Michael Hoffman, CEO of See Communications' presentation to the 2010 Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education on how schools can effectively and responsibly use social media to meet their goals and build up their communities.
2. Michael Hoffman: See3 Communications
Today’s Session
How many times have board members or parents asked how
your school is using Twitter or Facebook? As if you don't have
enough to do! The shiny objects of new technologies can suck
time and money from your staff and distract you from key
priorities. But these tools are also revolutionizing
communications and allowing you to build relationships that can
lead to more students, an increased donor base, and a better
community reputation for your school. Participants will gain a big
picture understanding of what is needed to make appropriate and
effective decisions about social media and see how real-life
institutions use social media to advance their goals.
11. • Building Relationships
• Telling a Story
• Listening
• Showing Transparency
• Being Accountable
Social Media is About
12. Why Use Social Media?
Monitor your school community and your
supporters
Find new stakeholders and build a following
Help members stay connected
Promote publications, events, and staff
Raise awareness, stimulate discussion
Quickly and effortlessly get a message out
where people will see it
Recruit and fundraise
14. Your Constituents Depend on Their
Social Networks for Information…
…Make sure your school is giving them what they need
where they’re looking for it.
• What events, initiatives, announcements, and new programs are you
trying to communicate?
• Are you ever frustrated that an email is, at worst, a 1 way
conversation?
• Do you want to start conversations with parents? Alumni? Students?
• Struggling to show a link, a video, or just share your thoughts in a way
that people actually notice and promote?
• Do you feel like your website isn’t always enough to make a strong
connection with prospective students, parents, and donors?
15. Concerns? They’re Reasonable.
Student Privacy, Appropriate Content, Cyberbullying are all
Valid Concerns…But Social Media is About Open and
Transparent Conversation. With Responsible Stewardship You
Can Foster a Positive and Productive Network.
• Whenever minors are concerned, privacy is a concern.
• How do I moderate content to ensure it’s appropriate?
• How do we teach our limited staff to manage all this conversation?
• Are there legal risks?
• I don’t feel comfortable going social if I don’t know the appropriate
controls to ensure safety and positivity
16. The Key = Responsible Mgmt.
• Define the role of your pages/platforms. Make sure that all parties who are
managing these are completely aware that what they post must at all times
be in line with the core purposes
• Example: Class related questions, staying current with alumns, showing off classroom related
projects
• Conversely to the above, concretely define what can not happen on social
media pages
• Example: critical commenting on students, discipline, or community members, revealing
personal identifying information
• Define who is responsible for best practices (and page creation), create a
training program, and ensure that all people who have access complete and
sign-off on the training
• Each page should include legal disclaimer with a statement of purpose
approved by your legal counsel
• If possible, release of use of image should be extended to social media (you
are using this for marketing after all) and included into contracts
17. Volume
◦ # of fans, followers, views, hits
Engagement
◦ comments, time spent on site, RTs, shares, blog
mentions
Actions
◦ donations, sales, event attendees, signatures, sign-ups
LISTEN!
◦ Above all, social media is conversational. Like any
good conversation it lets you find out what a person is
thinking, what their concerns are, what they like, and
what they don’t
Measure Impact
18. • Personal social network
• Set up fan page for your organization
• Share updates, photos, videos, links
• Ability to run local, targeted ads
19. Far and away the #1 social networking site.
Huge swaths of your audience are on Facebook
Create fan page for your organization or your
issue
Share links or videos from gatherings or trips –
or related topics
Organize an event and invite Friends/Fans
Create a targeted ad to extend your audience or
publicize your event
Use Facebook
21. As an Advertising Tool
• FB ads come in
multiple unit types,
can be targeted to
specific demographics
(like age, geography,
and what schools they
attended)
• Bid based system lets
you control how much
you spend if you want
to purchase
impressions or
interactions
22. • “Micro-blogging” – 140 characters
• Share updates, news, links, promotions
• Build a “following” and “follow” other users -
good for high profile personality
• Stay updated on industry trends & news
Use Twitter
23. Use Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com) to
find people discussing your issue
Monitor news using Tweetdeck or Hootsuite
Determine your best content by tracking clicks
(use a URL shortener such as bit.ly or
tinyurl.com)
Ways to Use Twitter
26. • Build a personal or organizational “Channel”
• Upload and view online videos
• Popular search engine
Use YouTube
27. Promote an event with a simple slideshow
Get members of your school on camera
Show your supporters behind-the-scenes videos
Host a weekly vlog (video blog)
Curate videos on a topic using playlists
Embed your and other videos on your site or on
Facebook pages
Ways to Use YouTube
28. Source: Nielsen//NetRatings (December 2009) - US audience.
48%27.3Female
52%29.8MaleGender
19%10.955+
21%11.945-54
22%12.335-44
19%11.118-34
19%11.0<18
–57.1AllAge
%
UsersUsers (M)
In 1 Minute
24 hours of video are
uploaded to YouTube
#3 Biggest Site in the World
Bigger than MSN and
Wikipedia
58 Minutes
Average time spent on
YouTube
Storytelling With Video
29. Use WordPress
• Blogging platform
• Post thoughts, updates, photos regarding
your work
• Manage discussion through comments
features
30. Ways to Use Blogs
Share thoughts and news from your organization
(one personal view, organizational view, multiple
views, guest views)
Tell a deeper story about a topic
Can be used as a microsite! Easy CMS system
31. 5 Key Takeaways
Find out where your audience is already online -
don’t be afraid to ask them!
Staff your social media presence smartly (task
force, social media manager)
Write a social media policy
Don’t forget to listen
Go deep, not wide
32. • Assess your goals and see where a potential social media plan
fits
• Create a social media use policy inclusive of who owns pages,
who posts pages, what can go up, and what can never go up
• Set up Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts (it’s easy,
trust me)
• Begin driving new members to your network using your
existing communications and watch your network grow
5 Things You Can Do
Right Now