Public Relations Roles of the #schoolPR Pro

I consider myself a life-long learner and as such I'm (still) in the process of studying to take the APR exam and preparing my materials for the readiness review in order to be an accredited PR professional.

This is not a post arguing for/against APR credential. Rather, it's based on reading the PR Roles and Responsibilities portion of the study materials that happened to coincide with the first week of a new school year.

I've been in school public relations since 2001 and each year look forward to new challenges and opportunities to improve or expand communication between my organization and its stakeholders (or publics). This year, I thought it would be good to share what it is we do in school PR.

The following definitions are based on a list found in the APR Study Guide which I think is a valuable tool even if you are not considering the APR.

Public Relations: A Management Function

School Public Relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between a school district/educational institution and the publics on which its success or failure depends. (adapted - Broom, 2009, Effective Public Relations)

Advertising: (paid content) Information placed in the media. It is a controlled method of placing messages in the media. It is useful as part of large campaigns that require detailed explanations such as bond/levies, technology, new/expanded programs, etc.

Brand/Branding: A product, service or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. A school district sells trust and as such its branding must reflect ways in which it's distinguished from others.

Community relations: An area of school public relations with responsibilities for building relationships with constituent publics such as faith-based organizations, charities, clubs and activist interests of the neighborhoods or metropolitan areas(s) where a school district. Dealing and communicating with citizens and groups within district boundaries is typically the responsibility of the school PR team. 

Controlled communication channels: Self-sponsored communication channels, media and tools that are under direct control of the sender. Examples include paid advertising, newsletters, brochures, some types of e-mails, organizational websites and blogs, leaflets, organizational broadcasts and podcasts, intranets, teleconferences and videoconferences, meetings, speeches, position papers, and all other channels and communication products under organizational control. In short, be your own newsroom.

Counseling: Advising management concerning policies, relations and communications. Senior-level school PR practitioners should be among the rest of executive-level team in direct communication with the superintendent. In an advisory role, the school PR person often needs to act as organizational conscience. 

Crisis communication: Protects and defends a school district facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges can involve legal, ethical or financial standing. There are many potential issues that can flare up into full-blown crises. The school PR pro must be attuned to various facets or the organization in order to be aware of issues.  

Employee relations: Activities designed to build sound relationships between a school district and its employees, and a critical element in fostering positive attitudes and behavior of employees as ambassadors for the organization. The school PR person should be aligned with the HR team so that existing or new programs or topics are well-communicated with staff.

Financial relations: An aspect of school public relations responsible for being well-versed in the business of school districts. How education is funded from local, state, national perspectives and being able to explain it (or know who in the organization that can) in order to communicate finance topics.

Government relations: An aspect of relationship-building between a school district and other government agencies at local, state, and/or national levels, especially involving flow of information to and from legislative and regulatory bodies in an effort to influence public policy decisions compatible with the local school district's interests. Understanding legislative priorities is an important role for school PR.

Issues management: The proactive process of anticipating, identifying, evaluating and responding to public policy issues that affect school districts and their publics now and in the future. This is an important role for school PR for those that can accurate anticipate and analyze problems before they flare up.

Marketing: The management function that identifies human needs and wants, offers products and services to satisfy those demands, and causes transactions that deliver products and services in exchange for something of value to the provider. Targets customers.

Marketing communications: A combination of activities designed to sell a product, service or idea, including advertising, collateral materials, interactive communications, publicity, promotion, direct mail, trade shows and special events.

Media relations: Among strategic communication functions for the school district, the school PR pro coordinates the exchange of information with media outlets and the general public. This position maintains a dynamic newsroom and media lists as well as various information channels though which news releases and stories are posted and distributed. These enable media outlets and school district community members to keep up with what's happening in the school district.

Multicultural relations/workplace diversity: Relating with people in various cultural groups. Understanding multicultural and workplace diversity continues to increase in importance. Diversity in the workplace continues to provide challenges and opportunities to public relations practitioners and other managers impacting messaging, perceptions of ideas, and services. These considerations may include issues of household composition, ages, gender, ethnic and religious backgrounds, language, technology fluency, health status or disabilities.

Press agentry: Creating newsworthy stories and events to attract media attention and gain public notice.

Proactive public relations: Taking the initiative to develop and apply public relations plans to achieve measurable results toward set goals and objectives.

Promotion: Activities designed to win publicity or attention, especially the staging of special events to generate media coverage. Special activities designed to create and stimulate interest.

Public affairs: A specialized area of public relations that builds and maintains mutually beneficial governmental and local community relations. Also applies to the military and governmental agencies due to the 1913 Gillett Amendment.

Public information: Representation of a point of view in collected forms such as facts, news, messages, pictures or data; the process of disseminating such information to publics usually through the mass media; a designation describing persons charged with the task of such dissemination usually on behalf of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, colleges or universities. School PR pros are typically the public information officers for school districts. [Texas: Rights of Requestors and Agency Responsibilities under the Public Information Act]

Publicity: Information from an outside source that is used by the media because it has news value. It is an
uncontrolled method of placing messages because the source does not pay the media for placement.

Reactive public relations: Response to crises and putting out fires defensively rather than initiating programs. There are varying degrees of reactive public relations with some situations requiring implementation of a school district’s crisis plan.

Reputation Management: Reputation management is an important function of school public relations, which is often cited in the context of crisis management. The increased use of the web and related social media has given added urgency to the practice of monitoring, as the immediate and anonymous nature of the Internet increases the risk of communications that can damage a school or school district’s reputation. Online reputation management is a growing specialized segment of public relations.

Special events: Stimulating an interest in a person, product or organization by means of a focused “happening.” Activities designed to interact with publics and listen to them.

Uncontrolled communications channels: Uncontrolled communications channels refer to the media that are not under direct control of the company, organization or sender of messages. These include newspapers and magazines, radio and television, external websites, externally produced blogs and social media commentary, and externally produced news stories.

