Your district or company needs to find the right mix of content to appeal to your different audiences and where they might be in the sales cycle.  Finding the right mix is key to developing the perfect content marketing strategy.

Here are five examples of other content you might consider:

1. Online Newsletters – sprinkle in blog posts with links to drive engagement

2. Webinars – hosting an educational, online town hall is a great way to educate the public

3. eBooks – we take all of our blog content and create monthly online magazines. This is the “Netflix Binge Blogging Approach”.

4. Infographics – tell your stats in a visual, creative way.

5. Microsites – important programs need their own website and content.

The Magic that Helps Us Convert

One of the best investments we have made in the last couple months in regard to our content marketing strategy is purchasing a plan through Lead Pages.  They are a landing page management system with engaging templates to create quality landing pages.

By having a centralized online location to offer premium content, we are able to build valuable email lists.  Our emails lists give us the power to send targeted messages to groups who are interested in certain topics and programs.  By having someone sign-up to get valuable content, they give us permission to send other content and invite them to events.

Two Ways We Have Used Landing Pages This Past Month

1. Gifted and Talented Parent Tour 

By using a landing page, we were able to target specific parents who might be interested in our specialized program.  Through the landing page, parents signed up to attend a tour of our program while giving us their email address for further correspondence.

We were able to follow-up with these parents sending them educational content as well as inviting them to other events to push them along the sales funnel in hopes of joining our district.

2. Build Our Newsletter List

Lead magnets can be a very powerful tool to convince parents to engage with our content.  To collect more email addresses from our parents and the community, we offered the first three issues of our blog magazine if they provided us an email address. The key was to offer them something of value in exchange for their email address.

Conclusion

Content marketing is not easy.  If it were, more people would be doing it.  If you make the commitment and work hard, content marketing provides a great return on your investment.

Even if you don’t have time to implement all of these suggestions, focusing on one or two will help improve your marketing.  As you get more comfortable you can grow your content marketing strategic plan.

What do you think? Have you tried content marketing? What were the results? What tips do you have to share? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Why a Drone is Good for Your School PR Business [Marketing in the Sky]

Napster, MySpace, sliced bread... we are under constant pressure to find the next big thing, and then capitalize on it.  A few months ago it was Periscope, which has fizzled out a bit, but here recently, Drones have been a topic of conversation on the #SchoolPR hashtag.

What's a Drone?

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone and also referred to as a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. Its flight is controlled either autonomously by onboard computers or by the remote control of a pilot on the ground or in another vehicle. - Wikipedia

What once was popular on military bases is now becoming a hobby as lower costs models are popping up on Amazon, Best Buy and even Toys R Us. Here is one from Amazon that features 4K Camera [Better than HD] for $1,253.00

How Did We Use It?

Luckily one of our teachers owns an UAV that we were able to use at band practice a few weeks ago.  The response was tremendous! Not only does the footage look awesome, we were able to use the footage to post on Facebook [Native, don't link it to YouTube yet], where video is highly engaging.

Our post garnered hundreds of likes and was shared by many, many students and parents. One because it was video, and two, it was showcasing students using technology in the classroom. Anytime we can engage our audience with visuals, we are going to do it.

What Policies Do We Have in Place  

Just like the Wright Brothers, this was our first flight using UAV's. Our district does not have a policy in place to use it as a Public Relations or communications tool. We are researching the guidelines setup by the government and UIL [Our school sanctioning body]

There was a ruling passed before the football season started that in Texas, UAV's or Drones are not allowed to be flown at sporting events of any kind.  Make sure to see what policies are in place in your city, state and school community.

5 Ideas for Using a Drone in Your District 

1. Summer Football Two-A-Days

Football is the most popular sport in the United States.  People can't get enough of it.  Why not give your district followers a preview of your upcoming season by filming summer practice. It might be just enough to wet their whistle before Friday Night Lights in the fall.

2. Marching Band Practice

Just like football, everyone enjoys a good halftime show.  Show the public what hard work goes into fine arts by recording overhead visuals of your bands hard at work.  It's an awesome perspective from high above.

3. New Construction Builds 

Keep the public up-to-date with your bond projects by doing flyovers of construction sites.  Show everyone what great things are to come at their schools and facilities.  

4. Elementary School Field Days

What looks like mass chaos on the ground, might look a whole lot better from high above.  Parents and students will get a kick out of seeing their son or daughter do the tug of war or the three-legged race.  Kids always love seeing a drone fly too.  Could get some kiddos interested in physics.

5. First Day of School Videos

The first day of school is always exciting.  More families are on campus than pretty much any other time of the year.  Mom and dad are usually seen walking their kids through the front doors.  Why not get a great drone shot of all the families dropping off their kids.  Great shots... great stories.

First in Flight

Just like anything in communications and marketing, you have to take risks and test the results. I do know one thing, it is certainly a fun way to spend my School PR days.

Do you have any questions about our Maiden Voyage? Leave them in the comment section below. 

