An evolution in reading and publishing…Scribd

Think of Scribd as a book club online where anyone can join a conversation on almost any topic. You can read, print, download and send publications to your cell phone from their site. Upload your PDF, Word and PowerPoint documents to share them with a very large community of readers.

Consider these five ideas for how this site can be useful to school PR staff, teachers, students and parents across the district:

• News Clippings
  Like Shane pointed out in “Five ways your school district can use Pinterest,” you can use Scribd to feature your news clippings. Upload pdf or jpg versions of articles, adds, posters, banners, etc. to your account.
• Resource for Teachers
  From essays, theses and homework to study guides, notes and quizzes, there are many resources available to aid your teachers in their efforts.
  • Improved Statistical Test (2,651,999 reads)
  • Term Project Marketing Strategy (509,447 reads)
  • Pre K-K | Thanksgiving | Pilgrim Listen and Do (5,224 reads)
• Share school publications
  From course offerings to manuals and handbooks, students and parents can easily access documents from your account. They can download, print, read and even share documents, saving you time and money.
• Presentations
  Need to give a presentation on Web 2.0 and social networking? Maybe a grammer lesson on gerunds and infinitives? There are presentations you can use as inspiration in developing your own; or maybe you prefer to use their exact presentation. Prezi.com is another good resource for presentations.
• Resumes
  College graduates and young adults are looking to Scribd as a place to store their resumes in addition to LinkedIn. This could be helpful if you also have human resources duties, need to hire a new staff member or explore various resume styles.

We’re always looking for new ways to use Scribd. Do you have any?

Build a LinkedIn Company Page for Your School District

LinkedIn, the professional social network, rather quietly last year began adding some Image via CrunchBase pretty cool enhancements to its site that public relations professionals should know about. As you may or may not know, LinkedIn now has more than 90 million members hailing from more than 200 different countries. Unlike Facebook and many other social networking sites, 33 percent of LinkedIn users have graduate degrees (compared to about 21 percent of all Internet users). In addition, most users of LinkedIn range in age from 35 to 55, and more than 100,000 members of LinkedIn are professional recruiters. One of the most recent enhancements is company pages, and that’s where you come in.   Because thousands of companies and non-profits are already listed on LinkedIn with a “company page” generated by LinkedIn anyway, it’s wise to take advantage of the opportunity and build a page about your school district that’s accurate, lists your services and achievements, lists your job openings, and builds a community around your schools. To add a company page, click on the “Companies” tab at the top of your profile page. When the page comes up, you’ll see an “Add a Company” button on the top right of your page. Click on that.   To add a page about your company, you must have a company email address with your company’s email domain (name@yourcompany.com). Email addresses at gmail, yahoo, etc., won’t work. In addition, don’t forget to check and see if your district already has a company page. Follow these steps:   Enter your district’s official name and your work email address. Click “Continue” and enter your district’s information. Try adding your mission statement or a brief description about your district. If your page already has an administrator, the “Overview” tab will show this message: “To edit company pages please contact an admin. See admin list.” Clicking on “See admin list” will show your administrator. In most cases, you won’t see an administrator, so now is the time to name yourself as the administrator (after checking, of course, with your superintendent). Once you’ve created your company page, something cool will happen. LinkedIn members who specified their workplace when they signed up — and most do —  will automatically show up on your district’s company page. LinkedIn will also populate your page with former employees, alumni and new hires. To edit the information on your company page, click on “Admin tools” in the upper right of the page and select “Edit.” Make your changes and the click “Publish” to save.   In the right hand column of your company page, you’ll also see that once you’ve entered your district’s main address, phone number and website, LinkedIn will automatically add a Google Map to the page.   To ensure that only certain people can make changes to your page, be sure to go to the Overview page. Once there, you’ll see “Company Pages Admins.” Click on “designated users only,” and click on the “Publish” button. You can also add the names of other administrators if you’d like others in your office to have access to page changes.   As you become more familiar with your company page, you might try embedding YouTube videos on your overview page, linking your page to your district’s Twitter feeds, and elaborating on your district under the “Products and Services” tab, where you can also add photos.   To add your district’s Twitter account, visit “Edit My Profile” and click “Add Twitter account” next to the Twitter field. Twitter will ask you to verify your account name and password. Once your accounts are joined, you can change this setting at any time.   To learn more about LinkedIn company pages, go to the LinkedIn Learning Center. In addition, Mashable has a comprehensive how-to about company pages.

Related articles

• LinkedIn company page and follow company feature (marketing.yell.com)
• LinkedIn groups: Have you joined the conversation? (marketing.yell.com)

The Future of Social Media Maintenance?

If you’re like me, you probably look forward to school calendar season as much as you look forward to your next dentist appointment.

I can remember nearly losing my sanity during a few school calendar seasons, sorting through hundreds of pieces of paper (including handwritten notes) containing competing events and dates.

