Revised with new information as of January 1, 2018


A free resource for nonprofit organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations,
charities, schools, public sector agencies & other mission-based agencies
by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

 


For Schools:
You Should Be Using Social Media.
Here's How.



No excuses: your school needs to be using social media. Whether you are just K - 6 or all the way K - 12 or anything in between, to not be using social media to deliver information and to engage means you are denying critical information to much of your community and promoting an image of secrecy and lack of transparency. In fact, the lack of use of social media can be seen as your school trying to hide something, and even lead to rumors that are much harder to dispel than they would have been to prevent.  

The days of everyone getting their information from one newspaper or a local radio station are over. Newspapers continue to disappear and most of those that are left don't readily print school-related information anymore, like weekly lunch menus, sports scores, the dates and times of the Spring musical, etc. Local radio stations are bought up and replaced by music and news piped in from offices far, far, away. A growing number of people get their community information ONLY from social media. If your school isn't posting to social media, you are leaving out that growing number of people.

Social media helps school officials build relationships with all residents, show transparency and exhibit a human touch in working with the public. Yes, it means that the public will have an outlet for anger online, but it also means they have an outlet to be eager, committed, interested, funny and committed to their public schools. The community is not the enemy, and they shouldn't see public schools as such, online or off. 

Remember, you aren't creating any new text or information to share on social media - you are using information you already have prepared for other communications, like print newsletters and press releases and letters sent home with students. If you are preparing public information in any format, it needs to be provided on your social media accounts as well. Often, that means just cutting and pasting information from another platform - it takes just seconds.

This page is for school administrators - for the front office, the PTA and PTO, and the entire school district administrative office. This advice is not so much for teachers, who will have their own way of wanting to use social media - if at all - with the public.

This page is NOT advice regarding school's monitoring social media, nor about how students or individual teachers should be using social media.

What should your school share regularly and promptly via social media?

Remember: if the information is public, it should be shared on social media. As long as the information has been approved to be put into a newsletter, a letter sent home with students, a press release, etc., then it's approved for social media posting as well. If you will also post items that are not already approved for sharing via another outlet, create and communicate a policy regarding how information can be submitted by teachers, advisors, etc. to be posted on the school's social media sites.
Which social media should you be using

Facebook for all of the above. Yes, all of it. Until Facebook is no longer so popular, all of the above needs to be posted to your Facebook page promptly. Remember: Most people will see your posts in their newsfeed, not because they decided to go visit your Facebook page and have a look around (though that will happen). The more people that like your Facebook status update, and the more people that share it and comment on it, the greater chance it will show up in people's newsfeeds. You will also want to use the events feature on Facebook to input information about upcoming official events; anyone who chooses "interested" or "going" for the event will get reminders of the event automatically via Facebook (but if you need RSVPs, you need to make sure people know that if they mark "going" as to whether or not this is an official RSVP or not). And remember that you should have a Facebook PAGE for your school, NOT a Facebook account that people "friend."  

GooglePlus for all of the above as well. I know that GoogePlus is not that popular, but posting here greatly improves the search engine results on Google for your city or county government office. Just post exactly the same thing you post to Facebook to your GoogePlus page. 

Twitter for most of the above, particularly the urgent items, like weather-related closings, and links to information that relates to your city or county government being in the news lately. Do NOT create an online bridge between your Facebook and Twitter accounts, where everything you post to Facebook gets posted to Twitter! This creates truncated, meaningless messages on Twitter.

Instagram for the fun stuff, like photos of the school administrative staff on Halloween. You can also do screen captures of short public notices from your school newsletter and post them on your Instagram account as photos - just make sure you also cut and paste the text in the description as well.

YouTube for all videos. You will also share links to these on Facebook and GooglePlus for sure, and probably Twitter as well. You may also want to share videos to Instagram.

It's not absolutely necessary for you to use the hottest social media app for today that will be gone tomorrow, or something especially niche, like Snapchat. But such tools can be great for reaching younger people, and for posting fun things. These tend to be time-intensive to use, however, as these apps are smart phone-based and vary hugely in how they work.

How often to post to social media?

It's not too much for a school to post two times a day (or more). You should also be posting at least twice a week - but every week day is best.

But what's just as important as posting is that you must RESPOND, perhaps not to every comment, but certainly to ALL questions.

What about comments?

Disclaimer: I'm no lawyer and this should not be considered legal advice.

Many schools and school districts avoid social media because they fear negative public comments and per unfounded fears of legal issues. The reality is that those fears are mitigated just as they are regarding onsite, public comments at school board meetings. If you are transparent and consistent about your policy regarding deleting comments or closing comments on your Facebook page, you will probably avoid most, if not all, social media public relations problems. It might not be easy to read negative comments, but it is better in the long run to have a full understanding of various opinions and needs than to try to avoid them.

The reality also is that most people who comment on your posts on social media are going to say "thank you" or something else positive - if anyone posts at all. Don't be surprised if most of your posts never receive any comments at all.  

