Why content matters on your social channels

According to Seth Godin, “Content marketing is the only marketing that’s left.” Why? Well, times have changed and audiences are fragmented. That means that for schools it is less important to send out traditional press releases, rely on the news media to report stories on the district, pay for expensive advertising, and on and on.

Here are some facts about the way your audiences are consuming information:

• According to eMarketer.com, mobile and internet consumption continues to rise among consumers, while traditional media usage continues to fall, especially with print media.
• According to eMarketer.com, the top two reasons social users follow brands on social media is because they want to keep up with the latest content and share that content with family and friends.

Content matters, then, because people want to see relevant, interesting, local and specific information directly from your district. In effect, you are now your own publisher of content. The model should look like this: owned media (original content you create as the most important), earned media (local news media coverage), paid media (advertising). By owning your media, you become a good storyteller rather than a good story (and by “good,” I mean sensationalized or controversial most of the time in the media). Also, your content never expires the way paid advertising does.

Since owning your own media is so important, and creating original, engaging content matters, here are some thoughts to keep in mind as you begin to shape your own stories:

• Your content strategy is just as important as the content you create or curate. What are your goals? What are your platforms? How will you distribute original content? How will people know about it? Part of the process is planning ahead and re-educating your constituents about how the district is going to be communicating.
• To own your own media and to make a content strategy effective, you must communicate internally and train administrators and staff. Try to invest in mini-campaigns on Facebook (feature a different school or program in your district weekly or monthly on your page) and use the power of hashtags on Twitter to aggregate conversations. Also, involve the voices of your students and your staff in your content.
• Always be in a storytelling mindset. Showcase your school’s culture. Introduce your school’s characters. Educate your community. Keep your audience’s attention.

Five important metrics for your district’s Facebook page

With any good social media strategy comes a way to measure its success. What do you consider the success of your school district’s Facebook page? Simply having a presence on Facebook is not the point of the platform. Much like any other PR or marketing effort, your Facebook page should show solid growth and engagement. With Facebook Insights, the analytics system tied to every Facebook page, measuring your page’s progress has never been easier.

Here are five important metrics to track on your district’s Facebook page:

1. Demographics. The overall number of “likes” or fans on your page is easy to track, but look inside that number. Is your page dominated by a female presence? What age groups tend to follow your page? These numbers are important when planning content.

2. Geographics. Where are your fans from? Of course, your page is going to be “liked” by some people not affiliated with your school district, but if most of your fans are from Australia or India, for example, your page is likely not hitting its geographic target.

3. Reach. Facebook measures anyone who has seen content associated with your page. This means that your page has a reach many times bigger than just those people listed as fans. You can discover how many unique people have seen content from your page (and many times you will be surprised at this large number).

4. Talking About Your Page. Facebook tracks people who have created a “story” about your page. A “story” includes liking your page, posting to your wall, commenting or liking a post, sharing a post, answering a question, etc. This is how your page continues to grow and become known. You want people to talk about your page!

5. Content. If you are simply recycling content from your website, please stop and develop a strategic content plan for your Facebook page. This becomes easier to do when you know what content appeals to your audience. You can find this out by measuring your content. What are the most popular types of posts? Probably photos and videos. Facebook Insights allows you to see individual posts and how they perform. Use this data each month to set what kind of content you are pushing out.

By taking the time to utilize Insights within Facebook, you can start to show your leadership team results from investing in social media.

Five Steps to Move your District into Social Media

By now your school district falls into one of the following categories when it comes to social media:

1. All in
2. Dipping toes into the water
3. Wavering and stuck
4. The door is closed

Congratulations if you are all-in, and my sympathies if the door is closed. Your district has made a decision to either engage your constituents with social media or to stick with traditional methods. However, if your district falls into the second or third categories, here are five steps you can take to methodically and practically implement some form of social media into your existing communications plan:

1. Develop a social media strategy and plan. Figure out what you want to accomplish by doing surveys and focus groups, and then plan how you are going to meet your constituents’ needs and interests with social media.

2. Develop your social media policies or guidelines. Either your board is going to want to develop stand-alone social media policies or you can complement existing, board-approved technology policies with guidelines that don’t require board approval.

3. Train and educate your staff and students. Depending on what you will do, your staff and students need to have clear expectations about why you are using social media and how they can help.

4. Develop a content plan. Just as you would develop an editorial calendar for a newsletter, develop a content plan for videos, photos or other content that will keep your social presence current and engaging. Also, determine who will manage your social media.

5. Launch it and measure it. Don’t just start a Facebook page or Twitter account and expect people to flock to it. You have to launch it effectively, so think through your internal and external roll-out. The nice thing about social media is you can measure them all the time to prove their effectiveness or lack thereof.