C.H.I.C.A.G.O: Getting the Most Out Of NSPRA 2016

As I was waiting in line for Chicago pizza last night, I realized I never posted my traditional NSPRA blog post I do each year.  I could have used a pizza metaphor for my post, but I ended up ditching the long line at the pizza joint and I ate at the hotel. Then it hit me when I was poking at my chicken, why not focus on the wonderful city of Chicago?

 

NSPRA is different for everyone, but I still feel there are some general things you can do to get the most from the conference. 

Here are my seven tips to have a successful NSPRA 2016… Chicago Style!!!

C.H.I.C.A.G.O Style

C – Challenge Yourself

Challenge yourself to breakaway from your tribe.  There are so many great minds at this year’s conference; you really need to challenge yourself to find them. Talk to everyone.  Make a connection.  Some of your best sessions will be the ones where you are sitting in the hotel lobby sipping on Starbucks coffee and talking with a fellow School PR friend.

H – Help Others

It is ok to share your ideas. We are all here to promote the awesome things happening in public education. Helping others will help you get better, and also fine-tune your creative ideas. And if you share with people, they are more likely to share with you.

I – Implement a Strategy

Make it a goal to take a strategy from a session you attended and make it your own.  It is not stealing… it is creative peer collaboration.  Find that one golden nugget that will help you transform one of your district’s communication goals from good to great.

C – Create a Plan

Have a plan each day to get the most from the conference.  What are your district’s goals? What sessions can you attend to make your district strategy and your own personal goals better? Don’t go to a session because it is the bright, new shiny trend. Go to a session because it’s going to help you get better.

A – Attack the Presenters

Not literally, but make sure you approach them after their session. If you attend a session that really aligns with your district strategy or you felt was just plain awesome, let the presenters know. They could have much more information after their session that they did not have time to go over in their allotted time. Make a contact, and have them send you their slides or additional information that will make you successful.

G – Go Social

To get the most out of your time at NSPRA 2016, you need to be in the social media loop.  Follow the important hashtags on Twitter: #schoolpr or #Nspra2016. Make sure to like NSPRA’s Facebook page.  They will be posting valuable content from presenters and presentations. And most importantly, interact with fellow conference goers.  Gain from their insights. Find their gold nuggets you can make your own.

O – Organize Your Notes

You brain is going to feel like it is going to explode each day with all the information you are going to receive.  And if your brain is anything like mine, you will have no clue what much of your notes mean because there was just so much information.  Your best bet is to go back to your hotel room each night and organize and make sense of your notes from each session.

Now go forth and conquer Chicago and NSPRA 2016! The power is in your hands. Make you school district proud!

Do you have additional tips you would like to share? Leave them in the comment section below

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.

5 Awesome Marketing Books You Should be Reading this Summer

I love to read marketing books.  There are so many smart people out there that are publishing some great books.  When you get time this summer, check out my list of great marketing books.

Here are my 5 favorite from the past year:

1. Momentum: How to Propel Your Marketing and Transform Your Brand in the Digital Age

Offering five essential principles that crack the code on marketing successfully in today’s ecosystem, Momentum: How to Propel Your Marketing and Transform Your Brand in the Digital Age will help you not only regain your sanity, but learn how to spot opportunities to grow your organization and brand in the midst of marketplace chaos.
 
In Momentum, Shama Hyder draws on her experience guiding clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 100s to demystify the marketing landscape and provide you with the digital foresight you need to operate effectively in an increasingly digital world. Using key principles, she demonstrates how to transform your current approach into an effective, struggle-free, ROI-driven strategy.

2.  Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

Everybody Writes is a go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer.

If you have a web site, you are a publisher. If you are on social media, you are in marketing. And that means that we are all relying on our words to carry our marketing messages. We are all writers.

In Everybody Writes, top marketing veteran Ann Handley gives expert guidance and insight into the process and strategy of content creation, production and publishing, with actionable how-to advice designed to get results.

These lessons and rules apply across all of your online assets — like web pages, home page, landing pages, blogs, email, marketing offers, and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media. Ann deconstructs the strategy and delivers a practical approach to create ridiculously compelling and competent content.

3. #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness

The New York Times bestselling author draws from his popular show #AskGaryVee to offer surprising, often outrageous, and imminently useful and honest answers to everything you’ve ever wanted to know—and more—about navigating the new world.

Gary Vaynerchuk—the inspiring and unconventional entrepreneur who introduced us to the concept of crush it—knows how to get things done, have fun, and be massively successful. A marketing and business genius, Gary had the foresight to go beyond traditional methods and use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to reach an untapped audience that continues to grow.

#AskGaryVee showcases the most useful and interesting questions Gary has addressed on his popular show. Distilling and expanding on the podcast’s most urgent and evergreen themes, Gary presents practical, timely, and timeless advice on marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and everything else you’ve been afraid to ask but are dying to know.

4. Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers

Hug Your Haters by Jay Baer shows exactly how to deal with both groups, drawing on meticulously researched case studies from businesses of all types and sizes from around the world. It includes specific play­books and formulas as well as a fold-out poster of “the Hatrix,” which summarizes the best strate­gies for different situations. The book is also filled with poignant and hilarious examples of haters gone wild, and companies gone crazy, as well as inspirational stories of companies responding with speed, compassion, and humanity.

Whether you work for a mom-and-pop store or a global brand, you will have haters—and you can’t afford to ignore them. Baer’s insights and tactics will teach you how to embrace complaints, put haters to work for you, and turn bad news into good outcomes. 

5. Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses

In Content Inc., one of today's most sought-after content-marketing strategists reveals a new model for entrepreneurial success. Simply put, it's about developing valuable content, building an audience around that content, and then creating a product for that audience.
Notice a shift? 

Author Joe Pulizzi flips the traditional entrepreneurial approach of first creating a product and then trying to find customers. It's a brilliant reverse-engineering of a model that rarely succeeds.

The radical six-step business-building process revealed in this book is smart, simple, practical, and cost-effective. And best of all, it works. It's a strategy Pulizzi used to build his own successful company, Content Marketing Institute, which has landed on Inc. magazine's list of fastest growing private companies for three years straight.  It's also a strategy countless other entrepreneurs use to build their own multi-million dollar companies.  Build an audience and you'll be able to sell pretty much anything you want.

Do you have any favorite marketing books you would like to share? Leave your favorite in the comment section below.

12 Easy Facebook Live Ideas for Your District

It’s Time to Pivot from Periscope to Facebook Live

Do you feel like your reach and engagement on Periscope is slowly dying? Is the Periscope platform feeling more like Myspace with all the clutter and nonsense?

Have you heard about success stories on Facebook Live and want to make the shift?

In this article you will discover 12 easy ideas for your next Facebook Live broadcast for your school and school district.

Why Facebook Live?

According to Social Media Examiner, Facebook Live allows you to connect with your fans, friends, and followers by sharing real-time video of what you’re seeing and doing.

More key stakeholders are on FB (moms & teachers). FB legit forum while Periscope is spontaneous video. FB is purposeful. – Corey Ryan (@coreyrrisd)

We switched because FB live offers reactions and comments. It keeps the stream alive longer. – Justin Elbert (@kleinISDJustin)

With over 1.5 billion active users on Facebook, it’s probably time to make the shift to the “King of All Social Media”.  Facebook has done so much in the past year to make the platform better for the individual and the business; it is most likely going to hit live video out of the ballpark.

12 Easy Facebook Live Ideas for Your School District

1. Live PSAT Tutorials for Your Community

Parents spend big bucks preparing their students for the PSAT and SAT. Why not build community goodwill and help those parents that can’t afford tutors by hosting live SAT tutorials for your town.

Not only are you helping your community, but you are also creating some awesome content marketing for your district. Parents and students will appreciate the help.

2. Redzone Plays and Two-Minute Drills

Football is king in Texas, and I am sure athletics play a big role in your district.  Why not drive engagement to your district’s athletics Facebook page by broadcasting all of your football teams goal line plays.  NFL Network has created a whole channel dedicated to this and it is doing very well.

You can also broadcast live the last two minutes of your basketball games.  It builds the same excitement and will surely drive engagement on your athletics page or individual team pages.

3.  Positive District Announcements

Pick a day of the week and have your district leadership deliver positive announcements and bright spots for your district each week. 

Call it Friday Afternoon Live and your parents, students, staff and community can feel proud about their district as they go into the weekend.  They also might be more likely to share what they saw at their child’s weekend activities.

4. Graduation Day

We all know this is a huge event.  And we know not everyone can attend.  Broadcasting your graduation on Facebook Live can be very special for people that can’t attend the event.

We went live backstage of graduation and during. 4 videos combined for over 400 shares, 60k reach. One HS town. – John Tarrant (@jtarrant25)

Start planning now to think of “Behind the Scene” ideas your district can incorporate into your broadcast.

5. Fine Arts Halftime Performances

Just like the game itself, halftime performances draw big crowds to your football games.  Broadcast the performances for your district Fine Arts Facebook Page.  It would be cool if you could strap a smart phone on one of your students in the marching band. Give your viewers an on-field perspective of what it is like to march at halftime.

6. Virtual School Tours

Kindergarten roundups or tours are big for our district.  Why not provide potential parents a glimpse into your programs by offering virtual live tours of your programs or schools?  This day and age it is very difficult for parents to attend every event.  Make it easy for them by providing video tours.

7. Ribbon Cuttings of New School Buildings

Do you have new buildings or upgrades to your schools? Show your community how their investment in their school district is paying off by offering ribbon cuttings and tours of new buildings.

8. Athlete Signings

Show your community the talent that makes up your district’s athletics programs.  Broadcast live your athletes signing with colleges and universities.

9. Live Q/A Tutorials and Exam Reviews

Just like the PSAT broadcasts, have your teachers broadcast their after-school tutorials and exam reviews for students who can’t attend the reviews.

10.  Bad Weather Reports

Your students and parents are always chomping at the bit to know when their schools are closed for major weather events.  Give them up-to-date coverage just like your local news stations using Facebook Live.  Facebook also archives the video on your timeline, so there is no need post another announcement on Facebook.

11. Collaboration Between Schools

Why not host a joint-lesson between schools in your district using Facebook Live?  High school students can mentor elementary school students, or like classes can collaborate on a lesson using live video.

12. Teacher Lesson for Sick Days

This might be something to implement after practicing with Facebook Live for a while, but teachers can start broadcasting their classes to their private classroom Facebook pages for students that are sick. Each lesson can be watched live or watched at ta later date on the Facebook timeline. Always be mindful of students that can’t be photographed or recorded.

Has your district been successful on Facebook Live? Put your success in the comment section below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you have other easy ideas? Are you doing anything special this summer? Leave them in the comment section below.

My Thoughts on Social Media and Marketing in the Public School Arena with SCN

 "School marketing expert Jason Wheeler urges communicators to use social media constantly in the public school arena."

Here is my interview with School Communicators Network during their SCNLunchinar: