5 Must Listen to Podcasts So You Don't Lose Your School PR Job

In this day and age, you have to know the trends in the industry to be able to survive. School PR continues to adapt to new technology, new trends, and new marketing techniques.

Podcasts are a great resource to hear insight into marketing and public relations.

Here are 5 awesome podcasts that you need to be listening to:

1. Social Pros Podcast
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Social Pros is one of the most popular marketing podcasts in the world, and was recently named the best podcast at the Content Marketing Awards. Listen for real insight on the real people doing real work in social media. You get the inside stories and behind-the-scenes secrets about how companies like Ford, Dell, IBM, ESPN and dozens more staff, operate and measure their social media programs.

2. Content Pros Podcast 
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Welcome to the Content Pros podcast, where we unlock the strategies and secrets of the best content marketers in the world, and ask the questions you’ve always wanted asked. We talk to real people doing real work in content marketing, representing some of the world’s best brands. Learn their approach to strategy, operations, measurement, staffing and more.

3. Content Inc. with Joe Pulizzi  
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This is one of my favorites. Joe Pulizzi is founder of Content Marketing Institute, the leading education and training organization for content marketing, which includes the largest in-person content marketing event in the world, Content Marketing World. Joe is the winner of the 2014 John Caldwell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Content Council. Joe’s third book, Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less was named one of “Five Must Read Business Books of 2013” by Fortune magazine.

Each episode runs right around 10 minutes and will have one lesson or key takeaway that you can use in your business or life. Joe shares personal anecdotes from his life as well as lessons learned from others that have shaped his entrepreneurial style.

4. Marketing Smarts Podcast 
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This weekly podcast features in-depth interviews with smart marketers from all walks of life. Hosted by MarketingProfs, this 30-minute, weekly podcast delivers actionable insights and real advice to help you market smarter.

5. Social Media Marketing Podcast with Michael Stelzner  
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This is a must listen to podcast. Michael Stelzner is one of the leading experts in social media. In this show, you’ll discover success stories and expert interviews from leading social media marketing pros in a weekly 45-minute podcast. Discover how successful businesses employ social media, learn new strategies and tactics, and gain actionable tips to improve your social media marketing.

Do you have a favorite podcast? Leave a link in the comment section below.

*Descriptions pulled from podcast websites

Read These Books Before You Make the Same Old District Newsletter

You need to stop thinking the old fashion way. Just because we are in education, doesn't mean we can't be remarkable in our marketing.  Read these books to expand your horizons beyond a district newsletter.

1. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

You're either a Purple Cow or you're not. You're either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It's a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.

2. The Art of Social Media

By now it's clear that whether you're promoting a business, a product, or yourself, social media is near the top of what determines your success or failure. And there are countless pundits, authors, and consultants eager to advise you.

But there’s no one quite like Guy Kawasaki, the legendary former chief evangelist for Apple and one of the pioneers of business blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, Tumbling, and much, much more. Now Guy has teamed up with Peg Fitzpatrick, who he says is the best social-media person he’s ever met, to offer The Art of Social Media—the one essential guide you need to get the most bang for your time, effort, and money.

For beginners overwhelmed by too many choices as well as seasoned professionals eager to improve their game, The Art of Social Media is full of tactics that have been proven to work in the real world. Or as Guy puts it, “great stuff, no fluff.”

3. Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help Not Hype

The difference between helping and selling is just two letters, but those two letters make all the difference.

Jay Baer's Youtility offers a new business approach that cuts through the clut­ter: marketing that is truly, inherently useful. If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life.

Drawing from real examples of companies who are practicing Youtility as well as his experience helping more than seven hundred brands improve their marketing strategy, Baer provides a groundbreaking plan for using information and helpfulness to transform the relationship between companies and customers.

See why Jay Baer's Youtility framework is now a standard part of the marketing framework in many of the world's leading companies, powers the marketing approach of thousands of small businesses, and is part of the curriculum of dozens of college and university business schools. 

4. Disney U

When it comes to world-class employees, few organizations rival Disney. Famous for their friendliness, knowledge, passion, and superior customer service, Disney's employees have been fueling the iconic brand's wild success for more than 50 years.

How has Disney succeeded in maintaining such a powerful workforce for so many years? Why are so many corporations and executives drawn to study how Disney continues to exemplify service and leadership standards?

Disney U reveals the heart of the Disney culture and describes the company's values and operational philosophies that support the iconic brand. Doug Lipp lays out 13 timeless lessons Disney has used to drive profits and growth worldwide for more than half a century.

