I HAVE A NEW BLOG... Come Visit...

I HAVE A NEW BLOG

I have recently upgraded to WordPress. My new website can be found at www.jasonawheeler.com

Please visit and give me your thoughts on the new design. Thanks for being a loyal reader.

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.

Related Post: 12 Easy Facebook Live Ideas for Your District

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

https://live.fb.com/

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:

https://live.fb.com/tips/

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:

How to Install Google Analytics on Wordpress 

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. 

CFBISD SlideShare Page

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.

12 Easy Facebook Live Ideas for Your District

It’s Time to Pivot from Periscope to Facebook Live

Do you feel like your reach and engagement on Periscope is slowly dying? Is the Periscope platform feeling more like Myspace with all the clutter and nonsense?

Have you heard about success stories on Facebook Live and want to make the shift?

In this article you will discover 12 easy ideas for your next Facebook Live broadcast for your school and school district.

Why Facebook Live?

According to Social Media Examiner, Facebook Live allows you to connect with your fans, friends, and followers by sharing real-time video of what you’re seeing and doing.

More key stakeholders are on FB (moms & teachers). FB legit forum while Periscope is spontaneous video. FB is purposeful. – Corey Ryan (@coreyrrisd)

We switched because FB live offers reactions and comments. It keeps the stream alive longer. – Justin Elbert (@kleinISDJustin)

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.

12 Easy Facebook Live Ideas for Your School District

1. Live PSAT Tutorials for Your Community

Parents spend big bucks preparing their students for the PSAT and SAT. Why not build community goodwill and help those parents that can’t afford tutors by hosting live SAT tutorials for your town.

Not only are you helping your community, but you are also creating some awesome content marketing for your district. Parents and students will appreciate the help.

2. Redzone Plays and Two-Minute Drills

Football is king in Texas, and I am sure athletics play a big role in your district.  Why not drive engagement to your district’s athletics Facebook page by broadcasting all of your football teams goal line plays.  NFL Network has created a whole channel dedicated to this and it is doing very well.

You can also broadcast live the last two minutes of your basketball games.  It builds the same excitement and will surely drive engagement on your athletics page or individual team pages.

3.  Positive District Announcements

Pick a day of the week and have your district leadership deliver positive announcements and bright spots for your district each week. 

Call it Friday Afternoon Live and your parents, students, staff and community can feel proud about their district as they go into the weekend.  They also might be more likely to share what they saw at their child’s weekend activities.

4. Graduation Day

We all know this is a huge event.  And we know not everyone can attend.  Broadcasting your graduation on Facebook Live can be very special for people that can’t attend the event.

We went live backstage of graduation and during. 4 videos combined for over 400 shares, 60k reach. One HS town. – John Tarrant (@jtarrant25)

Start planning now to think of “Behind the Scene” ideas your district can incorporate into your broadcast.

5. Fine Arts Halftime Performances

Just like the game itself, halftime performances draw big crowds to your football games.  Broadcast the performances for your district Fine Arts Facebook Page.  It would be cool if you could strap a smart phone on one of your students in the marching band. Give your viewers an on-field perspective of what it is like to march at halftime.

6. Virtual School Tours

Kindergarten roundups or tours are big for our district.  Why not provide potential parents a glimpse into your programs by offering virtual live tours of your programs or schools?  This day and age it is very difficult for parents to attend every event.  Make it easy for them by providing video tours.

7. Ribbon Cuttings of New School Buildings

Do you have new buildings or upgrades to your schools? Show your community how their investment in their school district is paying off by offering ribbon cuttings and tours of new buildings.

8. Athlete Signings

Show your community the talent that makes up your district’s athletics programs.  Broadcast live your athletes signing with colleges and universities.

9. Live Q/A Tutorials and Exam Reviews

Just like the PSAT broadcasts, have your teachers broadcast their after-school tutorials and exam reviews for students who can’t attend the reviews.

10.  Bad Weather Reports

Your students and parents are always chomping at the bit to know when their schools are closed for major weather events.  Give them up-to-date coverage just like your local news stations using Facebook Live.  Facebook also archives the video on your timeline, so there is no need post another announcement on Facebook.

11. Collaboration Between Schools

Why not host a joint-lesson between schools in your district using Facebook Live?  High school students can mentor elementary school students, or like classes can collaborate on a lesson using live video.

