Engaging Educators in your Edtech Startup- v3

Engaging EducatorsBuilding Your Community

About.me

@Jessie_AroraTeacherSquare.org

edcrunch.org

“Utility drives adoption, community drives retention”

Caterina Fake, Founder- Flickr & Hunch

Education is a long game. Resist the urge to chase short-term buzz (like getting written up in TechCrunch) and focus

on building relationships with your early evangelists.

K12 is Incredibly Fragmented

Show Me the Money (USA)

$600B

$50B

What’s Driving the Dysfunction

- Stakeholders and users are typically not the purchasers/customers

- Longer sales cycles (12-18 months)

- Cultural aversion to change

- Time is a huge constraint

Center for Learning with Technology

Hacker/Maker space to connect educators and

edtech

When you connect with people, they want to help you

Teacherpreneur Networks

Highlander Institute’s:Digital Harbor

Foundation

Conferences & EventsBe selective.

Track your target audience

Getting Started

- Establish your story and set your social media tone

- Refine your message with engaged beta testers

- Design broader marketing plan

Low Budget Storytelling

#esinstruct

- Comment on blogsComment on blogs

- - Leverage message boards

- Leverage social networks

- Become a guest author

- Case studies

- Speak at events

- Start blogging yourself

Early Adopters <3 Twitter

List of Top Edu Tweeters on edcrunch.org

EdgeRank = affinity * weight* time decay

Its not about how much information you can push out to your audience, its about the relationship you can build and the trust that you can create in

order to grow your business.

Battling through Beta

“Make sure your product doesn’t suck”

- Dave McClure, 500 Startups

Did you really solve a problem?Did you discover a bigger problem to solve?

Empowering Evangelists

Director of Teacher HappinessVirtual Interns

Beyond Beta

The story continues...

- Establish your story and set your social media tone

- Refine your message with engaged beta testers

- Design broader marketing plan

Appendix

- @CybraryMan1 resources (Get ready... this is a crazy site)- edu hashtags- edu chats

PLCs: Professional Learning Networks

Also referred to as PLNs - Professional/Personal Learning Communities

Community GroupsCreate a space to foster ongoing

communication between your early users