Communicating is a HUGE challenge for education leaders: listening, sharing, and building support are an ongoing challenge at school and in the community. While it may initially feel like a big investment of time, social media can open doors, leverage time, and build support.
The Getting Smart team lives in social media. We use it to learn, to advocate, and to share innovations in learning. Here are 25 tips on how to quickly ramp up your social media presence and extend your #Edsocial impact:
5 Learning Strategies
Track relevant hashtags on twitter (I use Hootsuite)
Use a reader to scan key blogs (I switched from iGoogle to Ustart & Feedly)
Like causes/companies and track on Facebook
Learn about your audience and growth (we use Sprout Social and Google Analytics)
Open a doc for good question you receive; use for future blogs
5 Impact Strategies
Blog at least weekly about what you learn
Tweet 5-10/day about what’s catching your attention
Follow people doing good work
Use hashtags/handles when you tweet
Capture contacts in a CRM database for easy sharing
5 Leadership Strategies
Write a weekly staff blast
Publish a weekly community blast
Make contact information available publically
Create multiple points of entry
Create opportunities for discussions and feedback
5 Brand-Building Strategies
Use simple crisp graphics
Create a clean easy to navigate homepage
Add Facebook & Twitter icons to homepage
Blog weekly and make it easy to share
Keep branding between all channels cohesive
5 Survival Strategies
Carve out learning and sharing hour every morning
Don’t obsess the rest of the day
Haters will hate; pick your battles
Clear your inbox twice daily; flag/prioritize follow ups
Turn it all off and go for a walk
Let’s continue the conversation at iNACOL Blended and Online Learning Symposium. I’m leading a social media conversation on Tuesday at 4:30pm. We’ll use #EdSocial.
Tom is a director at iNACOL.
I think the issue for many people is that things sound huge and complicated. It’s so good you realized this and gave us this nice step by step simplified process. This is indeed smart!
Thanks…
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