12. Teacher Lesson for Sick Days

This might be something to implement after practicing with Facebook Live for a while, but teachers can start broadcasting their classes to their private classroom Facebook pages for students that are sick. Each lesson can be watched live or watched at ta later date on the Facebook timeline. Always be mindful of students that can’t be photographed or recorded.

Has your district been successful on Facebook Live? Put your success in the comment section below.

My Thoughts on Social Media and Marketing in the Public School Arena with SCN

 "School marketing expert Jason Wheeler urges communicators to use social media constantly in the public school arena."

Here is my interview with School Communicators Network during their SCNLunchinar:

Students Hate Your Marketing… Here are 4 Ideas to Gain Their Trust

More than likely, your students don’t trust you.  Do you blame them?  Half of you have not been in the classroom in past 15 years.  But don’t worry; it’s probably not your fault.  It’s those crazy Millennials.

 

According to AdWeek’s article entitled “Marketing toMillennials and the Necessity of Social Brand Advocacy” Millenials don’t trust advertising.  In fact, the only people they do trust are the people they know.

Here are two statements from the article that really stand out:

…Millennials don’t trust anything except the people they know.

…if you aren’t getting Millennials past the ‘Moment of Trust’ using social brand advocacy and word-of-mouth, your marketing efforts are screwed.

So what do we do?  Is school public relations and marketing really screwed?

Here are four ideas that might gain the trust of your millennial students:

1. Create a Student Ambassador Program

This program has been a huge success in our district.  We currently have students from our five high schools helping us spread the good news about our district to the community.

This year they focused on the over 65 population by holding senior citizen proms at nursing homes and senior community centers inside the district boundaries.  It is a great way to interact with the demographic that is most likely to vote in local elections.

We could use this same group of student leaders to hold events for our other students in the district.  They could be mentors to our elementary school students, or they could hold dances or events with our middle and high school students. 

By taking adults out of the equation, you build trust and a comfort level with our content and our messages.  Students are more likely to trust their peers than some old guy in a suit.

2. Student Social Media Takeover

If students don’t trust us, why are we the ones sending out the messages?  This might be fine on Facebook, or maybe Twitter, but if we are trying to reach students on Instagram or SnapChat, are we really the best to do that? There’s gotta be a better way.

Why not hand over the keys to your social media to the experts… 15 year old kids?  I’m not saying let your students have full control over you content, but for special events like a big football game or a pep rally or a graduation, why not invite student guests to post content including pictures and video?  Of course you will need to train them a bit over the legalities of using social media in a school district, but I am sure they are going to train you on what works best on social media.

3. A Student Blog that Looks Like 17 Magazine

It’s no secret; I am a fan of Content Marketing.  I love our parent blog called School-A-Hoop, and I am also a big fan of our other useful content such as e-books and how to videos.   However, our students might not be all that into it because their adult teachers write most of our content.

Just like the above social media takeover, why not have a blog that is written for students by students with articles they want to read. For example, why not have a high school student write an article called, “How I Survived my Break-Up with my Boyfriend of Two Years” or maybe “How I Scored $1.3 Million in Scholarships my Senior Year”.

Students are more likely to read a post from a kid their age than a thirty something PR guy who is still way into Eighties Movies.  Goonies Never Say Die!

4. Testimonials from Students

This is probably the easiest idea to get started.  Take the time to find the students that are passionate about what they do and have them tell you their story.  You are going to find some awesome nuggets to share with other students trying to find their passion.  And since it’s coming from their peers, they are more likely to give you five seconds and listen to your content.

Hopefully some of these ideas will help you gain the trust of your students and help your content spread amongst your student population.

In conclusion, I give you a paragraph from the Adweek article that drives home my point:

Only 3 percent of Millennials look to traditional media – television, magazines, and newspapers. They look to blogs, what their friends say on social media about a brand, and other sources where they find an authentic look at a product or a brand. What others are saying about your brand defines it and is 8 to 10 times more powerful than your ads or content.

The four ideas above are only a handful of things you can do to more successfully reach your students.  What is your district doing to engage with your Millennials? Leave your ideas in the comment section below.

Examining College Marketing to Help with Your School PR

In my marketing studies I try to examine all industries as I develop the best course of action for our School PR and marketing for CFBISD.  I have been very impressed with the college marketing targeting high school students in our district. Colleges and universities in the United States have begun to embrace modern marketing including two of my favorites, Inbound and Content Marketing.