To this day, the Disney University continues to turn out some of the most engaged, loyal, and customer-centered employees the business world has ever seen. Using the lessons outlined in Disney U will set your organization on a path of sustained success.

5. The End of Marketing as We Know It

Marketing today doesn't work. Or so says the "Aya Cola," Sergio Zyman, former marketing czar of Coca-Cola and quite possibly the most famous marketing gadfly in the world. Brilliant, irascible, unconventional, Zyman is best known for reinventing the Coca-Cola Company's marketing approach by spearheading the global launches of Diet Coke, New Coke, Classic Coke, Fruitopia, and Sprite. Now, in this brisk and revolutionary book, Zyman shows why old approaches to marketing have lost their fizz--and how to get a jump on the strateies that will work in the twenty-first century.

6. The Power of Visual Storytelling

Attention is the new commodity. Visual Storytelling is the new currency.

Filled with full-color images and thought-provoking examples from leading companies, The Power of Visual Storytelling explains how to grow your business and strengthen your brand by leveraging photos, videos, infographics, presentations, and other rich media. The book delivers a powerful road map for getting started, while inspiring new levels of creativity within organizations of all types and sizes.

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

*  Book descriptions taken from Amazon.com

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. 

6 School PR Pros You Should be Following

Twitter is a great resource to network and find valuable information on School PR and Marketing. I pick-up so many great tips for my district each day on the social media platform.

Here is a list of my TOP 6 SCHOOL PR PROS I read each day:

1. Kristin Magette, @KMagette
    Eudora School District

Kristin is one of the leading authorities on social media for School PR.  Her new book, Embracing Social Media: A Practical Guide to Manage Risk and Leverage Opportunity, is a must read for districts trying to navigate the ever expanding world of social media.

Kristin's Website and Blog

2. Delania McCormack, @delainanicole
    Metro Washington D.C. School District

Delania is a PR specialist that specializes in digital design, email coding, website content, marketing and sometimes photography. Her tweets are a valuable source for any school district looking to improve their PR and marketing efforts.

Delania's Blog 

 
3. Shane Haggerty, @ShaneHaggerty
    Educator, School PR Consultant

Shane serves as the director of marketing & technology at Tolles Career and Technical Center, a career-tech school district that serves Madison, Union & Franklin County school districts in Central Ohio. Offers great tips in all things PR & social media.

Shane's Website

 

4. Dane Dellenbach, @BBDaneDell
    School PR Pro/Inventor

Inventor of ParentLink and Sociability. Founder of #K12PRchat. Dane gives great advice to his Twitter followers.  I always want to check to see what he is saying each day I get on Twitter.  Make sure to join #K12PRChat next chat.

Dane's LinkedIn

 

5. Tom Jackson, @TomJacksonPR
    Communications Strategist

Tom's blog is a great resource for PR professionals.  His tweets offer great insight and conversation for all school PR pros.  Being a baseball fan like myself does not hurt. I enjoy his commentary on the LA Dodgers. Go Kershaw.

Tom's Website and Blog

 

6. Brian Nicol, @bsnicol2
    Howard-Suamico School District

Brian's new blog is a breath of fresh air in the world of School PR. He gives insight as someone new to the School PR arena. He is an up and comer and is always tweeting valuable information. I see great things from this School PR newcomer.

Brian's Blog

How I Plan to Expand Our District’s Content Marketing on My Flight to Nashville: What I’m Doing to Win Parents and Students

“Regardless of quality, content marketing success must also include the community, distribution, and promotion.” – Mark W. Schaefer

I am going to accomplish THREE goals while I am at the NSPRA National Conference in Nashville next week.

1. Learn from my Awesome Colleagues
2. Network with PR and Marketing Professionals
3. Expand my District’s Content/Inbound Marketing Plan

Here is a breakdown of what I am going to do on my two-hour flight to boost goal number three of expanding my district’s content marketing initiative. Feel free my plan to expand your district’s own marketing strategy.

Car Ride to the Airport [25 minutes]

Your buyer/parent/student personas are very important as you build any type of marketing strategy for your district. The days of sending a blanket newsletter through email are over. You must have specific campaigns to specific personas you are trying to target. It’s all about moving your prospects through the decision making marketing funnel.

My first plan of action is to refresh my knowledge of creating personas by listening to Joe Pulizzi’s Content Inc. Podcast episode 60 entitled Building Personas Now.

The episode is around 6 minutes and gives great insight into personas and why you need them. Listen and take notes… unless you are driving yourself to the airport.

