How do you engage your district's community?
How much do you rely on the traditional media to reach your community?
School PR people can have some fun with new media, but where does one begin?
There is a difference between talking to and talking with. It should be understood that social media, when applied correctly, like a conversation, is talking with a community.
New Media (or social media) can be categorized into 7 main types
[From Kami Huyse's Communication Overtones blog: If the Shoe Fits...Social Media in Seven Boxes]
I. Publishing Platforms: These consist of platforms and tools that allow the author(s) to set the content of the initial offering. Most offer a way for others to comment on the content and include RSS feeds to syndicate the copy
- Examples: Blogs (Constatin Basturea’s List of PR Blogs Shel Holt’s list of blogroll), Podcasting, and Vlogs or Video Blogs.
II. Social Networking Sites: These sites allow users to interface by becoming friends and/or sharing favorites. They allow the individual user to have their own space, while also incorporating links and other connections to other users
III. Democratized Content Networks: These sites allow all users to contribute equally, usually with some sort of ability to vote for the best content, or to override, in the case of Wikis, previously submitted content.
IV. Virtual Networking Platforms: These often require third-party interfaces to participate (though some can be accessed through the browser), and consist of a virtual reality experience with other users.
- Second Life and There.com
V. Information Aggregators: These are publicly available, machine driven aggregators of niche content, usually with some human editing (such as adding RSS feeds) involved in the process.
- Examples: Techmeme and Power 150 Kitchen Sink
VI. Edited Social News Platforms: These are sites where users recommend links and can make comments on the stories that make it through the human editors
- Examples: Fark and Spin Thicket
VII. Content Distribution Sites:
Sites that allow the user create, collect and/or share content and distribute by providing RSS, code and/or e-mail options. Widgets would also fall into this category.
- Examples: Scrapblog, Del.icio.us and Clearspring (Widgets)
In School PR we can start by focusing on Categories I and II. (The others might have some school PR use and commenting on their uses is highly recommended.)
I. Publishing Platforms
Blogging - A school district official blog can be a great place to get the conversations going. Think of the district's Web site as the source for information and a district blog as the water cooler, around which you engage in more of an opportunity for conversation
[Example from Mansfield ISD's Your Mansfield ISD blog]
The basic idea behind the Your Mansfield ISD blog is that if your home is located within our district boundaries, our schools are your schools. And let's face it - a school district is a large organization with lots of moving parts...Our goal with this blog is to simplify many of these complexities and also key you in on many of the great things that are going on.
Some considerations when starting a district blog: Do you have blogging policies/guidelines? Will commenting be turned on/off? Note: this one will make administrators nervous. What will you do if/when your staff decides to blog?
Podcasting - Podcasts from a school district can be integrated and, like blogging, become part of any effective communication plan. Many teachers are already using podcasting to engage students in and out of the classrooms. School PR people could explore this option at a district level as well.
[Example Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Off The Page Podcast.]
II. Social Networking Sites
For many school districts sites like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, etc. are likely blocked from student/staff use because of potentially inappropriate content. In a few cases, sites such as Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. are left open. I am not going to argue for or against any social networking site's being blocked/unblocked at this point. But, when this opportunity arises I would encourage school PR people to explore the potential for district use. Consider creating a Facebook, Ning, or even MySpace profile for your school district.
[Example: Mansfield ISD uses Twitter: http://twitter.com/mansfieldisd, related post on districts using Twitter.]
These new media tools can be used to deliver relevant and useful content to communities in a format that is either already gained in popularity or continues to be on the rise. Either way, catching up or keeping up with social media's impact on school communications is at least worth looking into or even worth jumping into with both feet.
No comments:
Post a Comment