My Thoughts for the Week - Now in Video

I have been trying something new this week. When I have an idea or have some thoughts on marketing, I pull out my smartphone and make a video. It is my "Marketing Thought" journal for the 21st Century.

Like Gary Vaynerchuk says... "F@$&!*% Document!

1. True Engagement on Social Media

Your goal is to get share and comments over likes

Shares > Comments > Likes

2. The Importance of School Marketing

Let's face it... Ninety-five percent of your parents don't care about your school district. They care about where their kids go to school.

On average, children spend about 35 hours inside their schools per week. It is their second home. It is their second family. Because of this, parents are more likely to care about school communication and marketing than the district.

3. "I Don't Know"... Giving Power to the Parent

Telling the stories of your classroom gives parents the power to engage in conversation with their child when they get home each day.

4. Marketing is an Investment

It is critical that you convince your higher-ups through data that marketing is an investment, not an expense. 

So many people put marketing into the category of an expense on the balance sheet. This is not right. If done correctly, you should see a Return on Your Investment or ROI. 

Social media ads are a great and inexpensive way to do this. 

5. How Do I Reach Generation Z Part 1: Content

"In a meeting this morning the topic was how to reach 17-24 year olds that are not enrolled or interested in college. The person leading the meeting showed the brochure they had printed. Probably not the best way to engage that age group, but what is? Any ideas out there? Thanks."

I think this generation is very anti-ad and would rather have content that is going to help them make an informed decision about college or help them break barriers to college.

Here are some ideas you could implement:

Part 1: Content

1. Guide to College Blog Written by Current Students
2. Guide to College Podcast or Video Series
3. Find Key influencers (not celebrities, but real Gen Z students) to help spread your content
4. User-Generated Content from Students
5. Twitch Channel with College Helpful Content - A video blog on Twitch (IRL)

6. How Do I Reach Generation Z Part 2: Ads

I think this generation is very anti-ad and would rather have content that is going to help them make an informed decision about college or help them break barriers to college.

Here are some ideas you could implement: 

ADS or Social Media

1. YouTube Pre-Roll Ads 
2. Twitch Ads 
3. Snap-Chat  
4. Get on Instagram and Tell a Story
5. Instagram Ads 
6. Events 

5 Awesome Articles to Boost Your Facebook Live Broadcasts

Do you want to improve your Facebook Live Strategy?

Are you looking for ways to standout on social media?

In this article, I share five of the most popular posts from around the web that will help your company excel using Facebook Live.

Streaming video is becoming a vital part of an organizations social media strategy. Engagement using streaming videos on platforms like Facebook and Instagram is much higher than a traditional post.

Click the Titles to Read the Articles...

5 Awesome Articles to Boost Your Facebook Live Broadcasts

#1: How to Easily Broadcast Multi-Camera Live Video for Facebook Live

Discover how to integrate visuals and work with multiple camera angles to broadcast professional-quality live video to Facebook and YouTube.

Published on Social Media Examiner by Erin Cell

#2: How To Use Live Streaming To Grow Your Brand

Facebook and Instagram live are the newest trend in many social media platforms. It’s used not only for personal purposes, but it can also grow your brand.
Published on Socialmediaweek.org by Jeff Yonata

#3: Your Marketing Strategy Needs Facebook Live (Infographic)

If your marketing strategy doesn’t include Facebook Live streaming—it should. Not convinced? These stats speak for themselves.

Published on Wowza.com by Holly Regan 

#4: Six Facebook Live Tips to Drive Engagement

Wondering how you can improve your engagement using Facebook Live and streaming video? In this blog post, you'll learn about six tips that will improve your audience engagement using Facebook Live and Streaming Video.

Published on Socialmediaschoolhouse.com by Jason Wheeler 

#5: How to Rock Your Facebook Lives for Maximum Exposure 

HOW TO ROCK YOUR FACEBOOK LIVES FOR MAXIMUM EXPOSURE I swear live video is the best thing to happen to online marketing! I embraced live video early on in my entrepreneur journey and I've seen it...

Published on brandmerry.com by Michelle Knight 

Conclusion

The best way to master Facebook Live is to learn from successful companies and individuals that are doing it right. Facebook Live is not complicated, bu there are simple ways to boost your engagement on the platform.

Do you have any questions about Facebook Live? Leave them 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 [2]

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 two of two focusing on the first five trending areas. 

 

Part 1 Can Be Found Here

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

 

6. Customer Service is Marketing

In the era of chatbots and automated marketing techniques, personal interaction may be the last thing on your mind for your 2017 marketing strategy.  However, as 2017 quickly approaches, customer service will be extremely important.

Use your social media platforms to answer your parent’s concerns. Train your frontline staff the importance of making a good impression every time they greet visitors or answer the phone.

Advertising great David Ogilvy’s famous quote is very relevant, “The consumer is not a moron, she’s your wife” Or better yet… your parents, students, and voters.

7. Interactive Content is Cool

People don’t want to be sold too.  They want to be entertained. They want to be engaged.  Your content needs to be engaging.

Storytelling is always key in engaging your audience.  People are captivated by an emotional story that relates to their life, but that does not mean you have to tell a story all the time.  Sometimes you can just have fun.

How to Create an Interactive Tweet that will Drive Engagement for Your Company

 

Build polls in Twitter, create quizzes that relate to programs in your district, or have contests with User Generated Content.  The key is to have fun with your audience and make them part of the experience.  The more they interact with your content, the longer they are going to stay on your site.

Here is an article that might help with interactive content:

4 Tools to Create Interactive Content in Minutes

8. Don’t Forget the Millennials and Gen Z

Can you believe it? Millennials are now your parents. And they can not be treated the same way you treat your normal audience.

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 is an article I wrote to help gain trust from your younger audience:

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

9. Focus on Native Advertising

Print is almost dead. Unless you are trying to build brand awareness, putting an ad in your local newspaper is going to be a bust. There is little return on your investment. However, there might be a way to squeeze a little life out of newspapers… especially online.

In 20 Years… A School District Will Buy a Local Newspaper

Native advertising might be your best bet when it comes to newspapers.  Native advertising according to sharethrough.com is a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed. Meaning you could write a story about your district and pay for it to be in a newspaper.

There are several other opportunities with native advertising. 

Here are some examples from Copy Blogger:

12 Examples of Native Ads (And Why They Work)

10. The Rebirth of Email

You read any marketing book or blog and you are going to read about the importance of building your email list. The problem with education is that we think asking for parent email addresses and sending a blanket email to the entire district is best practice. It is not. Niche lists are key.

Building niche lists from a specific audience is easier than you think. We know our students have thousands of different interests, and we know their parents want to know how their children can pursue these interests. This is how you capture their email for specific lists.

Landing pages will play an important role in building your lists. And with landing pages, you will need some form of a lead magnet to entice them to sign-up for your list.

You can learn more about landing pages and lead magnets here:

16 of the Best Landing Page Design Examples You Need to See

Leadpages.net

Once you have their emails you can target them with specific messages and engaging content. It is a great way to sell your programs and target specific interests.

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

Camera Basics to Create Better Videos

Camera Basics to Create Better Films from Jason Wheeler

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.