Learn about the case for social media marketing to educators using MDR's digital communities: WeAreTeachers, WeAreParents, and School Leaders Now.

1. Reach.
Engage
. Grow.

2. Dana is the Managing Director of the Creative and Editorial Team
for MDR’s Integrated Marketing Solutions group and for
WeAreTeachers. She directed the growth of WeAreTeachers’
remarkably successful social media channels. She also enjoys
creating marketing and social media campaigns for education and
non-profit clients such as Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, No Kid
Hungry, Zaner-Bloser, and PBS. Prior to MDR, Dana spent 10 years
at Scholastic, where she was the Editorial Director for
Professional Media.
Donnine is the leader of MDR’s Integrated Marketing Solutions
team and oversees the efforts of our client services, creative,
marketing, and media development groups. Donnine has more
than 20 years of product marketing experience in education
and is passionate about education, technology, and new ways
to connect educators to innovative brands.

3. Meet our community.

4. 2,000,000
300
300,000
Followers across
ten
channels
mm+ monthly
impressions
Engaged
Facebook
users daily

6. Facebook engagement snapshot 8.9.17

7. Posts about our clients

8. Developing your target persona
• Role
• Goals
• Challenges & Passions
• Resources
• Demographics
• Develop and align content to meet your
different customer personas.
• Make them real. Give them a name and
REAL photos.
• Record REAL words. Interviews and day in
the life.
• Transform your marketing to lead with
them instead of your products.

9. Get real. Get relatable.

10. Quizzo
Q1. Based on the US population, what
fraction is currently part of the school
community (Educator, student, parent)?
Q2. If the median household income in the
US is $81K what is the median household
income of educators?
Q3. What percentage of educators have a
college degree?
Q4. What percentage are parents?

11. Schools are your
community.
Nearly 2/3rds of the US
population’s 239,000,000 people
belong to a K-12 school
community.
That includes:
7,000,000 Educators
54,000,000 Students
90,000,000 Parents

12. Educators: High Income, High Influence
Educators
General Population
$114,800
Median Household Income
$81,000

13. Graduated from College
Educators General
Own Residence
100%
28
%
85% 70
%
Educators General

14. Married
68%
54
%
Parent or Guardian
66%
53%
Educators General Educators General

15. Educators Are Involved!
I look at the work I do as a
career, not just a job
Packaging for product
should be recycled
I am willing to volunteer for
a good cause
It’s important that a
company acts ethically
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
US Public Educators

16. Educators Are Social!
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
US Public Educators
Sources: E-School News, 2016Pew Research Center, 2016;

17. The case for social marketing to educators
• Facebook
82% of teachers visit at least
weekly for personal use; 44%
for professional use.
• Pinterest
69% of teachers visit at least
weekly for personal use; 67%
for professional use.
• Instagram
40% of teachers visit at least
weekly.
• Twitter
32% of teachers visit at least
weekly.

19. Quizzo
Q5. What percentage of teachers have a
second job?
Q6. How many students on average does a
single teacher impact during their career?
Q7. How much of a teacher’s personal
budget do they spend on classroom
supplies?

24. Rule #1 Meet educators’ needs.
Show how you can help their students and
make their job easier.
• Reaching students and using their time
effectively are teachers top challenges.
• They get a lot of marketing messages.
• Every message you put in front of them
needs to show that you are on their page,
that you understand their challenges, and
that you are there to support them and their
students.
Your goal is to be seen as an insider.
.

25. What does this mean for you?
. Show how what you do helps students and
teachers
 Listen to their concerns
• “I don’t feel comfortable teaching
STEM”
• “My school doesn’t have enough
budget.”
 In your marketing--address those pain points
head on.
 Make connections with calendar events both
serious (National STEM Day) and light (National
Ice Cream Day).
• Offer practical every day resources
.