Links to Articles 

Drones Are Creating Social Video Buzz From Cali to Cannes: Content marketers are smitten with airborne robots

5 Industries Where a Drone would Make the Best Marketing Video 

Drones take real estate marketing to new heights

5 Things to Do at NSPRA 2015 to Expand Your Personal Brand

What better way to expand your presence in the School PR World then at the biggest conference of the year? Professional conferences are not only to learn, but they are also a great networking opportunity.  NSPRA 2015 is a great place to build Brand You.

Here are 5 Tips to expand your personal brand at NSPRA 2015:

1. Announce Your Arrival

Before you do anything, you have to let everyone know you are here. When you land at the Nashville Airport or cross the Tennessee border in your car, take a moment to snap a pic and post it to your social media.

I know “selfies” might be over-used, but do one anyway.  Taking a picture of yourself announces you are in the building and it gives everyone an opportunity to put a face to your name. Who know? They might even recognize an article of clothing you are wearing in the pic and make an effort to say hello when you check in.  Make sure to use the official NSPRA hashtag #NSPRA2015 for better exposure.

2. Live Tweet an Informative Presentation

If you want people to follow you on social media or respect your opinion, you have to deliver great content. And your content you share does not always have to be your own.  You can be the vehicle that delivers someone else’s expert advice.

Your conference speakers were chosen for a reason.  The have insightful, useful ideas that have worked in their districts. Share their ideas and publicize the key points they are delivering. Make sure to credit the speaker and try to include their Twitter handle to give them a shout out.

By sharing great content, your followers will trust you as an informative source on certain topics.  The more they trust you, the more retweets and shares you are going to get, which means more followers for you to share your own ideas and content.

3. Follow Five Fellow PR Professionals a Day

Have you ever heard the phrase, you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours? The same thing applies to social media. Most of the time when you follow someone in your field of expertise, they will follow you back.

The more people you follow, the more people are going to follow you. Conferences are a great way to boost your social media numbers.  Social media is the 21^st century business card. Once they see the valuable content you are sharing on social media, the more likely they will share it to their followers. 

4. Gather Your Colleagues for a Periscope Roundtable

Video is all the rage these days. The newest and coolest thing right now is streaming, live video from your smartphone. The top two apps in this category are Periscope and Meerkat. Choose an app, gather some colleagues, pick a location and stream away.

It might be a good idea to choose a theme before you start filming. Let people know the topics beforehand, so they have more talking points to add to the conversation. Make sure everyone involved knows they are being filmed. Some people get a little uneasy around cameras and might not want their face on the World Wide Web.

5. Interview a School PR Professional for a Blog Post

You’ve gotten more followers; you have made some new friends, now you have to provide them with excellent content.  What better way than to interview a speaker or PR colleague and turn it into a blog post.

Find someone that really stood out at the conference and ask them for a quick interview.  Take good notes during their session, and create questions that you feel people would want to know the answers to. Most PR Professionals will love the publicity, and since you are asking questions about an area they’re experts in, it won’t be too much trouble for them answer.

The great thing about interviewing a speaker is that you have a built in audience for your post.  Tag the speaker when you publicize your post and the audience that was in their session will most likely be interested in a follow up interview that expands on the topic.  This way you can publicize the speaker and publicize yourself at the same time.

Make yourself stand out at the conference. Learn as much as you can, and expand your circle of friends.  Follow these tips and become one step closer to becoming the go to source for School PR.

10 Periscope Ideas for Your School PR Department [Bonus Post]

Are you currently using video for school communications? If you are not, you are missing out on a great visual storytelling medium.

Broadcasting live might make you nervous, but streaming video could be key in increasing engagement with your audience.

In this quick bonus post, I will list ten ideas for using my streaming app of choice Periscope. Periscope is owned by Twitter, which makes it more appealing than Meerkat in my book.

10 Uses for Periscope in School PR

1. Valedictorian Speeches – not everyone can make graduation. Showcase your brightest student using live video.

2. College Signing Day – not every athlete signing is a five-star recruit whose decision is going to be broadcasting on ESPN.  Add some excitement to the event by airing it over Periscope.

3. Twitter Chats – add an extra punch to your Twitter chats by streaming them live.  Have your district experts answer questions in real-time over video.

4. Guest Speakers – it’s hard to fit an entire school in the auditorium.  Stream it live so the whole school can learn.

5. Fine Arts Performances – just like graduation, sometimes it is hard for parents to attend every event. Allow them to watch it from work or home. Be careful of copyrighted material.

6. Athletic Events – broadcast games live to your fans. Make sure to follow your athletic organizations rules for showing live games.

7. Test Reviews – have teachers give a video review the night before the test.  Students might have some last minute questions they need answered. Get some press by showcasing the dedication of your teachers.

8. School Closings – give some comfort to your parents by announcing school closures by video.  Be careful, there might be a lot of questions from your viewers.

9. School Tours – give a quick tour of your facilities using streaming video.

10. Major Announcements – have a big announcement for your district? Promote it throughout the day, and then announce it live with your own Periscope press conference.

Do you have any other ideas for using Periscope for School PR? Leave your suggestions in the comment section below.