In the following post, I will break down the components of a mail campaign by Baylor University in Texas.  Many of the top universities have similar personalized mailers going to millions of high school seniors.

The letter below is a great use of Inbound and Content Marketing. At the end of my article I will post a better view of the letter.

1. College Logo

College and universities always have to be thinking of their brand.  Students and alumni are very passionate about their schools.  Word of mouth and family traditions can play a big role in the decision making process.  However, branding (and how well your football team plays on Saturday) can be a big factor as well.  Make sure to develop a logo and brand that sets you apart from the competition.

2. Advertise Your Lead Magnet

Content marketing is not just for big corporations with 20 blog writers.  College use it, and so does our district.  In Baylor's letter, they waste no time introducing their piece of content.  Baylor's contents is called, "5 Strategies for Choosing a Major".  What a great piece of useful content for high school seniors and juniors.  How does a 17 year old kid really know what they want to do in life.  Baylor is attempting to help them. And help is all what Content Marketing is about.

3. Personalized Greeting

This is not 1978.  Computers and computer programs have made it very easy to personalize your letters. A generic form letter is not going to cut it. Always, always make sure you address the letter to the student. And make sure to spell their name right.

4. Landing Page - Get Their Email

The key to Inbound Marketing is to get their permission to send them more stuff.  Baylor does a great job setting up a simple "Landing Page" website for students to get their Major Guide, and at the same time collecting information about interested students in their school.  We use LeadPages in our district to create slick micro-content websites to build our email database.

5. Personalized Password - Make them Feel Special

This is a great way to add more exclusivity to your marketing.  Giving each student their own password makes them feel special like they our in a secret, exclusive club.

6. Strong Introductory Sentence

You need to spend a great deal of time developing your opening sentence of your letter.  many students won't read pass your first couple of lines. Make sure they are strong to keep them reading.  Tell them how you are going to help them.

7. Formally Introduce the Lead Magnet

Baylor teased the "Free Prize" earlier in the the letter.  Now it is time to expand on what you can offer them to make the best choice when choosing a college.  You must tell them why your content marketing piece is so useful.  How is it going to change their lives?

8. Discuss Your Benefits

Hopefully Baylor sold their recipients on the benefits of downloading their lead magnet.  Now it is their opportunity to sell the students on their university without getting long winded.  It is a great idea to tie-in the lead magnet you are offering.  Baylor uses two paragraphs with a couple of sentences each to sell their school.  This is not a dissertation. The whole point is to get them to take the next step, and then send them additional content in the future.

9. Close with Your Lead Magnet

Just like a good English paper, always restate your opening paragraph to close your letter.  Baylor uses the last paragraphs to once again remind the reader about their awesome college major guide.  Hopefully, one more reminder will encourage the readers to take advantage of the free content.

10. Personalized Signature

Take the time for someone important to offer a signature.  It doesn't have to be fresh ink, but it better look that way.  If students think the Senior Director of Admissions at Baylor took the time approve this message, it might feel a bit more important to the student. Have your superintendent or principal sign your letters.  They are more important than you... haha.

11.  P.S. Remind them How Great You Are

Baylor takes the opportunity to remind the reader how great they are and reminds them of the "Lead Magnet".  And to tell you the truth, the post script might be read first by some students.  Make it strong, and sell your program.

12. Contact Info

Make sure you give them some contact information for your program.  It won't be read much, but some of your more anal students will take advantage of knowing your address.

Colleges and universities are starting to spend big bucks to market to high school students.  It is a great source of inspiration for K-12 School Public Relations and Marketing.

Here is a closer look at the Baylor letter:

5 Things I Do to Start my Day to be Successful

I am a morning person.  I like to get to the office by 6:00 a.m. each morning.

Getting to the office this early allows me to get things done before most of my staff arrives to start the day.  The quiet time with no disturbances from co-workers means I can get a lot done.

Here is my morning ritual during the first two hours when I arrive at work.

1. Energy Boost for the Day

I do not dive into my work when I first walk into the office. I have to have my morning coffee.  Walking to the break room allows me turn on all the lights around the administration building while I take a deep breath before I dig into the day.

I always fix my pecan-flavored coffee with no sugar and a bit of cream.  After my levels are correct, I crack open my laptop and begin my workday.

