Social Media Issues and Best Practices for School PR

Texas School Public Relations Association 2012 Conference ~ #tspra12

Richie Escovedo @vedo | Mansfield ISD @mansfieldisd | #tspra12

 School PR issues leveraging social media
 Strategic communication impact
 Seven steps to social media prowess
 Straight talk on social media measurement


 How school districts set-up Facebook Pages,
Twitter profiles, YouTube channels, official
blogs, photo galleries, Google+ pages,
Delicious bookmarks, Tumblr, etc.
 This is not social media 101
 Your audience is already listening…and
tweeting, and posting, and commenting, and
sharing, and updating, and…


How are school PR pros leveraging social media?


Who’s In?

Audience Participation Time:

• Blogs
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flickr
• YouTube
• SlideShare
• Stumble Upon
• Foursquare
• LinkedIn
• Tumblr
• Pinterest
• Digg
• Yelp
• Etc.

What are the strategic communication advantages of social media?


 Tools are easy and efficient
 Exponential message reach potential
 Low barriers to entry
 Plenty of low-hanging fruit


 Message control is fiction
 Negative feedback is part of the conversation
 There is no silver bullet


 People share/do stupid stuff online
 Sometimes that stuff comes from staff,
students, or parents
 When stupid stuff happens, it will be during
categorically inconvenient times


With planning and preparation, challenges in
the social sphere are manageable
 Reach the right eyeballs; not all the eyeballs
 Situational awareness
 Early warning
 Minimize surprises
 Navigate through murky waters


“If you find yourself in a hole,
the first thing to do is
stop digging.”
- Will Rogers


The Magnificent Seven Steps to Remember


 Grow Bigger Ears
Listen and monitor the conversation
 Personality as an Asset
It's ok (and a good idea) to human
 Storytelling in the Social Sphere
Tell your story otherwise someone else will
 Don’t re-create the Wheel
See what's working for others and follow
their lead

 Do Create the Reel
Video is a powerful storytelling device
 Be Your Own Newsroom
Communicate directly with your audience
 Learn from and Adapt to Change
Social media can be a moving target
 BONUS TIP: Don't be afraid to ask for help.


“What we got here is…
failure to communicate.”

Evan RA Miller's Cool Hand Luke via http://www.squidoo.com/cool-hand-luke


What’s working. What’s Not. What’s the Difference?


 (R) Research
 (P) Planning
 (I) Implementation
 (E) Evaluation


 What do we know?  It starts with thinking
 What don’t we know? about the people.
 Who do we want to  School District Buyer
reach? What do we Personas
know about them?  What do School
Where do we find Districts Sell?
them? What do we
want them to do?


 Goal  Notice the tactics/tools
 Measurable Objectives are the last thing before
(who, what, by when, by
how much) implementation
 Strategies
 Tactics/Tools


 Execution of the plan  Actual messages sent
or communicating through what channels?
 Creative  How many reached
 Materials targeted audiences?
 Budget  Monitoring tools for
 Timeline execution?
 Delivery


 Did you accomplish  Measure effectiveness
your objectives? of the program against
Prove it. objectives.
 Identify ways to  Adjust the plan,
improve and materials, etc., before
recommendations for going forward.
the future.  Can serve as research
 Media hits are not for the next phase or
measurement. program.


“However beautiful the strategy,
you should occasionally
look at the results.”
- Winston Churchill


Look &
Listen

Audience Participation Time:

• Google Analytics
• Likes (Fans)
• Followers
• Comments
• Blogs
• Shares
• ReTweets
• @ Replies/Direct Messages
• (New) Subscribers
• Open Rate
• Click-Thru Rate
• Hashtag Use
• Registrations
• Survey Results

Objective Metric The Right Tools (examples)
Inquiries Percent increase in traffic Web server analytics
Web Traffic Clickthroughs or downloads (Google Analytics, WebTrends)
Preference Percent of audience preferring your Online surveys
district to the competition (Zoomerang or SurveyMonkey)
Awareness Percent awareness of your district, Online surveys
school, or event (Zoomerang or SurveyMonkey)
Focus Groups
Communicate Percent of articles containing key Media analysis
messages messages (BurrellesLuce, Vocus, Clipmetrics,
Total opportunities/Cost per Cymfony, MediaSense, Echo, etc.)
opportunity to see key messages
Percent aware of or believing in Focus Groups, Surveys
key messages

Adapted from Measure what Matters by Katie Delahaye Paine

Key Bond Messages:
• equity
• safety and security
• technology
• aging campuses and infrastructure


http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Page_Insights_en_US.pdf

 Social media are just tools.
 Determine strategic communication impact.
 Take steps to increase social media prowess.
 You can (should) measure social media.


Questions?

Contact
Richie Escovedo
http://nextcommunications.blogspot.com


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