Find out why it’s critical to implement a mobile strategy in your district today, and how to use social media and other real-time communication tools to optimize your community outreach efforts. Speaker: Bernie Rhinerson - Former Chief of Staff, San Diego Unified School District

1. Symposium on parent engagement:
Using real-time
communications to
reach parents
Bernie Rhinerson,
former Chief of Staff: San Diego Unified School District

2. Websites Alone Are NOT Enough!

3. Why Should Schools Use
Mobile Device Communications?
Infographics from: http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/

4. School Information Needs to
Go Mobile!
63% of adult cell
owners now use their
phones to go online, a
figure that has
doubled since 2009

5. Mobile Device Communications
91% of American
adults own a cell
phone and many
use the devices
for much more
than phone calls

6. Mobile Devices Are Part
of Our Daily Lives!
Infographics from: http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/

7. App Uses: Where Is My School?
Infographics from: http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/

8. Going Mobile At San Diego Unified
• Website updated to
adapt to smartphone
screens
– Responsive Web Design
• Join the App world
– The SD Unified App is in iPhone and
Android app stores for free
• Marketing the Mobile
App
BOTH
Are
Needed

9. Responsive Web Design for Mobile

10. San Diego Unified - Mobile App

11. News to the App with
Website Integration
Website news links
feed directly to
Mobile App

12. San Diego Unified –
Mobile App Adoption
• Steady pace of
downloads
• 2,847 – iPhone
• 836 – Android

13. Mobile App Steps 1, 2, 3
• STEP #1 - Find the right Mobile App
–
–
–
Search the App stores
Look at other schools’ apps
Consider the Schoolwires Mobile Solutions
• Step # 2 – Integrate the App with your website
–
–
At San Diego Unified School District, we integrated the mobile app with
the district website on the Centricity 2 platform
This integration brought all of the real-time information from the website
to the mobile app
•
•
•
•
district calendar
contact information for staff
school directory with map feature
constant feed of district news that is continually updated
• Step # 3 - Launch & market your Mobile App
–
iTunes and Google Play app stores
•
–
With a responsively designed website, your app will be promoted on smartphones
Make it free and market the launch!

14. Mobile App Marketing:
Key to Adoption Success
•
Marketing Challenge - User Attention Span and App Competition
–
•
On-Going Marketing Is A Must to Break Through and Increase Adoption
Marketing Tips:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Parent meetings
• Educate your school principals to promote the app
• Enlist some early parent fans to speak up at meetings about why they like the
app
Counter cards at schools
• Design a card to place on school counters and hand out at meetings
• An eye catching card can provide easy-to-follow instructions for downloading
Social media
• Set up a Facebook Fan Page for your mobile app and promote it
• Set up a contest to promote Likes on the page
• Use your Twitter feed to promote the launch and post frequent updates
Promo video
• Make your own promo video and post it on your Web page and share it on
You Tube
• Play it at parent meetings to start the conversation about the many uses for
your app
Email marketing
• Your launch email is just a start. Follow up with a series of emails that
highlight different features of your app.
Staff meetings
• Don’t forget your district staff

15. Social Media Communications
Keeping it Fresh!

16. Social Media Challenge:
Constant Information Flow
• Social Media requires engagement
• Engagement requires constant feeding
• Constant feeding requires news

18. Constant News Content

19. District eNewsletter: Friday Notes
• Weekly
eNewsletter
• 69,000 emails
– Parents
– Staff
– Community
• Advertising
Supported

20. News Fed To All School Websites
• Content
Management
System (CMS)
• New stories to
district news via
the Headlines &
Features app
• News headlines
appear on school
homepages

21. Scheduling Headlines
Each Headline is
given a date and
time to appear on
the website

22. Specific Web Page Feeds
• Headline
feeds to
specific pages
• With Tags and
separate RSS
feed

23. San Diego Unified - Social Media
• Fed daily for best
results
• Twitter
– 4,665 followers
• Facebook
– 3,106 likes
– Weekly reach 3,444

25. Metrics: How Is It Working?

26. Facebook Metrics Page

27. Concluding Comments
• Going Mobile is a MUST for school-to-home
communications
• Mobile transforms school communications
– Increased Parent Engagement
– Increased Community Engagement
– Increased Public Support for Education
• Social Media delivers information and
engages parents

28. This presentation has been
brought to you by Schoolwires®