How our community’s mass shooting changed my mind about Twitter

This week’s shooting at the Clackamas Town Center mall happened in the heart of our school district.

One of our students was shot and remains in serious condition. Another student’s uncle was killed. Untold numbers of our students, staff and their families were among the 10,000 holiday shoppers and employees in the mall at the time of the incident. Our community remains in shock.

Before the shooting, I figured I had my social media bases covered with Facebook. I wasn’t sure I needed Twitter. After the shooting, I changed my mind.

Here’s why.

Twitter is now a mainstream information source:
In the first hour of a crisis, information gathering is key. Much was rumor, but some was fact. Twitter was a go-to source for breaking news, with sources ranging from the Sheriff’s office to the news media. During and after the mall shooting, a lot of information we needed first surfaced on Twitter.

Twitter is a research tool:
Following the event hash tag (#ClackamasShooting), I was able to tweet a personal question to a friend of a victim on Twitter. She confirmed the identity of the injured survivor, our student.

Twitter is where teens live:
If our students are there, we need to be there, too. One of our students posted inappropriate comments about the incident on his Twitter feed. Many respondents were angry, and made threats against him. Knowing this, we were able to have district staff and his friends contact him immediately. They urged him to make a public apology and then to log off.

Twitter is a lifeline:
With 10,000 people in the mall at the time of the shooting, people across our community used this tool to get quickly in contact with loved ones. Whether they discovered their loved ones had safely left the building or were protected by the lock down, they were relieved to hear the news quickly.

Twitter is a rumor mill:
This is the way to find out what the community is saying and feeling during an incident. What better place to correct misinformation than at the place where rumors spread?

Responding to this situation, we used all the tools in our toolbox, including auto-dial phone calls, parent emails, Facebook, the website, our list serve and the telephone.

Twitter was our tool of choice for on-the-go, up-to-the-minute information and rumor control in an evolving situation. I need this tool. The next step is to use it more to master the medium and explore new ways to use it.  I encourage you to do the same.

Five ways to take the pulse of your community

PR professionals always have an ear to the ground. Issues anticipation is about sensing and understanding public opinion, then using what you learn to navigate strategically and transparently through times of change and challenge.

Twitter and Facebook are essential tools in this work, providing windows on the world into the concerns and priorities of school district parents, students, employees and community members.

Five easy strategies can help you take the pulse of your community on a regular basis:

1. Broaden your friend base:
   Besides growing your school district’s fan base, cast a wide net to expand the circle of Facebook friends on your personal page. Friend district partners, involved parents, community leaders, neighbors, staff members, Board members, Education Foundation board members and volunteers. Be sure to protect your personal privacy by setting up different groups for personal vs. professional contacts.
2. Lurk and listen:
   Pay attention to what’s buzzing in your community. Watch for complaints, debate and controversy tied to education. When they mention schools or kids, what are people wondering about or worried about? Which education or political groups are they tracking on social media? Are coalitions forming for or against a proposed school district change? Resist the urge to post or comment, and just listen.
3. Invite private messages:
   Be sure to invite fans of your school district Facebook site to message you privately about any issues or concerns. Respond promptly to resolve issues, provide information or direct them to the right district expert. This is a good way to resolve individual issues around grades, health, bullying, employees, or discipline without compromising student or staff privacy.
4. Post a survey:
   When a hot issue bubbles up, try an online survey. If a protest group has achieved critical mass, post it on their site. Community members will be glad you’re listening, and by using open-ended questions, you may well find some workable compromises or innovative strategies to resolve the issue.
5. Share what you hear:
   Many district leaders do not follow social media, so let them know what you’re hearing, especially in turbulent times. Copy key conversation threads into an email, so they have a feel for the community’s priorities and concerns. Remind them that it doesn’t matter how much you are listening if the district does not act on what it hears from the community.

Twitter for schools: strategy, management, measurement

There are a number of schools on Twitter. Many tweet board of education meetings or link press releases they just posted on the district’s website. For some, they rarely update the account after they set it up because they find it is repetitive and scarcely followed. Twitter is one of the most powerful social media platforms out there, though it isn’t for every district. What I have discovered is that more and more high school students are using it, the media is all over it, teachers are using it, and community influencers (politicians, chambers, business owners) are using it. So, while Twitter may not yield as large of a following for your school district as Facebook, it may be the key to reaching influencers.

Strategy suggestions:

1. Don’t just recycle Facebook or website content, bring personality to your Twitter account by having a team of staff members tweet and share photos using Instagram or TwitPic. I suggest building administrative teams using Twitter to open up communication and bringing transparency and awareness to the day-to-day activities of your staff and students.
2. Create niche Twitter accounts. Instead of just one district Twitter account, perhaps you have a charismatic superintendent who can represent the district on Twitter or maybe you have principals who can tweet regularly. It isn’t about being on Twitter as a district, but rather making it so an audience of influencers wants to follow your presence.

Management suggestions:

1. Time is always the biggest excuse for why Twitter cannot be used successfully in a school, but there are ways to schedule tweets to compliment live tweeting from district representatives that makes it manageable. Check out Hootsuite, SocialOomph, Tweetdeck, Buffer or SocialBro to schedule your tweets ahead of time.

Measurement suggestions:

1. No one working in school PR wants to waste his or her time on a tactic that yields little results. With tools like SocialBro, analyzing who is being reached and what is being discussed on Twitter is manageable. Obviously, if 75 percent of your Twitter followers are spammers or from Belgium, you may want to re-think investing time on this social community.
2. Use hashtags. By promoting various hashtags for your district (ex. #JFKTigers or #FDRProm12 or #TigerHoops) you are encouraging your followers to tag conversations. These conversations can then be easily moderated or monitored using tools like TweetChat or by doing a simple Twitter Search. Sometimes listening is just as important as tweeting.

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

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• 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

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• 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)