Related posts:

• 5 Reasons to Make Your In-house Editorial Calendar
• Matte Releases: PR Branded Content for the Newbie
• PR Roles explained through Baseball Positions
• How crisis communication theory meets crisis communication reality
• 5 Tips to keep your School PR job

Photo credit: ashleighozment via Flickr Creative Commons

Smart PR save from a high school yearbook mistake

High school yearbooks these days are massively creative homages to the school year. Yearbook editors are carefully selected and with the help of their staff piece together pages with the days in the lives of their peers. The vast majority of times yearbooks are published and distributed to classmates without problems.  

But sometimes there are problems, big problems, media-attention problems, problems having serious implications for teens. (Yikes.)

So naturally my heartbeat quickened when one of our high school's journalism/yearbook teachers called me last week asking if I had seen some of the negative reaction to their yearbook.  (Uh oh.)

Their crime: misspelling our school district's website address on one of the first few pages. (Whew!)

Yeah, that's supposed to read www.mansfieldisd.org instead of www.mansfiledisd.org. Oops. Thankfully, the typo really isn't that big of a deal. According to the teacher, the editors and staff started to see some students at their school and from the out high schools in the district making fun of the typo and posting on social media.

Instead of tucking tail and hiding their faces in shame, the yearbook editors, staff, and teacher took a more proactive and creative response and turning the joke on the detractors. They bought the misspelled domain and set up a website to poke a little fun at themselves for the mistake.

From the 'About This Site' page:

Hey Bronco Nation, we at the Arena and the Rider Online realized that very often parents, teachers and even students misspell ‘Mansfield.’ Statistically, it’s bound to happen. In typing just those two sentences we hit the backspace button twelve times. Now, normally we would just suggest simply retyping the url and continuing on your way to mansfieldisd.org, but we came to the realization that there was an entire untapped market of people who came to mansfiledisd.org and were very saddened and confused when it led them to a giant 404 error. We felt this was a grave injustice, and we dedicate this page to those poor, lost souls. Welcome, friends, to Mansfiled ISD, home of the typographically challenged.

In addition to funny bits about yearbook mistakes, Photoshop disasters, headline errors and Funny Sloth Video, they included a downloadable page to print and place in yearbooks with the corrected web address. This page printing or in some cases, printed stickers to cover up offending mistakes has become the norm since reprints can often cost in the tens of thousands of dollars for many schools.

No harm, no foul.

I think the yearbook sponsor and his students learned a good PR lesson: How you react to mistakes determines your ability to recover and move on.

We Choose Texas Public Schools

Over the last decade, it seems numerous groups have thankfully formed to advocate for public school districts across Texas. While these groups have strong commitments to public education, each has its own vision, mission, and objectives, often leaving school districts, parents, employees and public school supporters without a simple unifying message or call to action. My hope is for more people to stand up and say, "We Choose Texas Public Schools."

We Choose Texas Public Schools is a concept campaign offered freely for public school district communities, parents, students and staff. I came up with it for a public education celebration rally in February that my school district hosted with four other districts in North Texas. We had yard signs (pictured above) made to distribute to attendees. (The cost of these signs was covered by a sponsor.)

School choice continues to be a major topic of debate and conversation both in the Legislature and out in the public space. Texas public schools educates nearly 5 million students. I'm not going to delve into the arguments for/against restoring state education funding, school vouchers, high stakes testing, or other un-funded mandates in this space. Again, there are other public education advocacy groups already making positive steps for these debates. Healthy debate is good in my opinion. I offer this simple idea as a counter-message to the negative notion repeated again and again that students are “stuck” in public schools. In actuality, many families simply choose public education. I want to give a unifying message for those parents who freely choose Texas public schools.

Be proud, Texans and share that choice.

Please feel free to share, use, distribute the We Choose Texas Public Schools concept. I've shared the PDF of the yard sign art for others to use. I look forward to seeing how this concept develops.

'The Mom Next Door' and School PR

A recent study found that more moms make in-person recommendations (83%) than recommendations via social media (53%) which should cause school PR people to pause a moment and think about your school district's in-person contact with parents, especially moms.

The recently released study entitled The Mom Next Door: Why and How Moms Make Recommendations by 360PR and Mom It Forward provides interesting data on how moms make recommendations in-person and online. I can see it being useful for brands to dig into for thoughts on trustworthiness.

Among the Mom Next Door survey findings:

• 71% of moms make recommendations about brands, products and services to other moms at least monthly; 
• 50% of moms making recommendations about brands daily; 
• 93% of moms are influenced to some extent by other moms’ recommendations.

The parts of the survey I found most relevant for school PR pros relate to trutworthiness and where moms meet-up. According to the survey, the majority of moms rate in-person recommendations as more trustworthy than recommendations via social media.

• 59% of moms give in-person recommendations the highest possible rating for trustworthiness; and
• only 14% of moms rated recommendations via social media as “most trustworthy.”

Moms interact with other moms most often at their child’s daycare or school (58%), at a friend’s house (54%) or another off-line get-together (48%) – meeting for coffee, shopping, working out, etc.

Why this is important for school PR

The data on in-person recommendations and locations of interactions with other moms at daycare or school should perk up the interest of school communicators. That 58% of moms interacting with other moms at their daycare or school is a useful data point because it points to an easily ignored truth when it comes to communication: moms come to the schools. 