And now, many of us have social media responsibilities added to our long list of tasks. What’s a school communicator to do?

There might be help on the way. In my web travels, I stumbled across some pretty interesting web-based problem-solvers. I am in no way endorsing these products; I’m just noting a possible trend here.

Tandem for Schools, for example, is a web-based calendar service now available to schools. Using Tandem, school administrators can contribute to and update a central calendar, thereby sidestepping competing events, eliminating all that paper, and permitting the person who compiles your print calendar to retain his or her grip on reality. And perhaps, if your district is ready for this, Tandem might eventually make the print calendar obsolete.

Tandem connects school districts with parents in multiple ways, centered around a sophisticated-looking system. The web-based calendar, set up by a school district (or by individual schools, PTAs, education foundations, sports booster organizations, etc.), can sync with users’ Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar, Windows Live and other calendar systems.

The service also provides iPhone and smartphone integration so that Tandem can send emails and text message alerts to parents. Messages can be filtered by parents along the lines of their interests — for example, some parents might only want alerts about sports events; others might want to know about everything on the calendar.

Tandem also integrates with the district website by allowing you to re-direct the calendar button or the link you use to your district or school Tandem URL, and users will land right on the calendar. The calendar also can be customized to your school or district colors and logo.  And it includes directions to every event you post on the district calendar, with the help of Google Maps. You can also post individual events from the Tandem calendar directly onto Twitter and Facebook, and the calendar can be embedded onto your district’s Facebook page.

The best way to understand how Tandem works is to watch the company video.

Although Tandem hasn’t published any rates that I can find, you can see what the company offers in two different pricing levels — basic (free version) and enterprise — here. You can also sign up for a demo or watch a Tandem webinar before deciding your next course of action.

Squareberry promotes itself as an automated social media tool that helps social media managers with scheduling news and posts, tracking feedback and impressions, and centralizing and automating your social media work, saving time and angst. The Squareberry tool integrates your Facebook page, your Twitter feed, and your LinkedIn page, and it lets you post to all at the same time. For those of you without a Facebook fan page, Squareberry will build one for you.

Squareberry also allows you to use a full web-based calendar as your central events tool, and will post those events on all your social media sites. Postings can be scheduled way in advance, and that will undoubtedly save you oodles of time. In addition, the tool includes in-depth integration with mobile devices.

The free version of Squareberry (for schools and non-profits) is somewhat limited and doesn’t include the Facebook fan page creation. You’re limited to 100 events per month and three social media accounts. The pro version, at $29 per month, offers unlimited events, unlimited web calendars, and five social media accounts.

To better understand how Squareberry works, take a look at their video overview.

If any of our readers have tried out these tools, please feel free to share your experience with the rest of us in the comments section of this blog.

Related articles

• Social media trends in 2012 (alexmikro.net)
• 15 Fluff-Free Ways to Step Up Your Social Media Game (hubspot.com)
• Social Media Sites – News, Networking and Bookmarking (socialmaximizer.com)

Five Great Social Media Guides

Image via CrunchBase

If you’re just heading down the road to creating social media sites for your school or district, you might want to consider a handful of social media “bibles” that can make the process much less daunting.

1. One of my favorite guides is Facebook‘s own Pages Manual, created specifically for those of us in the field of education. The 10-page manual is a step-by-step guide to setting up a fan page (which, by the way, is the best way to create a page for your school or district). Try to avoid creating a Facebook “group” or a Facebook “community page,” because you’ll be limited in what you can accomplish.

2. Facebook also provides a Guide for Educators, which dives deeper and provides tips on encouraging appropriate behavior on your site, sharing important content, using the polls tool, and the Discussions and Notes tabs.

3.  I frequently refer to Mashable‘s Facebook Guide Book for help. This visual online guide provides beginners with a Facebook 101 tutorial, and more seasoned Facebook page administrators with “Facebook 305: Advanced Topics.” There’s plenty in this guide about using Facebook applications — an important second step for most fan page admins.

4. Twitter newbies will want to consult Mashable’s Twitter Guide Book, which is divided into five chapters beginning with “Twitter 101.” This guide, which can be downloaded, viewed online or as a video, is a must-have for anyone putting his toe into the Twitter waters for the first time.

5. Let’s not forget about LinkedIn, which continues to be the best social media site for professional networking. LinkedIn has added Company Pages, Jobs, Groups and an Answers tool for sharing expertise with others. The best way to learn more about using Linkedin is to go straight to the LinkedIn Learning Center, which will provide you with just about everything you need to know.

Related articles

• Free Social Media Guide Helps Companies Get Engaged, Stay Connected, and Grow Their Business (prweb.com)
• New Social Media Ebook Offers Free Guidance to Cisco Partners (blogs.cisco.com)
• Be social: Do you really need a social media manager? (marketing.yell.com)
• LinkedIn now the social media platform of choice for lawyers and law firms? (kevin.lexblog.com)