5 Critical Elements of a Blog Post for Content Marketing Success

Has your district ever considered content marketing?

Wondering how content marketing might fit into your overall marketing strategy?

Many school districts have never considered content marketing as a valuable communications strategy, and many one-person departments feel they don’t have the time to start something so complicated.  

But what if I told you starting is as simple as creating a blog? 

In this podcast, you’ll discover why content marketing is so useful, why a blog is the most important element to start your strategy, and the five most important things to do to build an epic blog post.

5 Critical Elements of a Blog Post for Content Marketing Success

• Why Content Marketing - 1:13
• The Headline - 2:50
• Strong Visuals - 3:22
• The Opening Paragraph - 4:08
• Top Keywords - 4:50
• Call to Action - 5:54

The insights in the podcast are a great place to start in creating your content marketing strategy.

Articles Referenced in Podcast:

• How to Write Catchy Headlines and Blog Titles Your Readers Can't Resist 
• 20 Awesome Tools for Creating Engaging Visuals for Your Blog 
• How to Nail the Opening of Your Blog Post 
• Blog SEO: How to Search Engine Optimize Your Blog Content 
• 8 Types of CTAs You Should Absolutely Try on Your Blog

Having a blog is a powerful tool to help brand your district as the “Education Experts”, which will gain the trust of parents. And trust will go a long way in persuading a parent to enroll their child in your district.

Do you have any questions about Content Marketing or Blogs? Leave your questions in the comment section below.

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.

School Marketing Trends to Own in 2017

With the first semester coming to a close, it is time to start thinking about what strategy we will have in place for 2017.  

Last year saw quite a few changes in the why and the how school districts are marketing to their parents, students, employees and community. Marketing is an investment all of education will have to adopt going into the new year.

This is part one of two focusing on the first five trending areas.

Part Two Can Be Found Here

Here are my first five thoughts of where school districts should concentrate their marketing in 2017:

1. Tell Your District Stories

You have to stand out.  You have to differentiate.  What makes you stand out from all the other school districts, charter schools, and private schools are your stories.

Your audience wants to feel an emotional connection to the content you’re publishing.  Since the dawn of time, people have communicated with stories.  People remember a good story.  People remember stories that make a connection or they can relate to. This is why it is important to treat your department like a newsroom.

Read my post: In 20 Years... A School District Will Buy a Local Newspaper

Your team must track down the emotional stories that will make your district rise above the rest.  And when you do find these impactful stories, you will see engagement with your content go through the roof. 

Read my post: Visual Storytelling: Part 3 - Tell a Story

2. Unlock Your Education Influencers

Your department is no longer the public relations department or the District Communications Department. Your department is the whole district.  Use the experts in your district to tell your stories and create your content.

We are not all experts of everything in education, but I do know there is someone in your district that can make you look like you are. Influencers are a huge talking point for the future of marketing.  Lucky for us we have a whole district full of them.

We have educators, administrators, parents, senior citizens, students, voters, and many different community members that can tell a much better story about their niche than we can.  Use them… and don’t hide that you are using them. People tend to trust outsiders rather than listen to a paid spokesperson.

Make a list of all of you influencers and start tapping into their expertise.  Have them write a blog post, or maybe give a testimonial.  Utilize their power to make your district standout.  

3. Paid Social to Engage

The dreaded algorithm… Facebook has it. Instagram has it.  Twitter is developing one.  Sooner than later we are not going to be able to reach everyone we want to reach. It is going to eventually lead us to paying to play on social media.

Yes, you are going to have your moments of a stellar organic vial post, but that is not the norm anymore.  Social media advertising is going to be key in reaching what we want to reach.

The beauty of social media advertising is that can pinpoint a niche that we want to target with our promotions or ads.  Did you know on Facebook you could send an ad to mothers who have two kids that have researched private schools in a certain zip code? You can even narrow it down to if they watch General Hospital in the last week. Niche targeting is a very powerful tool.  Use it to your advantage.

Watch a video on my thoughts of Social Media in School District

4. You Must Have Video

Video is a must! What was once a nice to have in school districts due to the large cost and massive undertaking is now vital tool to communicate with your community.

Video does not have to be a Hollywood production. Your smartphone is a powerful tool that allows you to plan, film, edit, and publish your video masterpiece.  Story is key, with good sound quality a close second. You image is not as important as you might think. 

