39 More Awesome Facebook Live Ideas for Your District

It is time for your district to invest in video. Especially live, streaming video.

But do you know where to start?  Are you scared you don't know what to do?

In this article, you'll get 39 more awesome ideas to use Facebook Live to market your district and drive audience engagement.

I think you have read about all the great advantages video marketing can bring to your district. Sometimes it is hard to start rolling the camera.  The great thing about Facebook Live, is all you need is a smartphone and an idea.

Here are 39 simple ideas to help you launch a Facebook Live campaign:

1. Pep Rally

2. Graduation

3. Sporting Events

4. Athlete Signings

5. Homework Help

6. Virtual PTA Meetings

7. SAT Prep Classes

8. Community Donations to Schools

9. Principal Q&A

10. Bad Weather Announcements

11. Honor Roll Announcements

12. Cafeteria Menu Announcements

13. Story time – Teacher Reading Books

14. Inside Tour of Classroom

15. Virtual Field trips to Schools

16. Community School Tours

17. Construction Updates

18. College Acceptance Announcements

19. Faculty Talent Show

20. District Wide Professional Development

21. Student Roundtables

22. Community Parades

23. Homecoming Queen Reveal

24. Employee Fitness Classes

25. District Hot Topic Q&A

26. District VIP Announcements

27. Honor Retirees

28. Alumni Interviews

29. Fundraising Drives

30. Meet the Teacher Nights

31. Behind the Scenes of Jobs in District

32. New School Year Kick-Off

33. Live District New Show w/ Student Anchors

34. New School Ribbon Cutting

35. 100th Day of School Celebration

36. Science Fair Demonstrations

37. Student Registration Q&A

38. National Merit Reveals

39. Halftime Shows

Do you have other ideas for Facebook Live? Leave them in the comment section below.

Camera Basics to Create Better Videos

Camera Basics to Create Better Films from Jason Wheeler

Have a Plan Before You Go Viral

It's every marketer's dream to go VIRAL.

We dream of creating that one video that takes our YouTube Channel to the next level.

Before you go viral (which is really hard and requires a lot luck) you need to have a solid plan to make your YouTube Channel the best it can be. Because here is a secret... views are not the most important thing on YouTube.

Here are five things you must do before you create your next hit video:

1. Bring Your Brand to the Channel

Your brand is one of the most important assets you have when it comes to marketing your school district.  Every social media platform you are on, every post you create, should have your brand associated with it.

Do not let social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube do the branding for you.  Your brand is not a Twitter Egg.  Your district's logo should be your profile picture.  Action shots of your teachers and students need to be your cover picture.  There should be no excuse when someone visits your YouTube Chanel that they do not know what district or school is being represented. Be proud of your logo. Show it off.

2. Have a Link to Your Website

Just like your logo, you must have a link to your district's website on all of your social media platforms. It is critical that YouTube is not be your visitor's final resting place. You need them to be on your own turf.

You do not own YouTube. No one knows what what the future holds for their platform or their rules. However, you do own your website, and it is important that your marketing, including YouTube, draw them to your "Hub" of resources... your website.

Once you have them on your own turf, you can show them other content and have them sign-up for your newsletter or email list. By doing this, you now have a database of people you can invite to events and share additional content with. They have given you permission to market to them.

3. Create a Trailer Video

An awesome feature on your YouTube channel is the channel trailer.  This powerful feature allows you to highlight a video and make it the focal point of your YouTube channel. My district has great success with these videos.  They gather bigger views and more engagement than our normal content on YouTube.

My advice would be to rotate various videos using this feature.  Do you have a program you want to highlight? Do you have an awesome event you want to promote? Use the trailer feature every time you have an important message to push. When you don't have a program to highlight, use a generic district trailer to give an overview of your district.


4. Have Other Great Content

Your viral video should not be your only content on your YouTube channel.  Build an arsenal of content before you heavily promote your channel.  You want to have more than one piece of marketing when your audience visits your channel.

5. A Call to Action?

The goal of having a YouTube Channel is not to get a bunch of views.  Having a lot of views can be fun, but that is not the most important number you should be focusing on.  Engagement and ROI should be what you are looking for.

Where is your audience going after they watch your video?  They need to be going somewhere.  You need to give them a Call to Action.  You can drive them to your website. You can have them sign-up for your newsletter. You can invite them to an event.  Video is power. Use it as a tool to drive engagement.

The best way to implement the above tasks is to have a plan.  You need a plan on every social media platform you are a part of.

Do you need help with YouTube? Amy Schmittauer at Savvy Sexy Social offers great tips on all things video.

Do you have any other YouTube tips? Leave them in the comment section below.

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

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.