We spend so much time thinking about how to leverage the digital communication channels through online outreach, social media tools, e-newsletters, etc. which is all well and good since we can be highly efficient with our efforts by using these channels. We should definitely keep using online tools to hopefully provide that 35% of moms meeting-up online with timely, honest, accurate, relevant information. But, we must be mindful of our in-person communication touch-points with moms (parents) so that the larger percentage get the information they need as well. Think of it this way with a few types of campus-parent interaction opportunities for communication success or failure: 

• campus/district special events, activities, or sports; 
• before/after school drop-off and pick-up;
• anytime volunteers are on campus; 
• PTA/PTO meetings;

How a campus appears, how its staff interacts with parents and the available messaging and signage locations are all three things never to be overlooked. I'd argue that many problems or misunderstandings could be mitigated with some consideration to communication. Sometimes we get caught up in the luster of the shiny objects and forget a simple explanatory handout would suffice. 

If we hope to be included among the (hopefully) positive in-person interactions and recommendations between moms, we'd better not forget when, where, and how we'll get those chances.

Valuing School PR and Summer Timing

Earlier this week the Dallas ISD received some summertime media attention with their incoming superintendent setting the salaries for four chiefs in his cabinet including $185K for a Chief of communications.

I have no interest in debating whether or not this individual should or should not be paid this as a base salary for a school PR job mainly because I don't know the ins and outs of the DISD budget. Nor am I interested in the arguing the newsworthiness of the Dallas Morning News article that raised eyebrows because that education reporter was simply following the template of others: share salary of public official + compare it/share it = shock and disbelief  x  readers. Textbook.

No, I'm focused on two intriguing aspects of this situation from a school PR perspective:

(1.) An increase in the value of school communication professionals by superintendents and (2.) the timing of summer information releases.

Top-level value of school public relations
The article mentions that the new superintendent, Mike Miles, is bringing the district's communication position into the executive fold. 

DISD’s top communications position has not been a chief-level job, but Miles said the change was needed because there will be an increased focus on communication.

Honestly, I was surprised to read that communications was not previously an executive or cabinet-level position in Dallas ISD. By including his communications person among his chiefs, the new superintendent has shown how much he values strategic communications for his district administration. I sincerely hope DISD has found someone to help bring things along (or turn things around depending on where you sit) for the school communities. School PR should take note of how expectations for internal and external communication can be of value and service to a school district.

“We’re going to do communications differently,” Miles said. “Most people in the community will agree that our communications have to be better.”

I do, however, take exception to part of the Dallas Observer's post on the salary from their "Edumication News" section. (Yikes!) and his premise that anyone can do communications because it's a sales job. Joe Tone writes,

There are plenty of areas of public education that require a really specific set of skills. But communications isn't one of them. It's sales, basically, only for almost every customer you have, yours is the only product they've ever heard of.

Wrongo. What Joe Tone doesn't realize (or care to understand) is that strategic communications and school public relations does require a specific skill set just like other administrative functions. But that's ok, he's in the media. He can write what he wants. I may need to save that list for a future post.
 
Summer Timing
The other tactical aspect of this news story should be of interest to school PR pros as well. While the administration of school districts continue all year long, some of the stories for education reporters dwindles in the summer. While this salary brouhaha will cause a bit of bruising in the short-term for DISD, it won't have lasting effects since people move on to other things in their heads pretty quickly. Especially in the summer. If there was going to be a time for an OMG-look-at-what-they-are-paying article to come out, the summer is really the best time for it. Controversial news has a better chance of being managed internally and externally when released over the summer. I recommend information-gathering and using online statements as well as direct communication with the community in addition to working with the media. It's true during the school year and during the summer.

Photo credit: grbenching via Flickr Creative Commons

Missouri judge makes good call on "Facebook bill"

Image via WikipediaCole County (Mo.) Circuit Judge Jon Beetem issued a preliminary injunction on Friday against a law designed to prohibit teachers from having private online conversations with students declaring that it “would have a chilling effect” on free speech.

The law reads in pertinent part, "No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use non-work-related internet site which allows exclusive access with a current or former student."

Judge Beetem writes in the preliminary injunction, "Even if a complete ban on certain forms of communication between certain individuals could be construed as content neutral and only a reasonable restriction on 'time, place, and manner,' the breadth of the prohibition is staggering...The Court finds that the statute would have a chilling effect on speech."

Soon after the injunction, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon announced that he will ask the General Assembly to repeal the social media provisions in the controversial law.

Good call.

This clumsy state-wide provision was sitting there waiting to be challenged and (hopefully) overturned. I have no issue with the intent of wanting to curtail inappropriate contact between students and teachers using social media. It just seems these provisions were doomed from the beginning from a free speech perspective and from an enforcement standpoint. It will be interesting to see what comes next or if other states watch the Missouri outcome and tailor similar bans.

Related articles

• Missouri’s Ban on Teachers Friending Students on Facebook is a Golden Gate to Impracticality
• Facebook limits for teachers nixed by Mo. judge
• Mo. judge blocks Facebook limits for teachers

How crisis communication theory meets crisis communication reality

Image via Wikipedia When Worlds Collide!
How crisis communication theory meets crisis communication reality

Guest post by Brad Domitrovich, PR Zealot

What is a crisis? By definition, it is a crucial or decisive situation, a turning point. For those of us who happen to be in the school PR business, a crisis is better defined as any event that causes us to stop what we are doing and react. From a personal standpoint, I define a crisis as any situation that makes me reach into my medicine cabinet and grab my favorite bottle of headache relief!

Over the past year, I’ve presented crisis communication seminars at several conferences across Texas. In attendance at these workshops were School Board Trustees, Superintendents, District Level Administrators, and Campus Level Administrators. It is always such a breeze lecturing people about what to do in a crisis, especially  when there isn’t one going on at that very moment. It sure is easy being “the expert” on stage answering questions about managing the media when there isn’t a line of reporters at my door. Life is so easy when you’re operating in “theory” mode rather than “reality” mode. I’m a big fan of the show Seinfeld. So what happens when, as the character George Costanza states, “worlds collide?” What happens when reality is here and theory takes a back seat?

Every school district has to deal with a crisis from time to time. The ones I have worked for are no exceptions. A couple of months ago, I had a crisis situation pop up. A big one. One of those that you know that within the next twenty-four hours, you are going to be contacted by virtually every media outlet in your market.