Read my post: Camera Basics to Tell a Better Story

So many people are use to smart phone videos that having an expensive camera for your productions is a thing of the past. Nobody cares if you are Steven Spielberg, as long as you tell a compelling story they can understand and hear.

Live streaming video on your social platforms is a must in 2017.  Facebook, Twitter, and now Instagram all have some form of a live video component.  Live video is becoming so important that for the first time, Facebook has invested millions in television commercials to promote Facebook Live.

Read my post: 12 Easy Facebook Live for Your District 

5. Develop a Strategy Around Your Analytics

There is no excuse not to study your analytics while making decisions about your school district’s marketing. There are so many powerful tools that are free and easy to use. Data is a very powerful mechanism that should drive your strategy.

Your districts first step is to make sure your website is connected with Google Analytics. It does not matter if you did not create your own website. Apply this free tool from Google on all of your sites.

Your second task is to make sure you are using your insights and analytics within your social media platforms. It is vital that you know which posts and tweets are having the biggest impact with your followers.

Once you have mastered some of the free analytic reports, it might be a good idea to use some pay services that dig deeper into your data. Sprout Social, HootSuite and Buffer are some tools you might consider. The key is not to be afraid of data, but embrace your data.

Read my post: My 6 Job title Predictions for School PR 

Part Two Coming Soon

These are my first five trends in school marketing for 2017.  Make sure to check back next week when I reveal my next five trends. Have a safe and relaxing winter break. 

Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Why CFBISD Redesigned Our Website from Scratch and How it Became a Powerful Marketing Tool

We are very excited to announce the launch of our newly designed website at www.cfbisd.edu.  The site’s homepage features bright colors, strong visuals, and an easy to navigate, uncluttered design. We wanted to make the new website faster, easier to navigate, and more user-friendly. Instead of studying other school district sites, we wanted to borrow ideas from innovative companies and organizations.

The newly designed front page was created to make navigation on our website quick and simple. Instead of endless rows of menus and text-heavy pages, we have chunked our content into hubs, using strong visual graphics and icons, so our community can find what they are looking for as quickly as possible.

Some of the highlights of the main homepage include:

Easy to Navigate Column Menus

We designed our menus to be easily navigated to find the information you are looking for. We did away with the traditional waterfall menus, which are not mobile friendly. Our new column menus make it easy to see all the content that is most important to our users.

Plus, our “Department Menu” is an index listing of all the important categories in alphabetical order to make finding what you’re looking for easy. The index is based on keywords that were created from our most-visited sites determined by webpage analytics and statistics

Big Menu Buttons that Direct Our Users to Our Highly Visited Sites 

These big, multicolored buttons link to our most visited sites. When clicked, they take our audience to "hubs" for specific sections and links just for them.

Clicking on the “School Button”, takes you to an index listing of all our campuses and centers. We know parents love to visit their personal learning community, and want to make it easy to get there. You will also notice our newly designed school pages patterned after our front-page design. 

The “Parents and Student Section” takes you to hubs with information and programs designed to make your school year a success. We spoke with students and parents about what type of content they want to see on their page, and then created a hub around those in-demand webpages.  From these hubs you can get to things like parent and student self serve, library resources, useful calendars, and much, much more.

The “Opportunities Section” is continually being update everyday with links to programs and special events for students, parents, job seekers and the entire CFB Community. Visiting this page will give you a glimpse of the wonderful opportunities CFBISD has to offer.

Trending Section with Important Announcement and Events

The “Trending Section” on our website is a place with our most important events and programs.  No more searching through calendars, written text or lengthy menu options.  The trending section will highlight important information our entire CFBISD family needs to know about. Located toward the top of the webpage will make it easy for visitors to know what is happening in CFBISD.

Calendar Section that Focuses on Important Weekly Events 

The “Calendar Section” on the front page is a weekly event calendar of awesome events happening in CFBISD.  Everything from fine art programs to athletic events will be featured on our main website in this section. The weekly calendar will give our community a snapshot of great things happening in our district.

Click on “Show More Events” and visitors will be taken to a monthly calendar with a chronological listing of events happening in CFBISD. Each school website has this feature as well, concentrating on school specific events for that campus.