The Awesome New Facebook Feature You Need Now [How To Video Included]

Have you noticed over the past couple of years you are not seeing all of your friend's posts on Facebook? That's because Facebook has created sophisticated algorithms that try to predict what you want to see in your news feed.

Marketing departments have really been impacted by these Facebook changes because it means not all of their fans are seeing valuable information posted on their page. School districts are in the same boat. Just because you parents have liked your fan page, does not mean they are going to see your posts.  Until now.

Facebook has rolled out a feature called "See First Feature" that allows Facebook users to tell their feed to always see a particulars page's (Hopefully your district's page) content first.

Here is a video from Social Media Examiner that explains how your fans can choose this feature for your page:

How to use Facebook's new "See First" feature
Facebook News Feed Changes: How to Get Your Page More Visibility from Your FansDiscover how to use Facebook's new "See First" feature for desktop and mobile users...
Posted by Social Media Examiner on Monday, July 13, 2015

 

The Year of Useful Content: 3 Ideas to Spark a Content Marketing Revolution in Your District

Do parents in your district yawn every time the same old newsletter hits their inbox? What do they truly crave?

For the second year in a row at the annual NSPRA conference, I heard experts in the field of school public relations say the most important thing to parents is that they feel they made a confident decision in the educational choice for their child.  They want justification that they are good parents.

It is our job to convince them they have made the best decision choosing our district and choosing public education.  They need our help.

The content Marketing Institute defines Content Marketing as:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

3 Ideas to Get Started with Content Marketing

1. Start a Blog

Don’t write about the cool things happening in your district. You can do that in other places. In the Content Marketing World, a blog ‘s purpose is to help, not advertise the bake sale.

Create a blog that helps your parents and students.  Have a blog post that offers reading strategies for kindergarteners.  Or maybe give your parents the 20 indicators of a gifted child.

The point is, you need to be useful.  Give your parents content they will want to read. Give them content they will want to share.

2. Produce How-To Videos

Lowe’s does an awesome job with their how-to series on home design and remolding. You can do the same thing with education.

Create a video called How-To Teach Your Child Simple Algebra.  You could also create a video series for pre-school parents on How-To Prepare Their Child Kindergarten.

The possibilities are endless.  Figure out what your parents want or need help with, and give it to them in the form of a video.

3. Start a Podcast

Podcasts are making a comeback. Your parents need something to listen to when they are driving to work.

You can create a podcast where you interview teachers. They can give advice on how to navigate the elementary to middle school transition.  You could also have a podcast featuring high school counselors focusing on the college admission process.   

Think of your audience’s pain points, and then help them with their problems.

What's the Point?

The whole point of these examples is to help your parents and students.  Give them useful content they can use to be successful.  In the end, you will become the expert that they will trust. They will follow you anywhere.

There are hundreds of ideas you can create. Jump on the Content Marketing bandwagon and start helping.

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

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.

Your Quick Summer School PR Guide to Beating the Competition

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.

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 article you’ll get a quick guide to rock your marketing during the summer off-season.

Here are six quick tips to out-market the competition:

1. Interview 10 Parents at 30 Seconds Each

Your parent ambassadors our critical to win over other families. What better way to broadcast the positive message about your district to the masses then by recording quick videos?

Videos are playing a big role in visual storytelling. Not only are they getting big views on traditional video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo, but they are also doing really well on Facebook. Native video has taken Facebook by storm. Posted videos are in the top categories for user engagement and do really well in their Edgerank algorithm.

The key is to get honest, positive experiences from your parents.  In this day of cell phone videos, your recordings don’t have to be anything fancy. Just have them tell their story. Film 10 Stories that you can post for each of the ten weeks of summer vacation.

2. Fifty Dollars to Target 15,000 Eyeballs

There is no better way to target a specific audience than doing social media advertising.  Facebook seems to be the best when it comes to targeting specific cities or addresses. We have used this many times to narrow our reach. We have found that most traditional advertising can’t be as specific as Facebook and Twitter.

By boosting existing posts, or creating a specific Facebook ad, all you need to do is spend $5 a week to reach an estimated 1,500 people. Numbers will vary depending on the addresses and demographics you choose, but tell me a better plan to target specific groups with specific messages and I will make the switch. It’s a cheap way to reach who you want to reach.

Make it a goal to boost or buy a $5 ad each week during the summer. By targeting these groups when most districts are on vacation, you will get great traction for converting some parents to your school district from theirs.

3. Build a Landing Page for a Specific Program You Want to Promote

Programs can be the life-blood to differentiating your district from the competition. We all have special programs that make our schools stand out. By having a webpage for specific programs, you can create a central location to brag to potential parents.

In my district we created a stand-alone website for our STEM programs and classes called CFBSTEM.com. The landing page offers a brief introduction to STEM and STEM in our district, and then we offer links to our specific STEM programs.