Instead of getting myself worked up into frenzy mode, I opted to close my office door, sit in the quiet for a few minutes, and jot down some notes as a plan of action. When I finished penning my last bullet point, I realized that what I was jotting down, was a parroting of what I have been presenting as “theory” throughout the past year.

#1: Be prepared
Although each crisis is different and should be weighed on its own merit, preparation is paramount. What does being prepared mean? Being prepared for me in this case was reviewing information with key individuals. I made sure that I had all the details I needed so I knew what to say. There is no such thing as having too much information when you are preparing for a media blitz. I reviewed timelines, activities, and actions and made sure that all of us knew what to do and what to say during and after the crisis period. Bradley D. Smith, School Board President for Georgetown ISD reiterates this thought. “My advice to administrators would be to completely understand the facts regarding the crisis and then articulate a strong strategy,” he states.

#2: Never say “no comment”
Everyone knows that you should never say no comment. I always try to view the crisis from the eye of the public. Do they want to hear you say “no comment”? Anytime you ignore a crisis situation, it only makes things worse. If we provided no comment, we would have lost our greatest opportunity to control the crisis.

#3: Have one spokesperson
Having one spokesperson who is comfortable in front of reporters is an incredible asset in a crisis situation. One individual should always be designated as the primary spokesperson to make official statements and represent the company. A back-up individual should also be identified in the event the primary person is unavailable. “Have a predetermined spokesperson to handle all the information releases and interviews,” explains Craig Verley, Public Relations Director for Mission Consolidated ISD. “One voice with correct and timely info – frees up other staff  to do their jobs in dealing with the emergency situation without media distractions,” he adds.

#4: Media relations is critical
The best time to build a relationship with the media is when you don’t have a major issue in the spotlight. Stay current with reporter names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Be proactive. Don’t wait for bad news to begin developing relationships. Mansfield ISD’s Director of Media and Communications Richie Escovedo tells us to “establish positive relationships with the media, community, and advocates before you need them.”

#5: Bleed for a day, not a week
It is always good practice to confront the situation immediately and take charge. If you’re hoping that the radar doesn’t find you because you’re lying low, that just doesn’t work. Embracing the crisis, being prepared, and having a statement ready allows you to get on with business as usual after only one day of controlled chaos.

So those were the five bullet points I jotted down. As I look back, worlds can collide! Managing a crisis can be accomplished as long as you allow “reality” to meet with “theory.”

------
Brad Domitrovich is a “PR Zealot” with over thirty years of experience in the academic, entrepreneurial, and corporate environment. He is Past President of the Texas School Public Relations Association and served for  six years on the TSPRA Executive Committee. Brad is invited frequently to speak at conferences sponsored by a number of educational organizations. He has delivered keynotes and presentations for several school districts and Educational Service Centers throughout Texas. Currently, Brad is the Director of School and Community Relations for the Georgetown Independent School District. He can be contacted at Brad@Domitrovich.com or (830) 688-9912.

Closing a School District's Facebook Page

Image via WikipediaAfter approximately 20 months of building a (mostly) positive online community, my school district has shut down its Facebook page.

In an explanatory blog post, we shared the following in part:

"Mansfield ISD will no longer host district or campus-level Facebook pages. The open nature of the Facebook commenting feature continues to cause regular disruption and place the district as a liable participant in issues related to sharing of private student information, defamation of employees and other abusive online behavior. In addition, MISD is not able to commit the administrative or campus staff time necessary to adequately moderate user content posted to these pages."

Those of you that know me know that I am huge advocate for integrating social media tools into communication and public relations work flow. Facebook page management was/is among those tools I recommend.

Be careful what you wish for...
With the District page open for community commenting, of course we created and posted the rules of engagement to back up our removal of inappropriate material. We wanted feedback. We got feedback. Not all of it positive. Which was, and is fine. Getting useful feedback from the community on news and information was an objective since it helped us determine if messages were being received. The human element of the social web will always bring out critics and critiques. The problems came when those were aimed at students, parents, community and individual staff members.

So what changed?
In essence the liabilities were outweighing the benefits of the district's Facebook page. We became keenly aware of just how much time it was taking to adequately monitor the page in order to remove postings that were abusive and/or offensive.The page audience grew to a respectable 6,900 fans ('Likes') connected to it. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way it reached a point where detractors (passionate and occasional) decided to use the commenting features to share negative information and feedback about individual students and staff members. There were also instances of bickering and arguing with each other including back and forth between kids and adults that sometimes left the realm of civil and intelligent discourse. I know that is shocking to anyone who has a personal Facebook profile. (sarcasm)

Perhaps there was a magic number of fans or tipping point for the community that marked this shift. It's hard to tell.

Why not just turn off the comments for the page?
In the current Facebook Page editing capabilities, Admins can toggle on/off the Posting Ability to adjust the setting "Users can write or post content on the wall." But, that only stopped new comments going to the wall, not on previous or new posts shared by the Page. That setting simply doesn't seem to exist right now. Admins still have to watch and delete inappropriate replies and ban users if necessary. So it's still a moderation/time issue.

Moving forward
If school PR people want to start/continue to use Facebook pages, I would recommend you make sure you (1.) have a policy that includes a response protocol for negative comments and inappropriate posts and (2.) set aside time, resources and money to listen to and moderate the conversation about your school district. This time resource is a sticky one. We could no longer sustain a level of moderation with the current Facebook Page administration capabilities to meet the growing demand for nearly constant oversight.

Does this mean we are backing away from social media? Hardly. Consider this:
Facebook ≠ Social Strategy

I do not consider adopting any one single social media tool, even the current front-runner, Facebook, as being equal to having a social strategy. The underlying reasons or objectives behind why you use these communication tools and how you evaluate and measure their effectiveness are what ultimately propel an organization's success.