2. Current Events and my Love of Marketing

I am obsessed with news.   I want to be in the know.  This is why each morning I read the headlines and jump over to my favorite blogs to see what is trending in marketing and social media.  It is crucial to stay current with your industry and see what is hot. 

Here are some of my favorite blogs to read in the morning:

Social Media Examiner

CMO by Adobe

Content Marketing Institute

Hubspot Marketing Blog

I highly recommend bookmarking these pages to get your daily dose of marketing and social media tips. They are great reads by industry professionals.

3. Moneyball my School Marketing

My second obsession is data.  I love numbers and I love spreadsheets.  That is why I always check my website and social media analytics each morning.  My big three are Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and Twitter Analytics.

Google Analytics is my go to analytics platform for my website visitor data.  I use Google for both our main district website and our School-A-Hoop parenting blog.

My favorite dashboards and numbers to look at are:

• Content Analysis- what were the most popular sections of my website
• Referral Traffic- how did people get to my website
• Bounce Rate- are they exploring more of my site, or one and done?
• Location of Visitors- where do my visitors come from? Local?
• Navigation Summary- what did they do once they made it to our site?

Most of our parents are on Facebook. This is their social media platform of choice.  That is why it is crucial that I check Facebook Insights each morning.  It gives me a great breakdown of how people are engaging with my content.  It also lets us know what content is working and what is not working.

My favorite insights are:

• People- who was my audience for the last seven days?
• Reach- how far did my content go? Did it go beyond my fans?
• Engagement- did my post cause the audience to take an action
• Competitor Analysis- always check to see what other districts are doing

Although Twitter is not as powerful when it comes to audience engagement for our district, I still like to analyze the numbers to see what content is working for us.

Here are the statistics I look at:

• Tweet Impressions- how many people saw my post
• Follower Count- check to see how my content pulled in new audiences
• Engagements- see how people are interacting with my posts and my CTA’s

Remember, numbers are your friends.  They can help prove the effectiveness of your campaigns and social media content.

4. Social Media for the Carpool Crowd

Every morning during the school week, I plan a Facebook post and a tweet to be delivered during our morningcarpool.  It’s a great way to target a captivated audience as they wait for the school doors to open.  

My morning ritual for social media is to find engaging content that is most likely going to be shared, and then write a eye-catching headline for the post.  An awesome visual is a must for my posts.  I never post on social media without a visual.

The content always determines what time I schedule my post.  If it is an elementary school story I post during their carpool.  If it is a middle school story I post during their drop-off.  If the morning story has to do with one of our high schools, I will post about 15 minutes before the first period bell rings.  High school students love to hang with their friends and their smartphones before school starts.

Another great time to schedule a social media post is during the afternoon pick-up times.  Parents typically have to wait in front of the school much longer waiting on their child.

5. Exercise While I Podcast

The last fifteen minutes before my team arrives for the day is my daily walk around the board room.  This allows for me to get some steps on my Fitbit before I start my morning meetings.  It also allows for me to listen to marketing podcasts while I exercise.  Most of the time I finish a podcast that was not quite finished during my morning commute.

I love catching up on all the industry and marketing trends while I walk.  The majority of the time I listen to marketing or social media content, but occasionally I will listen to some MLB podcasts to get he latest headlines for my favorite sport.

*Creating Content Marketing Gold

The above rituals are the norm four of the five days of the week.  Wednesday is a tad bit different.  On Wednesday I put on my publisher hat and edit blog posts for our School-a-Hoop parenting blog.

Every Wednesday I will take an expertly written piece of content from teachers and administrators in our district and I will prepare it to be published on our blog.

Here the editorial steps I take to get it ready to be published:

• Read for Grammar- I always read for typos and grammatical mistakes
• SEO Optimization- I write my headline and create SEO tags for the post
• Photshop my Visuals- I always prepare visual content for my posts
• Prepare a Social Media Post- I create a separate visual and engaging copy

Writing the article is only the first step when you write for a blog.  You must prep your article to be seen by the masses.

My First Morning is Now Complete

The stuff above is usually accomplished before my co-workers hit the office.  I am tired by the end of the week, but I always feel accomplished. Luckily I have my own key and alarm code for the building.  It would be pretty lonely waiting in the parking lot trying to find a WiFi signal.