If someone has a question in response to a social media post, answer it promptly. If someone has a complaint, address it, or link to where you address it, promptly.

The best approach to resolving a complaint posted in response to a social media post you have made may be to invite the person that is complaining into school to explain face-to-face his or her concerns, or ask the person to email a certain person with his or her phone number to set up a phone conversation to talk about the issue. 

If negative comments are becoming repetitive - the same negative comment over and over - you may want to turn off commenting and end the response period to a social media post, HOWEVER, before doing so, post a comment yourself saying that you are turning off the comments because the conversation has become repetitive, and remind everyone how to call or email their feedback, or of a public meeting where their comments could be expressed in person.

You do NOT have to respond to trolling comments, like "the school board members are all a bunch of idiots", and those may be deleted, however, they should be screen captured and that image saved on the school's hard drive or an intranet before the comments are deleted from social media, in the remote chance that they are needed later for a formal complaint or legal action. Again, if you fear more trolling, you can also turn comments off, but before doing so, post a comment reminding everyone how to call or email their feedback and saying, "We're turning comments off for this thread."

You may want to email or send a direct message to a person whose comment is being deleted, explaining exactly why the comment is being deleted from your Facebook page and how the person can register a formal, official complaint against the school. Be sure to save this communication in the remote chance that they are needed later for a formal complaint or legal action.

What comments should be deleted from your social media page? Were I to write a policy, I would say that the following comments should be deleted (but only after screen captures and preservation of those images offline):
Don't just write these prohibitions in your social media policy: have a training for key staff on what violations of these policies would actually look like.

Encourage key staff to "like" posts

Don't require staff to "like" posts made to your city or county government page, but do encourage them to "like" such. The more "likes" a status gets, the more often it will show up in people's newsfeeds.

Pay attention to super fans

Certain parents, students or community members may emerge as "super fans", people who like most every post, comment positively on a lot of posts, etc. You can feel free to write or call these people directly and ask them to write your manager of social media directly if they see negative or trolling comments, or other comments they feel the social media manager needs to know about immediately. 

All communications staff must be involved in this

Some schools or school districts are going to have whomever is in charge of public relations to also do the actual posting and responding on social media. Some are going to place the overall responsibility in that person's job description, but have someone else to actually do the posting and responding - even a volunteer. Whomever it is, remember that this isn't just posting information; this is community engagement. Treat it as seriously as you want the community to treat your school or school district. 

Other sites that provide guidance on this topic:

Social media for schools: a guide to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest

Social Media & Governments Legal & Ethical Issues by representatives of the law firm of Gilberts, Lindenhurst, and Wadsworth, published in November 2013

Use Caution when Monitoring Comments on Your School’s Social Media Page, from representatives of the Franczek Radelet law firm. This article ALSO talks about government use of social media, specifically regarding how to handle comments.

Also, consider doing a search once a year on Google with keywords, such as: school sued comments social media. You will probably find, as I did, that legal cases regarding schools and social media have to do with student comments on social media regarding other students that are NOT on the school's Facebook page - and that is an entirely different issue than what is being discussed on this page you are reading now. Still, it's good to explore this issue at least annually.


Also see:  
  Discuss this web page, or comment on it, here.


  Quick Links 

   my home page
 
 my consulting services  &  my workshops & presentations
 
 my credentials & expertise

 Affirmation that this is web site is created & managed by a human.
 
 My book: The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook

 contact me   or   see my schedule
 
 Free Resources: Community Outreach, With & Without Tech

 Free Resources: On Community Engagement, Volunteering & Volunteerism

 Free Resources: Technology Tips for Non-Techies

 Free Resources: Nonprofit, NGO & other mission-based management resources

 Free Resources: Web Development, Maintenance, Marketing for non-Web designers

 Free Resources: Corporate philanthropy / social responsibility programs

 Free Resources: For people & groups that want to volunteer
 
 linking to or from my web site
 
 The Coyote Helps Foundation
 
 me on social media (follow me, like me, put me in a circle, subscribe to my newsletter)

support my workhow to support my work

To know when I have developed a new resource related to the above subjects, found a great resource by someone else, published a new blog or a new Tech4Impact email newsletter, uploaded a new video,
or to when & where I'm training or presenting, use any of the following social media apps to follow me on any of these social media platforms:

like me on Facebook      follow me on Twitter    Mastodon logo    follow me on Reddit    follow me on LinkedIn     view my YouTube videos


Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by the poster/distributor of the materials on this web site.
This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied warranty or liability.

See my web site's privacy policy.

Permission is granted to copy, present and/or distribute a limited amount of material from my web site without charge if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:

Jayne Cravens & Coyote Communications,
          www.coyotebroad.com

Otherwise, please contact me for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials (for instance, in a class or book or online event for which you intend to charge).

The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2024
by Jayne Cravens, all rights reserved
(unless noted otherwise, or the art comes from a link to another web site).