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By Myra McGovern
Director of Public Information, NAIS
Can You Hear Me Now? New Approaches for Promoting Independent Schools
Traditional media relations
Social media relations
Measurement
Facilitation techniques
Part 2 Overview
Traditional media relations
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
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
What is social media?
Social Media Prism
Most frequently used by independent schools
Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr)
YouTube
Blogs
MySpace
Who’s On Facebook?
Source: IStrategyLabs http://www.istrategylabs.com/?s=facebook+stats
Who’s On Facebook?
Source: Facebook Social Ads on 4/27/10. http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/
Source: Facebook Social Ads on 4/27/10. http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/
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
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)
What can social networking media do for you?
Connectedness
Relationships
Engagement/ Involvement
Trust/ Authenticity
Benefits of Social Media
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
Alumni Affairs
Locate lost alums and reconnect Keep alums engaged Help young alums connect to more established
alums in the same industries
Communications
Another way to get info to families Target media that your constituents use Segment audiences Showcase your school as a model for learning
Development
Identify donor prospects Find out what your donors are interested in Acknowledge or reward donors publicly Mine the data
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
What are the downsides?
Time
Lack of control
Failure to thrive
Downsides of social media
Where do you start?
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
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
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
Measure/ track
Unique visitors, frequency of visits, comments, others sharing your content…
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.
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
Leverage technologies
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.
What else?
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?
Measure effectiveness
Measure for success
Outputs, outtakes, outcomes Tone Topics Impact
Delahye Impact Score measures…– Premium placement
– Headline
– Initial mention
– Extent of mention
– Dominance
– Visuals
Facilitate strategic discussions
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
Additional resources
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 !
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.
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
