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Thursday, July 14th, 2011 at 1:21 pm

How schools can use social media

I am currently the president of publicity for the school of my son's PTA. This is a new experience for me, although I have been in the web management and design, marketing and social media marketing for years. I try to find other websites PTA to see how others use their websites and social media. Our PTA is very active, however, the website is new this year, and page Facebook was created last year.

Using a Facebook page.

It seems that almost everyone has a Facebook page. This is a great advantage for schools and school organizations. Here is a list of what a school can use their Facebook page:

Do ads. School staff and school officials may make announcements for students and parents feel comfortable using.
Programming events. The calendar function makes a quick and easy way to let everyone know about upcoming school events such as fundraisers, dances, meetings of the PTA / PTO / PTSA, lectures, excursions, and more. Best of all, it is a constant reminder of what comes in contrast to the frequent traveler old who goes home once, twice if you're lucky. In addition, the Flyers lost, or sometimes even make it into the hands of parents, not to mention the waste of paper and printing.
Brainstorming. Maybe you need new ideas for fundraising, or event theme. This is an excellent way to establish an open conversation about what students and parents would like to see or do.
Share Photos. There are always dozens of parents, families, students and taking pictures at all school events. What better outlet to share all those photos. Tagging photos allows parents and students to add their own images to your library photos.
Requests for volunteers. This is a quick and easy to ask for volunteers until the last minute. Perhaps one of the volunteers is patient or a teacher needs help to make copies. Send a help message and get someone fast!

The use of Twitter.

Twitter can be a useful output as well. Finding someone on the staff of the school, like the principal, assistant principal or school secretary to Twitter once or twice a day or more in the day's events. This can also be done by the person of middle school, if you have one, or a member of the PTA.

Using a website for school and / or PTA, PTO or PTSA.

I can count the number of people I know personally do not have Internet at home or use a computer on a regular basis, on one side. Everyone is "connected" today and schools and school PTA should take advantage of this. According to projected figures the Census Bureau for 2011 enrollment is as follows:

Pre-kindergarten - Grade 8

Public - 34,974
Private - 4598

Grades 9 to 12

Public - 14,580
Private - 1363

In our school there are more than 790 students enrolled for the 2010-11 school year and primary school is the smallest in the district. Keep all parents and families without the need for updated the Internet and social media becomes a very costly expense, an expense that most school systems can not afford without sacrificing other, more programs beneficial for students.

How should the schools to fix it? Ask. It is almost certain that at least a handful of parents are familiar with web design of some kind, even if only the basic configuration through WordPress or Blogger blogs. It is ideal to have only one blog? No. But at least is a starting point if you have limited resources. WordPress is free, a domain usually $ 15 or less, and the hosting site may be a nominal monthly cost, and the cost of a ream of paper.

So a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a website and "garbage," the report said. Look at the parents and grow the participation of students. Keep everyone informed. The days of pushing paper are over! If you're really daring, start a newsletter. Watch for a follow-up in creating an effective school newsletter.

About the Author

Sarah Baker is owner of Eos Concepts, LLC. She provides services in the areas of Virtual Assistance, Administrative Consulting, Personal Assistance, Website Design, WordPress Administration, Blog Programming, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Publication Marketing. Eos Concepts, LLC

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