News Section Featuring Recent Accolades and Important Events 

The “News Section” on the main website will feature awesome accomplishments and breaking news stories happening in CFBISD. Using visuals instead of paragraphs of written text, the news section delivers content that is fresh and exciting. We encourage everyone in the community to send us great things happening at our schools and around the district. And to encourage sharing, we added social share buttons to all of our news posts. It's an easy way for our visitors to share our content.

Community Section for People Who Want to Get Involved 

The “Community Section” on our front page is a wealth of resources for the entire CFBISD community. There are special sections for realtors, volunteers, business partners, senior citizens and both student and adult ambassadors.  Webpages in the “Community Section” allow people to sign-up to make a difference in their community

No more searching through endless menus to find the information you need. The website is designed to get you where you need to be… plus, it’s mobile friendly for your tablet or smartphone device.

Come visit our page and scroll through our awesome site at www.cfbisd.edu

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

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.

23 Easy Things You Can Do This Summer to Improve Your District Marketing

In school communications, there is no summer break. It is vital you keep spreading the great stories that make your district great. 

Summer is also a great time to do small things to make your marketing and communications better in your district.  It can be hard to get motivated during the lazy months of summer.

Here are 23 very random and very easy things you can do to improve your marketing, communications, and school public relations for your district this summer:

1. Change Your Cover Photo on Facebook
2. Retweet Five Influencers on Twitter
3. Profile an Alumni that is Making a Difference
4. Spend $5 on Facebook Advertising for Back to School
5. Write a Blog Post about Great Books Students Can Read Over the summer
6. Secure Your District Name on SnapChat
7. Start Spreading Your Back to School Hashtag
8. Check Your Website for Typos
9. Post Pictures of Your District Working During the summer
10. Create a Video of Your Principals Welcoming Back Students
11. Review and Update Your About Section on Facebook and Twitter
12. Participate in #k12prchat on Twitter
13. Post on Facebook and Tweet at Least Once a Day
14. Facebook Live a Summer Message from Your Superintendent
15. Verify All Your School’s School Supply Lists are posted
16. Send a Quick Survey to Your Parents
17. Post pictures on Social Media of All Your New Principals
18. Notify Your Followers When There Are 30 Days Before First Football Game
19. Create A Call to Action Button on Facebook
20. Develop Five Audience Personas for Your District
21. Learn Five Concepts about Video Editing
22. If You Don’t Have One – Create an Instagram Account
23. Take Exterior Pictures of Each One of Your Schools

These are just a few things you can do this summer to improve your district's communications and marketing. They are easy and take very little effort.

After doing some of these simple things, I would suggest experimenting with Content Marketing, Social Media Advertising, LinkedIn Development, and Video Production.

Do you have other easy ideas? Are you doing anything special this summer? Leave them 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:

5 IFTTT Recipes That Can Really Help Your School PR and Marketing

If there was a magic recipe that could help streamline your social media or school PR and marketing would you use it?  What if I said that recipes exists?

I think it is time you visited IFTTT.com.

IFTTT, or If This Then That, is a free web-based service that allows users to create chains of simple conditional statements, called "recipes", which are triggered based on changes to other web services such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. (Wikipedia)

In simple terms, it lets you automate small tasks between Internet-connected services.

Here is a list of five recipes I compiled that will get you started on the service and help streamline school PR and marketing tasks:

1. Sync new contacts to a Google Spreadsheet  

Automatically save new iOS Contacts you add on your iPhone to a Google spreadsheet for easy sorting and searching.   Find It Here

2.  Save a copy of new photos you take to Dropbox

Make sure you never loose your precious photos by having them automatically uploaded to a Dropbox folder for safe keeping.  Find It Here

3. Save Your Instagram Photos to Dropbox

Automatically backup all new Instagram posts directly to Dropbox. Keep in mind, it works only for photos you post going forward.  Find It Here

4. Save Every Tweet

Archive your new tweets into a Google Drive for simple and easy tracking.  Find It Here

5. Track mentions of a specific #hashtag in a Google Spreadsheet 

Keep track of what people are saying about your business on Twitter by automatically saving new Tweets with a specific #hashtag to a Google Spreadsheet. Find It Here

These are a few recipes to get you started. Do you have favorite recipes you use with IFTTT? Post them in the comment section below.