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Can You Hear Me Now? New Approaches for Promoting Independent Schools

Learn about traditional and social media relations, measurement techniques, and facilitation strategies for promoting independent schools.

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Can You Hear Me Now? New Approaches for Promoting Independent Schools

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  1. Can You Hear Me Now? New Approaches for Promoting Independent Schools By Myra McGovern Director of Public Information, NAIS mcgovern@nais.org

  2. Part 2 Overview • Traditional media relations • Social media relations • Measurement • Facilitation techniques

  3. Traditional media relations

  4. What is it? • Responding to inquiries • Pitching stories • Press releases, press conferences • Letters to the editor • Social/ multi-media releases • Coverage of special events • Op-eds

  5. Working with the media • Be friendly, fast, factual • Remember that you’re always on the record • Know what they’re interested in, what they cover • Have a good news angle • Provide context • Use journalistic style • Form relationships • Respect deadlines • Have a good media database

  6. What is social media?

  7. Social Media Prism

  8. Most frequently used by independent schools • Facebook • Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr) • YouTube • Blogs • LinkedIn • MySpace

  9. Who’s On Facebook? Source: IStrategyLabs http://www.istrategylabs.com/?s=facebook+stats

  10. Source: Facebook Social Ads on 4/27/10. http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/ Who’s On Facebook? Source: Facebook Social Ads on 4/27/10. http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/

  11. Who’s on Twitter? • 19% of internet users use Twitter. • median age = 31 • The more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter. Sources: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/10/survey-who-uses-twitter.html, www.comscore.com, http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/174901

  12. What is SEO? • Search engines (like Google or Yahoo) list the most relevant web pages first. The top pages in a search list usually get the most hits. • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process for increasing the traffic to a website. • Easy ways to improve your listing… • Use language on your site that people search for. • Add keywords to the back end (meta tag and title tag) • Check out http://www.seomoz.org/ • Also consider Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

  13. What can social networking media do for you?

  14. Benefits of Social Media • Connectedness • Relationships • Engagement/ Involvement • Trust/ Authenticity

  15. Admission • Identify prospective families • Help new families connect and learn the culture • Identify the school’s biggest advocates and involve them more closely • Establish a word of mouth campaign

  16. Alumni Affairs • Locate lost alums and reconnect • Keep alums engaged • Help young alums connect to more established alums in the same industries

  17. Communications • Another way to get info to families • Target media that your constituents use • Segment audiences • Showcase your school as a model for learning

  18. Development • Identify donor prospects • Find out what your donors are interested in • Acknowledge or reward donors publicly • Mine the data

  19. Head and Business Office • Put names and faces together—learn all the players • Build community • Determine metrics for different programs • Help parents meet other parents • Encourage volunteerism & support • Establish your school as a thought-leader

  20. What are the downsides?

  21. Downsides of social media • Time • Lack of control • Failure to thrive

  22. Where do you start?

  23. Plan strategically • What are your goals (hint: a goal is not “create Facebook page”) • Drive donations? Admissions? Alumni affairs? • Look at your marketing plan—what are you trying to do? • Begin with the end in mind

  24. Start Small • Pilot a small initiative to engage current supporters first. Then expand. • Share photos (if you have releases) • If parents blog about an event at your school, share it on the school’s Facebook page or website • Start an alumni link on LinkedIn

  25. Nurture quality • Quality, not quantity • Get to know your fans • Growing your fan base: Ask your fans to invite people they think should be involved • Establish presence on parent networks • Learn the culture and tenor of an online community before commenting • Use an RSS feed to save time

  26. Measure/ track Unique visitors, frequency of visits, comments, others sharing your content…

  27. Who should oversee it? • Most often PR… or marketing • Often a young staffer. • Young staff might know the technology, but do they know the strategy? • Empower them to learn. Give them strategic goals and creative freedom.

  28. How do you get buy-in? • Tie it to strategy. Make language understandable (lay off the lingo). Tell people the goals and how you will measure your success. • For individual tools (i.e. Facebook)—recruit thought-leaders and influencers to spread the word. • Include address in your signature block • Post photos. Encourage people to comment

  29. Leverage technologies

  30. Blogs to establish you as expert • Facebook to amplify media relations • Follow reporters—what are their interests? They’ll likely follow you too. • Encourage engagement. You can’t control it. • LISTEN • Springboard- Drive people back to your site—for donations, applications, etc.

  31. What else?

  32. Tough questions • What about using real names? • What if students tag themselves in photos? • What if you learn too much about your students? • How have other schools established boundaries?

  33. Measure effectiveness

  34. Measure for success • Outputs, outtakes, outcomes • Tone • Topics • Impact • Delahye Impact Score measures… • Premium placement • Headline • Initial mention • Extent of mention • Dominance • Visuals

  35. Facilitate strategic discussions

  36. Shape the future of your school • Think big picture • Talk about strategy, not just tactics • Explain how what you’re doing influences the school’s future (admission, retention, development, legislation, hiring) • Use hard data

  37. Additional resources

  38. Groundswell : Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. • Twitter, Meet Facebook —podcast (NAIS members) • Strategic Marketing Planning – a how-to document to help you plan (NAIS members) • Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Book by Clay Shirky. • Join NAIS at www.facebook.com/NAISnetwork and www.twitter.com/NAISnetwork !

  39. An Independent School magazine article (winter 2009) “Can You Hear Me Now? Social Marketing and the Social Web”discusses online tools schools are using to “test the waters” of social media to communicate with alumni and others.  It also addresses ways to face/embrace unofficial online communication about one’s school. • At the Independent School Educators Network Ning, you’ll see a running feed of recent Twitter posts by independent schools. This will give you an idea of how some schools are using Twitter to connect with families and alumni. • “Recipes for Success: Independent schools break the mold when it comes to social media” – blog post from communications consultant Michael Stoner links to case studies of innovative social media uses by independent schools.

  40. Building Bridges with the Press http://www.nais.org/transact/Bookstore.cfm?sn.ItemNumber=146020 • KD Paine PR measurement blog http://kdpaine.blogs.com/ • Education in the News news headlines about independent schools via e-mail (NAIS members only) – www.nais.org/go/listserves

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