What do you think? Have you run across these commenting management issue on pages you run for your school district or clients? I'm curious to know what others think. As always, the comments are yours.

Related articles

• Facebook as a school district's newsroom 
• Facebook Page Commenting Changes 
• Upcoming Facebook Page Commenting Changes 
• Facebook Page redesign: 10 things admins should do RIGHT NOW.

Facebook as a school district's newsroom

I like to keep track of interesting questions in the hopes that someday I might have an answer or would ask others in the hopes of furthering the dialogue on social media and school public relations.

One such question came from a marketing professional, Chris Stone during the #schoolprchat, (a Twitter chat that is currently on hiatus.)

This is a great question because it forced me to pause and take a critical look about how I was using my school district's Facebook page.

A school district's Facebook page is a prime location for sharing timely, relevant, and interesting content with the community of parents, students, staff and even some random people that have decided to 'Like' the page along the way.

The strategy behind the school district using Facebook could be summed up as fish where the fish are. With so many people on the social utility, it just makes sense for school districts engage their community there.

But Facebook as a school district's newsroom? I think in the traditional sense of the term 'newsroom' perhaps not since it doesn't really provide enough to meet journalists' expectations. From distribution and content expectations of journalists, Facebook doesn't really work.

Ah, but journalists aren't the only people school PR folks are trying to reach. Certainly traditional media should (and will continue to) be a fundamental component for school district communication pros. And we should do everything we can to sharpen our media relations skills and approach.

But don't let that be the only focus.

School districts should already be leveraging Facebook for communication and community outreach. Set your district's Facebook rules of engagement, prepare and gather content from all over the district to share. Post, listen, engage and promote...and repeat.

I know some school districts don't allow you to comment on their Facebook page wall. I don't agree with this broadcast-only practice. The magic is in the feedback. When we post items to Facebook like updates, questions, links, photos, videos, student/staff recognitions, explanations, news, events, etc. it's done with the audience in mind. I use Facebook in my school district to share and engage with the community.

Oh and for the record, I recently tried to pitch a story to a local newspaper reporter only to be told, "yeah, I saw that on Facebook earlier."

Come to think of it, maybe it is the district's newsroom.

5 Tips to keep your School PR job - Tim Caroll, APR

I had the pleasure of spending some time in sessions, catching up with school PR colleagues and friends in addition to presenting at the 2011 Texas School Public Relations Association conference last month. The current Texas public school financial realities seemed to be a common theme of discussions and among a few of the presentations. Folks were concerned just like educators across the state about whether or not personnel reductions will happen in the name of cost-cutting measures.

I caught up with Tim Carroll, APR from the Allen ISD to ask him what he thought are some ways school PR people can help themselves keep their jobs:

5 Tips to keep your school PR job

1. Contribute in areas that benefit the school district financially or that clearly address goals and objectives. Find the things that are important to the district leadership.
2. Get a seat on the superintendent's cabinet. You need to be/become a trusted advisor to management.
3. Become the go to person for strategic communication needs. Go beyond being the camera, press release, newsletter person.
4. Get out of the office. It's just a good idea to spend time at campuses to see what's going on so you can tell good stories and remind yourself why we do what we do. (It's for the kids.)
5. Seek additional responsibilities that fit into your skill set. Staff reductions will leave gaps that need to be filled.

In addition to being the Director of Public Information for the Allen ISD, Tim Carroll, APR is the 2011 President of the Texas School Public Relations Association and a 31 year PR veteran. He sums up two of the best reasons I concur for why school communications pros should be a part of professional organizations like TSPRA or the NSPRA; (one) networking with other PR pros and (two) access to shared resources.

What do you think of these tips? What would you add? As always, the comments are yours.

(Photo credit: zawtowers via Flickr Creative Commons)

Putting Social Media to Work for #SchoolPR - #tspra11

This is my presentation given at the 2011 Texas School Public Relations Association Annual Conference in Arlington, TX.

Thank you to the attendees who came out in the afternoon for this social media 201 session. I wanted to provide some thoughts on how to put social media to work for school PR people and share some tips and tactics that could be taken back to their home districts.

Putting Social Media to Work for School PR

View more presentations from Richie Escovedo.

School Boards, Twitter, and the media machine

Just when you thought it was safe to have your school board members on Twitter...

Ok maybe it was never really "safe" to have elected officials on Twitter, but then again as citizens, it's really up to them to decide. That being said, officials need to be reminded that once they decide to share content via Twittter or other public site, social network, etc. they open themselves up to additional scrutiny and potential for pitfalls.

The tweet above was from a Houston Chronicle education reporter who covers the Houston ISD. She was apparently live-tweeting at least some of the meeting and became suspicious that the board started the meeting in closed session which seemed out of character. So she apparently knows that an undetermined number of HISD board members are on Twitter and was hoping to get a scoop.

I'm not picking on the reporter here, she's just doing her job framed by a J-school taught suspicious mentality on behalf of the fourth estate. What I am concerned about are school board members who might use Twitter as a way to inappropriately share information that could put themselves and/or their school district in a compromising situation.

(Please note: A board only needs to have the agenda posted publicly 72 hours prior to a public meeting. Specific items on the agenda, such as Closed Session, can be moved around as needed during the meeting.)

PR people
School district public relations and communications professionals need to have a handle on these types of chatter for potential issues. This could serve as an early-warning device for impending problems or revelations. I'm pretty sure you don't want this kind of surprise.

Elected officials
I'd also encourage current or future school board members to be very careful with their online communication. Much is yet to be decided upon (and written about) concerning open government and transparency. The media will (and should) look into inconsistencies and problems plus give context through news items. You need to be vigilant to stay on the viewing side of the gallows. I'm pretty sure you don't need to give them the rope.

Applying for a PR position? Be smart and be #HAPPO.

