Using Social Media Tools & Technology to Promote Your School District -- Long Island School PR Assn.

Editor's Notes

• #2: Anybody know what Web 2.0 is?   Ask about FB and Twitter.
• #4: So what's social media? It's a term we use to describe a number of Web 2.0 tools available to you. The tools include: Ask who uses any of these tools? There are many more, but we'll focus today on these tools.   Should be at 11:10 am
• #5: The statistics are rather staggering. People keep saying Twitter use is down. Since when? Maybe it’s time to get on the Web 2.0 train before it leaves the station.   11:15
• #6: We'll be talking today about how you and your administrators can use these tools, and I will not be discussing tools for the classroom. But instead, these are tools to be used from the inside out. They are all collaborative tools, tools for personal and professional growth, and PR tools -- ways to spread the word about the value of your school district. Reaching parents, students, staff and the community at large. Teachers like to call a Personal learning Network. Lifelong learning. You'll see some stats today about Web 2.0 users.
• #7: Here are some myths about using social media, all generated by detractors or simply by people who don't understand how it works. While it's true that you shouldn't use social media simply because "it's cool," or because it's the latest trend, you should know what the myths are. The stats show that adults are the fasting growing group on social media. Internet security won't be compromised. Just filter instead of block these sites. Or unblock by specific URL. The eRate funding is a myth, spread by some IT people, unfortunately. Social media will only waste time if you allow it to. Develop some guidelines/terms of use for your staff and students. Most social media sites are free to set up and use.
• #11: This is from the White House website. A sidebar/box that lists all the ways, via social media, that you can follow what's going on. These pages are active and dynamic, changing every day. 11:20
• #13: A fee reader allows syou to grab the RSS feeds from website and display them for you to read and use.   Once you have your Feed Reader, find sites that syndicate content and add their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS or XML to let you know a feed is available.  
• #17: I'm being a bit facetious, but I like to call these three the "Big, Scary Places" where school districts dare not tread.
• #21: Facebook. Not to be afraid! Here is the Facebook fan page of the NYC Department of Education.  You'll notice that it's actually a fan page, rather than a FB personal page, where you might have friends that you converse with on a regular basis. You can see their news, comments, wall, photos, etc, and vice versa. On a fan page -- important distinction -- you create a page and others can become fans of the page. If you allow it, they can comment on your posts. But you won't see their pages or their photos or their news. It's more of a one-way street, to protect the page from being cluttered with other people's stuff and from anything that might reflect poorly on your district. Go to the NYC page.
• #22: On the Boston Public Schools FB page, you can look at how this tool can be used -- they post their own news, links to outside news about them, videos and photos. Show the College Month video, Boston Globe story.
• #27: Questions before moving on to Twitter.
• #29: I keep hearing from people who don't use Twitter that it's just a fad. Click on headline to get to Gigatweet.
• #30: Teachers are using Edmodo for making homework assignments. Can be secure and limited to the 20 students in your class.
• #31: There's an immediacy to Twitter that you can't find anywhere else. Witness what happened on Jan. 15, 2009.
• #35: This is the Yonkers Twitter feed, and you can see how the District uses Twitter for announcements, links back to the website, etc. Most districts using Twitter will also wisely include links to other important websites and web news. For example, if you have legitimate news about H1N1 from a reputable site like flu.gov, you might want to post occasional updates on your Twitter page as well. Make it a vital & useful page for your readers.
• #37: Here's our Twitter page at SWBOCES.
• #38: Thousands and thousands of organizations and companied are now twittering, for PR reasons and customer szervices reasons. Look at the NASA Twitter. Remember that the tone on FB and Twitter is quite a bit more casual than the tone might be on your D website. Think of it as a CONVERSATION and remember that the conversation is -- or should be -- two way.
• #42: Questions about Twitter?
• #43: Here's an important Twitter feed to follow. A good reason for your PR person to be on top of the trends and the news.
• #49: When it comes to social media like YouTube, it's important to develop a terms of use policy for students and staff. Guidelines on the proper use of Web 2.0 applications and websites. This would require a whole separate presentation, though.
• #52: 2 alternative to youtube: teachertube, which is gated and usually not blocked by districts zamzar, which allows teachers to download videos form youtube and use them in the classroom from their hard drive.
• #62: There are another 14 slides beyond this one that contain resources, links, more Web 2.0 tools and videos. Feel free to visit my slideshare site and scroll through. In addition, I am always happy to take your phone calls or emails with questions about any of the topics we've discussed today.
• #63: 1. You have to have your own FB page in order to do this. 2. Navigate to the link you see in blue. 3. Fill out as much of the information about your district as you can and upload your District logo. 4. Add content and set up any applications you plan to use -- polls, photos, videos, etc. 5. Click on "publish this page," which will be at the top of the page in bright red lettering. Don't forget to set parameters for the site, including who can comment, whose posts you can see,
• #71: Tweetbeep is just one of many tools that have cropped up recently and are designed to make twittering a bit easier. If Twitter is a PR tool and folks get their news partly from Twitter, then this makes sense. Tweetbeep allows you to get email alerts about any topic you choose. I chose NYSSBA this week, and will receive alerts about any conversations on Twitter that mention NYssba.
• #82: In closing, I'd like to pass along this brief list of golden rules for social media, which I've borrowed the Salem Keizer Oregon School.
• #84: show the grandview library blog.