Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts

Thursday, June 22, 2017

How to Have Enormous Professional Success at NSPRA 2017 [Podcast - Episode 8]

 

How to Have Enormous Professional Success at NSPRA 2017


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

NSPRA 2017 is a great place to build "Brand You".

Here are my Seven Tips to Expand Your Personal Brand at NSPRA 2017: 



  • Tip 1: Announce Your Arrival [1:05]
  • Tip 2: Challenge Yourself to Meet New People [1:55]
  • Tip 3: Have a Plan [3:06]
  • Tip 4: Live Tweet a Presentation [4:00]
  • Tip 5: Help Others [5:02]
  • Tip 6: Facebook Live a Group Discussion [5:34]
  • Tip 7: Interview a School PR Professional [6:49]

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.

Do you have other tips? Make sure to leave them in the comment section below, and make sure to visit iTunes for the rest of our great Social Media Schoolhouse Podcasts.

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

Friday, December 18, 2015

Become a School Marketing Master During the Holiday Break: 15 Educational Videos

I know, I know... You are worn out from a busy first semester. All you want to do is take the next two weeks to hibernate in an eggnog induced coma. I don't blame you.

However, we all know about three days in we are going to start getting bored. And what better way to break the holiday rut by bettering ourselves through video?

In this post I have included 15 videos; two weeks of content that will help you become a better school marketer.

15 Videos to Make You a Better Marketer

Day 1: December 21 - Storytelling with Gary Vaynerchuk
[Warning: Adult Language]



Day 2: December 22 - Andrew Stanton from Pixar Discusses Storytelling
[Warning: Adult Language]



Day 3: December 23 - Creativity with Monty Python's John Cleese



Day 4: December 24 - The Social Media Revolution



Day 5: December 25 - How to Amplify Your Social Media



Day 6: December 26 - Getting Started with Google Analytics



Day 7: December 27 - Filter Your District's IP Address in Google Analytics 



Day 8: December 28 - The History of Content Marketing



Day 9: December 29 - Into to Content Marketing w/ Buzz Feed



Day 10: December 30 - Coca Cola's Content Vision Part 1



Day 11: December 31 - Coca Cola's Content Vision Part 2


Bonus Videos for the New Year
  1. Video Tips
  2. How Search Works: SEO
  3. What is a Landing Page
  4. Inbound Marketing from HubSpot

Sunday, November 1, 2015

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



1. Back Stage Pass

Do you have a big, awesome event each year? Why not show off all the hard work it takes to get this event ready for the big day. 

People love to see stuff they are not supposed to see. We all crave that backstage pass to the New Kids on the Block, right? I am sure your fans would go equally as crazy to see volunteers and your staff putting the extra effort to make you event a success.

Not only will parents and students share pics of their favorite teacher, but also people love to share pics of they take. What an excellent way to get engagement on your Instagram account.

2. Construction Progress

Are you building a new school or putting an addition on one of your campuses?  Let the public know of its progress through Instagram.  They did pay for.

A "Construction Picture a Day" on Instagram informs the public of their investment.  Cool pics of architecture and the building functionality will help your community get behind your construction.

For even more engagement, get your campus or district leaders to pose in the pictures with their hard hats on.  Get creative, and show-off your new learning facilities.

3. Fine Arts Gallery Showing

This is one of my favorites. Not everyone can get to all of your events, and there are many talented, young artists in your district. Why not display their talents using a digital online Instagram art gallery.

Post a piece of artwork a day for the biggest bang for your buck. Tag your posts with engaging hashtags and link the picture back to your fine arts website.   On the fine arts website, you can have the whole gallery for your community to view.

4. Instant Replay of Football Game

This is might take two people to make this work.  During a football game take action shots of exciting plays or crowd interaction.  Have the second person make notes of each shot so you can put them in chronological order on your Instagram account.

When the game is over, post the pics in order of when they happened and call them "Instant Replay on Instagram". It’s a great way to recap your Friday night football games for the community and fans that missed the game.