Our Communications Department at the school district just went through the fantastically challenging process of hiring for a new Public Relations Specialist position.

It was fantastic insomuch that it meant that our department was finally able to add another set of hands to help out in a growing district. This was a challenging endeavor due to the fact that there is a lot of amazing communications/PR/journalist talent out there looking to land a good gig. In the end, we are pleased to have who we believe will be a tremendous asset to our team.

The hiring process also gave me the chance to assess a rather large pool of résumés, cover letters, and correspondence from potential candidates and discover some areas that might help others seeking employment in public relations.

1. Know your audience - I was surprised at the number of applicants who had zero qualifications that matched our needs. This could be because of the still recovering job market and people applying just to apply, but it doesn't make sense to waste your time trying to get in front of someone when there's obviously not a relevant connection.
   
2. Read the job description very carefully - When evaluating applications, we were looking for specific set of skills, demonstrated ability and experience for our department needs. Look for words in the job description (like writing, reporting, media spokesperson, special events, web, etc.) that give context clues to help you determine what they are looking for in an ideal candidate.
   
3. Match your skill set with your experience - Look for ways to draw comparisons with your work experience (paid, internship and volunteer) to as many of the skills sought as possible. Don't have any related work experience? This is when your writing skills will come in handy as you'll need to frame your education around the needs of the position. Either way, you need to be able show your prowess for their specific open position.
   
4. Cover letters get read. (Hopefully.) - Thinking about writing skills, the cover letter is an area for the job seeker should pay attention to. The cover letter probably shouldn't be a narrative rehashing your résumé. Instead, let the cover letter be a written example of your personality. Keep it professional, but it's ok to be a human.
   
5. Details, details, details - Pay close attention to what you send to potential employer. Let's all say it together, "Pay close attention to what you send to potential employer." Sadly, people make bonehead mistakes when applying for jobs. Like leaving all of the edits turned on in the Microsoft Word .doc cover letter so 1/2 of the page is red and/or crossed-through. Don't be that guy. Send a PDF.(And yes, that really happened.) Other mistakes with your résumé such as misspellings or misleading bullet points, etc. cause unnecessary confusion. Also, follow all of the directions in the application process, to whom do  you send documents, whether or not to complete an online or offline application, etc. These things really make a difference and when fouled up, make you appear to not be very detail-oriented which is pretty important in PR.
   
6. Apply like you're pitching a story - You'll get better traction when seeking employment if you approach each potential employer they way they want to be approached. We know that blasting out the same generic press releases to a bunch of media contacts and hoping one of them bites is a waste of everyone's time. Tailor your résumé to each prospect like you would tailor your pitch to a specific reporter and outlet. It takes more time, but you stand a greater chance of getting your foot in the door if you can be relevant to them.
   
7. For the journalists - We had a high number of current and former journalists apply for our position. And I know of many media friends making the jump to the dark side (or into the light depending on how you look at it) of PR. I believe you bring an exciting potential to any communications team because of the inside knowledge of the media you bring to the table. Lean on your writing, ethical, and newsworthy standards and I believe you can be a valuable addition to public relations teams.

What do you think? What tips or suggestions can you add for PR job candidates? The comments are yours.

And for your moment of HAPPO-ness...

HAPPO (Help a PR Pro Out) is an online community started by Arik Hanson and Valerie Simon. It’s members strive to help PR pros who are looking for jobs connect with organizations looking to hire in order to identify potential opportunities for both sides. I am the HAPPO regional champion for Dallas/Ft.Worth. The next HAPPO online event is Dec. 8. Follow the #HAPPO hashtag on Twitter for more details and to get involved. If you are in DFW, follow the #HAPPODFW hashtag on Twitter for local information.

[Photo by zervas via Flickr Creative Commons]

Related articles

• HAPPO events scheduled for December, January
• HAPPO is a chance to put yourself out there

Social Media in Government - Schools at manor.govfresh #manorgf

Earlier this week, I ventured south to the small town of Manor, TX. The city, specifically the school district in Manor, was was the unlikely host of manor.govfresh conference. The conference brought together "government and industry innovators to share and learn about emerging, cost-effective technologies for state and local government."

I say unlikely host because at first glance this small city looks like any other. However, looks can be deceiving. Manor's innovative use of technology has been featured by government agencies and media, including the White House, Inc. Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Austin American Statesman, and others according to the conference press room. And the district is on par with technology innovation and student digital literacy instruction.

So what does this have to do with school communications or public relations?

I was asked to participate as a panelist for a session entitled Social Media in Government. Coordinating the panel was Andrew Krzmarzick, the GovLoop Community Manager. And rounding out the panel was Sandra Fernandez, Manager of Public Relations for the Houston Public Library, and Jacqueline Lambiase, Ph.D., public relations professor from TCU.

It was our job to convey strategic and tactical uses of social media in government in hopes of aspiring other local governments to look into ways to partner with each other, their school systems, libraries to better engage citizens and make educated decisions about social media tools.

Below are the slides from my portion of the session on school districts:Schools and Social Media -- Manor GovFresh

View more presentations from Richie Escovedo.

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This was a significant step in a positive direction for open government in Texas and around the country.

Seeing the continued interest and conversations around government 2.0 is something that school district communicators need to be paying attention to and learning as shifts in community expectations lead us to further government transparency.

This shift puts greater emphasis and access to what is happening inside local government. I think this is a good thing.

I also like how Andy put it in a recent tweet about the manor.govfresh conference.

Here's the article by Alex Howard (@digiphile) "Harnessing the Civic Surplus for Open Government."

This is an area worth exploring deeper for school PR. What do you think? What are seeing or hearing in communities in the way of open government? The comments are yours.

Facebook for School Districts: The Set Up Guide

Image via WikipediaThanks to the continuing wave of school district communicators and administrators seeking ways to reach their communities, a common question gets asked: How do you set up a Facebook page for a school district?