26. Rule #2 Speak educators’ language.
.
• Avoid marketing speak and ed jargon.
(No one wants to be marketed to… talk to
them
• Put teachers and kids first.
• Acknowledge challenges and joys.
• Play with humor and messages that strike
the heart.
• Don’t use these words 

27. It’s also about meta-language.
.
• What emotions are you touching?
• What do teachers find funny or relatable or
infuriating?
• What kinds of images will ring as authentic
and connected?
• Who is the hero of your story? (Hint: It
shouldn’t be you)

29. Takeaways
 Avoid language that focuses on standards or
requirements; focus on skills, on what kids
learn. STEM
• Engineering
• Creativity
• problem-solving
• Curiosity
• Exploration
 Avoid buzzwords like “21st Century Learning”
and “rigor”
 Use pictures of real kids and teachers in your
marketing materials whenever possible.
 Experiment with humor and being playful.

30. Rule #3 Don’t propose on the first date.
• Asking an educator to buy or use your product in your first
communication is a mistake.
• Build the relationship first.
• Try a content funnel approach.

31. Rule #4 Use content to help you with SEO.
• When people Google your subject area or you
want to show up on the first page of results.
• Use Google Keyword Planner to find out what
other terms people are searching for in your area.
• And then…create content around it!
• For example if your product is a classroom
management apps you might write an article on
“10 Amazing Classroom Management Tips”
(including yourself on the list, of course!). This
kind of content will help you rank for the search
terms important in your area.

32. Rule #5 Know your channels and optimize for them.
• Facebook: 82% of teachers use it. Biggest traffic driver for MDR programs.
• Instagram: 40% of teachers use it, tend to be younger teachers. Visually driven.
• Pinterest: 69% of teachers use Pinterest (compared to 31% of gen pop). Elementary content does
well here.
• Twitter: Only 32% of teachers use Twitter, but tends to be the more tech-savvy, plugged-in
teacher. Early adopters

33. Rule #6 Find your influencers.
• Who loves you?
• Who shares your mission and goals?
• Who else can get the word out?

34. Rule #7 Be responsive. Test and refine.
• Reply to retweets, Facebook
comments, and emails.
• Engage in conversations with
your users and learn from them.
• Run A/B tests of email subject
lines, CTAs, landing page design,
buttons, social messaging, and
more.
• Put a lot out there. Iterate on
the top performers and ditch the
low performers. See what does
well and learn from it.

35. You only have ½ a second. Every message must be friendly,
appealing, and clear.
• Readable at a glance—a couple of lines at most.
• For Facebook, make every element count
(message, image, title, description). Rewrite link
text as needed.
• Pinterest pins should be long and skinny to get
the most engagement.
• Know your Twitter hashtags (try CybraryMan.com
for a great list of education ones).
• Remember you don’t have to tell the full story on
social media or email. The goal is to get clicks to
your landing page where you can share more.

36. How would you improve these social media posts?

40. Here’s a real world example
LEGO wanted to encourage classroom use of their bricks.
Two different approaches—one product-centric and one that appealed to the feelings our
audience has about the move away from learning through play and exploration.
Post 1: 16,866 reached, 153 shares Post 2: 187,456 reached, 2,297 shares

41. Rule #8 Get Serious About Social Video
• “By 2019, video content will be the
driving factor behind 85% of search
traffic in the US.”
• “The difference is now—when we
think about content, we think video
first.”
• For social video, keep it short and
simple.
• Try easy slide-share style videos to
take advantage of the photos you
have.
• If you’re not using FB live, it’s time
to start.

42. Tools we use to help us create quick and compelling video:
• Canva—free image design tool, lets you
save past images
• PicMonkey—another free image tool,
not as robust as Canva but some find it
easier to use
• Wideo—for creating short slideshow
style videos
• Animoto—another slideshow video tool
• Ripl—for creating “animated” social
posts using photos you already have.
• Giphy.com -- For memes and video
images

43. 7 Things You Can Do Right Away!
1. Follow influencers on FB and Twitter.
2. Identify your super fans and start reaching out.
3. Increase your social posting and optimize posts
4. Participate in education Twitter chats.
5. Try a Facebook live.
6. Consider starting a FB group for customers and users
7. Follow local influencers.