My 2016 School Marketing Social Media Draft

In the spirit of this year's NFL draft, our district has put together our 2016 - 2017 Social Media Mock Draft.

Does your district have a ranking?  Are you ready for the new future of social media?

1. Facebook

This is our highest engaging social media platform.  Driven by parents (we don’t see students here much anymore), this social media powerhouse just reported record earnings fueled by advertising.  Our strongest demographic on the platform is women aged 35 – 44.

How Your District Can Benefit from Facebook Audience Optimization

You don’t get much bang for your buck with organic posts like you use to, but this veteran can score you some engagement wins with target and retargeted paid ads.  Ads can be very cheap compared to traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television.  Now with Facebook Live, you can broadcast live video straight to your timeline.  Game Changer!

2. Instagram

We get most of our student traction from social media on this Facebook owned platform (we are early into SnapChat with no official launch).  Students in middle school and high school don’t mind mentioning us on their feeds or interacting with our posts.

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

Now that you are not limited to a square pic, and that you can post video, this is an awesome resource to reach your students.

3. Twitter

Unfortunately, this star has fallen quite bit in engagement and reach.  We do get some interaction from the parents and students, but we have noticed less and fewer students want to interact on Twitter.

We do think it still has some potential with the ability to post video and to conduct Twitter chats with parents and the community.  Twitter does work well with community and business partners, as they tend to retweet our content.  I think the company needs to overhaul some things to have a fourth quarter resurgence.

4. LinkedIn

This is on our list to great things for our district in the 2016 – 2017 season.  LinkedIn is not just a tool for HR.  It has become a content hub for professionals.

We feel this platform will be a superstar when it comes to engaging our community and business partners.  Now with “showcase pages”, we can provide strategic content to our different audiences.  We are looking to take our content marketing to the next level with this professional player.

5. YouTube

I do not really consider YouTube social media (it is more like a search engine for video content), but it still has some social aspects that allowed us to have it ranked number five in our mock draft.

Video is power in marketing.  With broadband internet pretty much the norm, you do not have to worry about the dreaded buffering pop-up like the past.  More and more marketing departments are investing in video.  It is time your district invests in the “number two” search engine in the world.

6. SnapChat

This will be a game changer in video marketing.  I am sure in next year’s draft; this young platform could reach number two. 

Millennials are now the largest demographic surpassing baby boomers… and they are all on SnapChat. Now with the Story Tool, this has become a powerful way to publicly communicate.

If you are scared to tip your toe into the SnapChat waters, there is still a way to be noticed on the platform.  I suggest Geo-Filters.  It is a great way to target SnapChatters in certain zip codes to interact with your brand or district.  Geo-Filters alone would make SnapChat a safe bet to draft this rookie at number five.

7. Periscope

This platform had a quick rise, but has lost much of its luster with Facebook introducing Facebook Live.

10 Periscope Ideas for Your School PR Department 

Periscope is still a great way to interact with your Twitter followers in a live setting.  I don’t mind picking it up in the third or fourth round.  Here are some suggestions on great ways to use the platform from an earlier post on my blog.

8. Pinterest

To be honest, our district needs more of a Pinterest presence.  It is still a powerful tool to interact with parents, especially moms.

The key is to be strategic with your posts and not go pin crazy.  We need a clean-up on aisle Pinterest in our district.  We do get some nice engagement using the Pin-It button on our blog visuals.  Try to find this WordPress plugin for your blog.

9. Vimeo

Not as widely accepted as YouTube, but it is a great for embedding clean video on your website and blog.  The best part is there are no ads or pre-roll to get in the way of your content.

10. “Mr. Irrelevant”

Google Plus

You would think Google would be able to get at least one hit in the social media landscape, however, this is not really a game-changer for our district.  We do use it to drive small traffic to our blogs, but other than that we rarely use this dying platform.

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 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. 

What Your School District's Social Media Plan Can Learn From Oreo - Less is More

 

According to the Dallas Morning News, Mondelez International Inc. is launching a new line of Oreo Thins in the U.S. next week. The slimmed down cookie will be 140 calories for a package of four, compared to 160 calories for three cookies. The thinner cookie was created to appeal to adults who want a  “sophisticated cookie,” the company said.

Oreo’s thinner philosophy should be your school’s new social media strategy. Just because social media is all the rage these days, does not mean you have to dive into every platform that is out there. Your school district should be strategic on selecting your social media communication plan.

The best piece of advice I can give your district is to find out what platforms your core audience is using and conquer those before you move into emerging areas. Most school districts have a core audience of parents, students and community members including local business that they are targeting. My recommendation is to choose five platforms to reach those audience members. Those can be different depending on your district and its demographics, but there are some that are better than others when it comes to market saturation.

Here are our big five:

1. Facebook

Facebook is big for us. Even though students claim to hate Facebook, we find that when there is an engaging post they like, they are still there. Facebook has also become a hug communication tool to our parents. More and more of our parents have chosen Facebook as their social media platform of choice.

2. Twitter

We tend to be a little less serious when it comes to Twitter.  We find more of our students and young professionals are on this platform.  We use Twitter to post pictures of our students doing great things, and event follow-up notices after we have posted a more detailed description on Facebook.

3. Instagram

This is where we target our students. This platform is safe compared to Snapchat and Vine for us. Most of our content on this platform are pictures of students and the great things they are doing in our district. Anytime we post a picture of students, our engagement levels are through the roof. We do tend to see parents on Instagram, but our students engage more then our parent browsers.

4. YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the United States.  Video is a wonderful platform for engagement. The more visual you can get in your social media is for the better.  Not only is Youtube very popular, but also Facebook native video is doing wonderfully in the engagement rankings.

5. LinkedIn

We have started to revamp our LinkedIn strategy in our district.  We know the business community can be a great asset for financially strapped school districts.  LinkedIn is much more than a job search platform.  You can engage professionals with event posts and recycled blog articles that best represent your district and what it has to offer. We have a long way to go with this social media site, but we have a strategic plan to get better.

As of right now, the sites above are what we are focusing on. We do have a Pinterest, but we are not very active. We do dabble with Periscope, but once again it is not our main focus.  We are continuing to monitor the social media offerings and see what we need to do next.  However, there is no need to jump on everything. Find out what you are good at and conquer those worlds before you dominate the entire industry. Take it from Oreo, sometimes more is not better.

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.

Why 2:30 PM Was the Perfect Time to Blog

CFB Parents are Happy

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

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

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

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

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

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.