This post is for my school PR colleagues as well as those school district administrators seeking a step-by-step guide to set up a Facebook page in an educational setting plus some considerations and lessons learned from being a school district Facebook page administrator.

Step 1 - Create the Page
There are a few ways to do this. Visit the 'Create a Page' page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
or click the 'Create a Page for My Business' link from any random Facebook page.

Whatever you chose to do, you need to get to the screen that looks like this:

On this page completely ignore the Create Community Page. (That's a whole other headache.) You want to concentrate on the section for "Official Page." Using the radio buttons, pick "Local business" then scroll down the drop-down menu to "Education."

Next is the"Page name" text box. This is an important step that should not be taken lightly.

The name of the page will be how your community will find your district while searching within the social network. Additionally, since pages are public your district Facebook page will likely get traffic from popular search engines. I suggest naming the page how it is most commonly used in the community. In the example above, Blank Slate School District is the name I've chosen for my fictitious page. But this could have been any number of standard district names like 'Public Schools,' or 'Independent School District.' (Note: If you have Independent School District in your official name, I recommend shortening it down to ISD, so the example above would be 'Blank Slate ISD.' This is common enough to stand alone, plus it will shorten some of the postings.)

After you've given your page its name, click that "Create Official Page" button and you're ready to roll.

Step 2 - Adjust the Settings
When you create that page, the new default is to have the page in the "Published" setting. This means it's open for business. If you want some time to finish creating the page thus making it suitable for visitors, I suggest you Click the "Edit Page" directly under the big gray question mark where you district logo will soon be placed.

Your first stop will be "Settings." Click Edit then choose Unpublished (visible to no one but admins), then click Save Changes. You've just bought yourself some time to finishing tidying up your page to make it worthy of public consumption. (In Settings you also have a couple of other options for Country and Age Restrictions. Facebook has good explanation for these if you wish to adjust these for any reasons.)

After you've unpublished your new page. You can go back to the page by clicking the "View Page" link near the top of the edit page screen. (Hint: You can toggle back and forth between Page view and Edit view to see how your updates look.) Facebook has made things really easy these days with the new look for page creation. They've given their own step-by-step guide:

Step 3 - Add your logo
Next up is your school district logo or image you wish to use on the official page. You can maximize the real estate of this image by using up to 200 pixels wide by 600 pixels high for your graphic element to represent your district. Most examples that I've seen just use the district's logo. In some cases you may wish to use a different image in the event you are in a specific campaign or initiative. (Note: Your image will be reduced down to a 50 x 50 pixel image on your wall and centered so it may not look exactly how you imagined it to look. Try different versions to get the best look.)

To add your image you can hover over the big question mark in the upper left and use the "Change Picture" option or click the "Upload an Image" link in the Get Started section. Once you've added your image, you should see something like this:

(And of course the "BS" was done on purpose.)

Step 4 - Edit your page 
Continue to go down the line to edit your page with Basic Info, including Location, Phone, Hours of Operation, Website, and Parking. This is the easy one. The next part is the Wall Settings. You are going to need to make some decisions here. You need to decide who gets to write or post things to your District's Facebook page Wall. I recommend the default view set to All Posts since this is for the District's community and they should see that their posts have value to the district. Set the Default Landing Tab to "Wall" instead of Info, Photos, or Discussions. Having the Wall as the default lets those visiting your page see that you are providing an opportunity to share. Permissions and Posting Ability is another chance to think things through. I like the top option that allows people who like the Page to write or post content on the wall. However, you may consider leaving the other sub-posting abilities unchecked unless you are sure you are comfortable with people posting their own photos, videos, and links to your District wall. (Hint: Even with "links" unchecked, people connected to your page can still post links as wall postings/comments and those will be active links. The links just won't be the dynamic links with optional pictures the other way.)

Going mobile? Under Wall Settings in the Edit screen is Mobile that let's you "Publish status updates, photos and videos to your Facebook Page on the go." Once you click "Edit" you'll see your page's unique e-mail address that let's you upload photos and video via a smart phone and e-mail. This could be really handy if you wanted to update the Page while at a District event or something else where you might be pulled away from typical page management. Protect this e-mail address.

Step 5 - Set your Facebook Page Rules
I know there are some other interesting things going on in the Edit screen under the Applications heading, but for now, I suggest you concentrate on another section. You need to set up your School District's Facebook page posting guidelines. These are the rules to which posts and comments from your community will need to adhere in order to stay up for public consumption.

! If you need an example, feel free to use and/or improve on these Facebook Page Rules of Engagement for School Districts. 

Once you've drafted your District's Facebook page rules, they can be added to your page in the "Notes" section. Notes can be found on the Edit screen under Applications. Write your new Note and drop in your page's rules. Call them whatever you like, just make sure they get across the message that this is a monitored page and all posting of comments on the page are at the discretion of the page administrators.

Step 6 - Additional Page Considerations
Once you've set up your page's guidelines for the community you can go back and do some clean-up.
Under your page's logo/image, there is a box that will prompt you to write something about your district. (Hint: you only have enough room to fit 250 characters including spaces, so be judicious with this text.) This text box can be updated as often or as little as you want depending on what you'd like share here.