The key addition we added to our website is the link for the parents to request additional information about our programs. In the form we have them fill out their name, child’s age, current school and what program they have an interest in.  By having this form, we can create a database of interested parents. We can then use that database to send them specific ads or content we have created about our programs.

4. Content Marketing Outside Your District

We are focusing on content marketing quite heavily in my district.  Our thinking is that if we help our parents, they will look at us as the experts in education. During the summer months, it is a good idea to have a broad range of topics. Give your parents some things to think about when they are home with their kids.

Our most popular blog post this summer is our write-up of how to have a “staycation” in Dallas for under $50. Our parents loved it. It drove traffic to our blog and our website.  In 24 hours we had over 15,000 impressions and 30 new people liked our Facebook page. We got great numbers from a simple, fun article.

It worked because our parents are thinking about more than education during the summer.  They had a need to fill, and we helped them fill it. Ten weeks is a long time to entertain kids.  Hopefully we provided our parents with a week of inexpensive activities to do with their kids.

5. Send a Phone Call Home with a Checklist

Four weeks before school starts, send a phone call home reminding your parents or important dates and information they need to start the school. Be excited when you record the message. Get your families pumped up about coming back to school.

Some things you might want to include in the message are forms they will need to start the school year, dates and times of major district events, and a list of new procedures that are in place for the new school year.

6. Study Your Insights and 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.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions? Leave them in the comment section below.

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.

Tips in Response to Andrew Watts’ Article on Teens & Social Media [YouTube]

Here is a link to Andrew’s great article in case you missed it:

A Teenager’s View on Social Media Part 1

A Teenagers View on Social Media Part 2

In this post, I want to talk about the power of video and YouTube.

Here are Andrew’s thoughts on YouTube:

...YouTube is a website that has truly changed the world. It’s a site that everyone uses, and I have plenty of friends who go on it daily. For an avid internet user it’s almost impossible to ignore YouTube. The content is not only entertaining but also extremely helpful; there have been many classes where I have needed supplementary help on YouTube to understand the material.

Teenagers have a wide array of interests so it is hard to pin down specific YouTube accounts or topics they specifically like. I know plenty of people who love watching Let’s Plays on YouTube (videos where you watch someone play a video game while they talk about what’s happening in the game as well as other topics), and others who love watching beauty tutorials and makeup guides. This is what makes YouTube so awesome — there’s something for everybody.

Personally, I religiously watch The Phillip DeFranco Show on YouTube instead of typical cable news. And instead of watching late night television I often watch highlights of sketches from Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, and more on YouTube. YouTube has been a major part in replacing the amount of time I spend watching television due to the high quality of both original content on the site and more companies agreeing to put clips of their broadcasted content on the site...

My Takeaway for School Districts and Teachers

Video is powerful. Especially quick bursts of interesting content. After reading Andrew’s comments, it should come as no surprise that YouTube is the number two search engine in the world behind Google. Millennials love video.

The interesting part of Andrew’s article is when he writes:

…there have been many classes where I have needed supplementary help on YouTube to understand the material…

…I know plenty of people who love watching Let’s Plays on YouTube (videos where you watch someone play a video game while they talk about what’s happening in the game as well as other topics), and others who love watching beauty tutorials and makeup guides. This is what makes YouTube so awesome — there’s something for everybody.

This got me thinking… supplementary help on YouTube is a great idea. How can districts and teachers harness this power and finally flip the classroom in an interesting, engaging way? If teens love getting their information, why not put it out there?

“What a 'Flipped' Classroom Looks Like” by PBS News Hour

Here are Three Tips to Engage Through YouTube:

1. After School Tutorials at the Students House - student’s lives are very busy. The traditional tutorial times are hard for certain students to attend (jobs, extra-curricular, athletics, fine arts). Why not hold one-on-one tutoring in the students home in the form of video?

Posting short videos explaining hard topics covered in class could be great. Teachers could post additional videos in response to questions asked in the YouTube comment section. Make it interactive and helpful, and your students will appreciate the effort.

2. How to Videos - I think this is a great opportunity for senior/college counselors to go over the application and financial aid process with students. Some of your students could be the first in their family to attend college. The application process is difficult. Why not help them with visual how to videos?

3. Film Your Classroom - flu season really took a toll on our district this year. We had many students miss multiple days recuperating from the illness. Think if teachers filmed their classrooms. I know there are many laws that prohibit some students from being filmed, but there are ways to avoid filming students.

Like the tutorials, you could film the more difficult techniques or main points of your classroom discussion, focusing the camera on the teacher instead of the students. Complicated and takes some time, but could be very beneficial in the future.

There are endless possibilities on video. Many of the social media platforms are putting a strong emphasis on video. Engagement is key. The more people that are engaged with your social media, the more the algorithm is could to tip in your favor.