Don’t forget to take pictures of the band, cheerleaders and drill team.  They are an important part of the game as well.

5. Alumni Hall of Fame

The community wants to know their investment (tax dollars) is paying off. Instagram is an excellent tool to post pictures of how your alumni are impacting the community and making a difference in the world.

Do you have doctors who fight cancer? Do you have heroes in the armed forces? Do you have business people making a difference? Do you have alumni who are teaching in your district? Show them off to the world.

6. Attendance Zone Shots

This is a cool idea I thought of to inform parents and the community in your district where their neighborhood schools are located.

Gather your school mascots and have them take pictures all across the district in neighborhoods and in front of local business and city landmarks. In the pictures you take, have the mascots hold a sign that lists the schools students would attend if they lived in the area where the picture takes place.

This is an awesome way to make your community aware, but also shows off the beautiful areas of your city.  Now city Instagram accounts will share your pictures for higher engagement.

7. Fan Submitted Images

Now last, and certainly not least, you must showcase user submitted photos. I would even setup a separate Instagram account to showcase these pics.

Fans are more likely to share their own pictures.  They want to show off they were featured and it was their own shot.  You can even have a contest for the best user submitted picture of the week or month.  Have some fun with this campaign. You could have themes of the week to help get certain type of content on your account.

Always make sure you get permission to use the pic.

Do you have any other awesome Instagram ideas? Leave them in the comment section below.

Monday, October 5, 2015

3 Things Every District Should Be Doing on Social Media

Social media can be overwhelming, but there are certain things every district should be doing to be successful. Not only should you post... and post with visuals, but you should take these three extra steps to help promote your district and your schools.

1. Implement the Facebook "Call to Action" Button


On the right corner of your cover photo you might have noticed a button called "Call to Action". This button allows you to create actions that your fans can take to become more involved than just reading your posts on Facebook. You can have your fans sign up for your newsletter, book an appointment to an event, contact you, download your app, shop or even watch an important video.

This button is crucial to make your district's Facebook experience more engaging, as well as getting your fans to take the next step in the marketing funnel. My district uses the button to allow our fans to sign up for our weekly newsletter.  Since implementing the button, we have had hundreds of fans sign up for our newsletter and engage with our content.

2. Add a Trailer to Your YouTube Channel


Engagement is so important with social media.  Sometimes engagement takes a little extra action on your part to start the process.

Did you know you can setup a video on your YouTube channel to automatically play when visitors visit your channel? When a video automatically plays, it cuts the work your audience has to do to engage with your brand. Getting your audience to take the first step is sometimes the most difficult.  Why not do it for them?

3. Monitor Important Users and Hashtags on Twitter


Customer service has become a crucial part of the social media landscape.  We are not just posting anymore, we are interacting with our customers and helping them solve problems.

Sometimes parents are shy to ask for help, but they are courageous and very vocal on social media.  We must monitor for positive and negative mentions on social media, as well as spy on our competition.

TweetDeck is a perfect program to help you monitor what people are saying about your district.  The platform allows you create columns to monitor keywords, phrases and users on Twitter.  Just like Google, you can search for keywords and add this as a column that is updated in real time.

Get Started Today

These three tips are not that hard to setup. You will see great returns by implementing this advice into you social media routine. Do it today!

Do you have questions or other social media tips? Leave them in the comment section below.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Why 2:30 PM Was the Perfect Time to Blog

CFB Parents are Happy


















In this busy world of high-tech gadgetry, there is little time to have a conversation for more than the obligatory head nod. That is why it is vital to engage your audience when they can fit you into their busy schedule. So when CFBISD wants to send out an article that we think our elementary parents will love like this blog post on STAAR Test Taking Tips, we get very strategic with our times.

That is why CFBISD has utilized the times of 7:15 AM and 2:30 PM to connect with our elementary school parents.  Why those times?  One simple word... CARPOOL.

Here is an article from this blog that goes into more detail:

Riding the Carpool Whale - A Very Useful Tip on Timing Social Media


Let us know how you use social media scheduling in your district. Jot a note in the comment section below.