 

Waiting for my Flight at the Gate [45 Minutes]

Since we all have to get to the airport two hours early, this gives us plenty of down time waiting for our flight at the gate. During this time I plan to fill in Hubspots FREE Creating Buyer Personas Template.

This is a great in-depth resource to truly define whom you are targeting with your campaigns. This will be the foundation for all you do to reach the group you are targeting. It is very important to really know your audience. Every marketing piece or initiative should be driven by your personas. You will want to fill in more information when you get back from your trip by interviewing and surveying your persona group.

Before I board my flight, I am going to send an email to my district Webmaster to make sure the domain we purchased is linked to our website we created specifically for this campaign. I am also going to make sure our landing page and pop-up Call-To-Action buttons from Lead Pages are ready to drive our personas to our Super Content Offer.  More on Super Content later.

Flight to Nashville [Two hours]

Two hours is plenty of time to get stuff done. My first order of business is to write a blog article targeting the personas we have identified as the most important in brining new families to our district. A blog is a great way to consistently publish useful content for you parents that they will find valuable. If you district does not have a blog, here is a great video from Pat Flynn, which shows how to build a blog on Word Press in less than four minutes.

We use our blog, www.schoolahoop.com, as an educational tool for parents as they navigate raising their children in the 21st century. We have used this blog to drive readers to specific parts of our website, as well as capturing their email address to send exclusive content or invitations to our district events including specific programs they might be interested in.

I can usually write and edit a blog post in under an hour, as well as creating a catchy headline to go with the post. Publishing a blog post is not just about writing an article. You also need create graphics to go with your post as well as graphics to promote the blog post on social media and your website. Another important element that I mentioned above is creating your post headline. A catchy headline is very important in driving people to your post.

Here are some tips on writing a great blog post headline: 

Hubspot's Guide to Writing Kick- Ass Titles

In total, writing the article, editing, creating the headline, preparing it for SEO, creating visuals and publishing the post should take about two hours including a ginger ale drink break mid-flight.

Taxi Ride to Hotel [20 Minutes… Give or Take]

As I ride in the taxi with my district colleagues, I am going to review what I have put together so far in regards to new content for our new initiative. Get their feedback and see what needs revised.

NSPRA Conference [Sunday – Thursday]

I plan to put my content building on hold while I am at the conference. I’m going to take a break and learn from the best minds in School PR.

Taxi Ride to Airport [20 Minutes… Give or Take]

Our blog is such an important resource in our content plan; I figured I would review new ways to build our blog audience by listening to Social Media Examiner’s Show Podcast entitled 6 Ways to Grow Your Blog Audience. Socialmediaexaminer.com is one of my favorite websites to visit for great social media and marketing tips and trends.

Waiting for my Flight at the Gate [45 Minutes]

This chunk of time will allow me to create four different social media posts I can use for Facebook and Twitter to promote my blog post. Ninety-five percent of my social media posts have visuals.  I believe in visual storytelling. Twitter allows you 140 characters, but by attaching a picture, we can tell a whole story.  I recommend reading The Power of Visual Storytelling for great insight on visual storytelling.

The reason I create four different social media posts directing my audiences to the same blog post are that I don’t want to bore my audience. Mix up your social media. Don’t repeat your same post over and over again. And please do not use the same post across Twitter and Facebook. They are not the same medium.
 

Flight to Dallas [Two hours]

Now I need something special. I need Super Content. This might be in the form of a SlideShare (which has been a great success for my district), an eBook, How-To Videos, White Papers, Infographics or any other thing that will be of high value to my audience.

This piece of content needs to be very special for your audience, so they will want to give you something in return to get it. In order for your audience to get it, they need to give you something in return. Most of the time for us, this is getting their email address.

An email address can be very powerful. We use their email to send special event notices, information about programs and other promotional items including additional content that they may find valuable. Having the people you are targeting willingly give their email address is awesome. It means they are aware of you and they want more information. You are one step closer to reeling them in. 

A Few Days Later…

After I get back to the office next week, it’s time to combine all of these creations including the website and landing pages that were created, to build something special.

We will use our website and blog to drive our audience to the landing page we built by having a Call-to-Action using our Super Content. Social media will do double duty by driving people to our website and landing page.

Hopefully our content will be valuable enough to convert our audience from spectator to subscriber. Our main goal will be to gather email addresses and create an email campaign to pull them through our marketing funnel.

Do you have any questions about our content marketing process? Leave your questions 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.

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.