Now back in the Edit Page screen and let's look at the options under Applications:

• Discussion Boards - This is a great opportunity to open up discussion threads on topics for your school district community. You may get some negative feedback here depending on the nature of the discussion, but with Facebook their are fewer opportunities for anonymity since typically people will post as themselves. Your district could gain some valuable insight using Discussion Boards if you are willing to open them up for use.
• Events - The options for "Create an Event" are much easier now in Facebook. Basically it walks you through the process of an Event and lets you update the people who've liked your Page as well as allows them to share with their network of friends. This is another valuable feature of a Facebook page for school districts since you can use Events to gauge early interest for an event and let your network help spread the word on it.
• Links - Depending on how you set up your Wall options back in Step 4, you shouldn't have to mess with this one. Plus, it's pretty self-explanatory.
• Photos and Video - I lump these two together since they are similar. Peoples faces are compelling. Images and/or video of students, employees, a superintendent, community members, etc. doing something interesting can be great ways to help you tell the story of your district.
• ! Posting updates as The Page -When you add items to the district's Wall, you will post as The Page and not as you the Admin. What this means is if you've set up the page using your personal Facebook profile, when you administer the page, you are adding items as The Page and not as yourself. So for our example page, even though I set up the Blank Slate School District page using my profile, updates appear to come from the BSSD Page and not as me:

That's it. If you've made it this far, congratulations and good luck with your school district's page. I hope you find this guide useful. If you know of others needing assistance with their district's page set up, feel free to pass this post along to them.

For even deeper cuts on Facebook page set up and management, be sure to check out these other resources:

• Facebook Pages: Creating, administering and editing your Page
• Facebook Pages Resources
• Facebook Strategy: Set clear expectations with community guidelines
• Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference?
• HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Page
• The RIGHT Way to Set Up Client Facebook Page
  

Blog writing ideas and tips for school districts

Once you've moved passed your initial fears of blogging for your school district, it's time to think about the type of content you wish to provide for the community. Let the goals be your guide for what to write.

You could have an informal, community-centered blog that has a broad approach and covers a wide range of topics, a superintendent (leadership) blog, a news release and announcement blog, department and/or curriculum-related blog, internal blog featuring staff stories, or any combination of these.
(Image: avrdreamer)

Of course, the above is by no means an exhaustive list, rather just some ideas that might help get you going.

When deciding what to write in a school district's blog remember:

• Write what you know - Blogs are at there best when they are written from the perspective of someone who has relevant knowledge and information to share.
• Be interesting - A school district community is a collective of individual parents, students, staff, and public. You have to figure out what are the compelling needs and topics to match their interests.
• Be Honest - This is a big one. If you have access to information AND are authorized to share, you can use these behind-the-scenes topics as relevant posts. The caveat is just like when dealing with the media, you must be honest or you could set yourself up for failure. Dishonesty and failure in a blog can take on a mini-to-major PR storm if you are not careful.
• Be Yourself - You school district blog can have an informal tone. Use the language that you would use in conversation and avoid the eduspeak as much as possible. Or think of it like author/blogger David Meerman Scott said in a recent keynote speech, "speak to your buyers in their language, not yours."
• It's a two-way street - Commenting is a must in my opinion. School districts can get the most out of their blogs if they have a commenting system in place for readers. Being able to get feedback is a great listening tool and should not be overlooked. Arik Hanson, sums it up quite well I think:

"...the best part of many blogs isn’t the posts. It’s the comments. Why? Because the comments represent the real discussion board. People with varying viewpoints adding valuable content. Folks starting productive conversation threads that go in a different direction from the original post. And people leaving tips and tools that are beneficial to us all. That’s the real gold of blog posts."

Your school district blog can provide a place where parents, students, staff and the public can read some of the latest news, thoughts, and information from school district leadership and engage in respectful dialogue. It's up to you to cultivate an atmosphere of sharing with the community and develop the strategies the best fit the needs of your school district. What would you add? If you blog for a school district, what issues have come up for you?

School PR and the News Media - Ken Haseley, NSPRA 2010

Image by asterix611 via Flickr

Note: This is cross-posted over on Shane Haggerty's blog, Social Learning Lab.
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Last week I attended the National School Public Relations Association 2010 Seminar. In addition to speaking during my brief stay I also took away some great insights from some respected communicators. One such speaker was Ken Haseley from The Ammerman Experience. Haseley gave a session entitled The News Media Today: Ally or Adversary?

In his session, Haseley touched on the shift from the news media being a public service to being more about profit and entertainment. He even pointed out that to a degree the news today is delivered as theater with reporters/anchors as the stars (think high graphics, dramatic music, and celebrity journalists on location, like Anderson Cooper from CNN.) He spoke about creating allies and how to handle the adversarial relationship school PR professionals tend to have with the media. I have attended Ken's sessions before on a variety of topics so I knew his would be one not to miss.

Important take-aways from The News Media Today: Ally or Adversary?

Today's news media:

• Expect to have more contact with junior-level journalists. 
• Expect more errors or inconsistencies
• Communication pros need to do more hand-holding and listen more closely. (Example: During a phone interview, listen to how the reporter sums up your quotes and especially if there's anything that seems to still be confusing at the end.)
• While the newsrooms may be shrinking, the news landscape is still expanding. Journalists have even greater levels of expectations today in reporting and content production.

Creating Allies:

• Recognize the PR and media symbiotic relationship.
• Think in terms of marketing and build relationships.
• Remember business etiquette. (Example: It's so important for call backs. It's highly frustrating for a journalist to have to wait on you to get back with them. Call back even if you don't have the answer at the time.)
• You will gain greater confidence (and competence) with media training.

Handling Adversaries:

• Don't pick a fight with the media. (The old adage is still true, Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel)
• Learn how to just say no. (Sometimes it's ok to decline an interview request. This works when the story is not about your organization or it's a round-up piece that doesn't rely on your involvement. Say, "thank you, we've decided to pass on this one. Don't forget about us in the future." You still need to call them back.)
• Have a straight-forward approach. Don't waste a reporter's time. They'll remember you for that too.
• To fix errors in reporting you can either ignore it or take action. If you take action, Haseley suggests
  1.) Call the reporter to point out the error.
  2.) Ask for a correction.
  3.) Call the editor or news director
  4.) Strategically use letters to the editor or even paid advertising if necessary.
• Mend fences. You never know when those adversarial reporters are going to wind up as communications and PR colleagues in the future.

In addition to his presentation, Haseley was gracious enough to spend a couple of minutes to share some thoughts for a brief video: