Social media for PTAs

Communicating in a networked world

Social media for PTAs

JD Lasica Founder, Socialbrite.org jd@socialbrite.org California State PTA 5/3/13

What we’ll cover todayBig pictureMetrics & PlanningStorytellingFacebook Twitter PinterestUse your communityQ&AHugs, tearful goodbyes

Hashtag: #CAPTAConvention2013I’m @jdlasica

Creative Commons photo on Flickrby Prakhar

Today’s Twitter hashtag

http://socialbrite.org/pta

Relax!

Creative Commons BY photo on Flickr by Tom@HK

Color handouts—be happy!http://socialbrite.org/pta

Socialbrite Sharing Centerhttp://socialbrite.org/sharing-center

Glossary for new termshttp://socialbrite.org/glossary Social media:

Any online technology or practice that lets us share (content, opinions, insights, experiences, media)

and have a conversation about the ideas we care about.

”“

BlogsSocial networksMicroblogs (Twitter)Online video Curation (Pinterest)WidgetsPhoto sharing PodcastsVirtual worldsWikisSocial bookmarkingForumsPresentation sharing

Types of social media T H E E C O S Y S T E M

Tablets: 120 million globally (incl. 20% Americans)Smartphones: 1 billion (incl. 47% Americans)

Explosion in tablets, smartphones M O B I L E

Text 'jdlasica' to 50500

Create your own at http://contxts.com

Create a mobile calling cardE X E R C I S E

91% of online US adults use social networks on regular basis.

200 million blogs; 1 million blog posts created per day

Twitter: 200+ million active users, 500 million tweets per day

Google+: 343 million active users

LinkedIn: 200 million monthly users

Pinterest: 48.7 million users

Instagram: 100 million users, 4 billion photos

YouTube: 4 billion videos watched per day

8.6 trillion text messages sent in 2012

Social media by the numbers

Communications among members of the PTA family have undergone a major revolution. PTA leaders, members, and others interested in education and child welfare can connect and mobilize through online social media.

Put social media to workN A T I O N A L P T A

1. Enhance educational experience at your school2. Promote your PTA, school or school district3. Involve the community in decision-making4. Feedback loop with community5. Enlist volunteers 6. Build online community of supporters7. Raise funds for a cause or campaign8. Get people to attend your events9. Enhance existing communications programs 10.Connect with peers at other PTAs

Why use social media?

1. OK, let’s hear from you

What are your pain points?

Creative Commons BY ND photo on Flickr by optheatrefilms

And what can social media do for you?

Before you talk tools, technology or campaigns, consider:

What are you trying to accomplish?

What core values drive your org?

Are you listening to your community? (See handout)

Why should people care?

Do you understand that social media is a series of stages?

Have you done outreach to key teachers, community leaders?

Do you have a plan in place?

L A Y T H E G R O U N D W O R K

First, get grounded

Start with a Plan!Spell out goals: What do you want to achieve?

Who are you trying to reach?

What are the best tools for the job?

Who’s going to do it?

Metrics: How do you know if it’s working?

What are those other guys doing?

Possible channels for your planNewsletter (print, online), email updatesWebsiteBlogFacebookTwitterYouTube, live streamingCalendar of eventsCampaigns (legislative, fundraising)Curation: Storify, Scoop.it

L A Y T H E G R O U N D W O R K

Because ‘data is better than gut’

Photos on Flickr by Emran Kassim, left, and Vee Dub (CC-BY)

S O C I A L M E D I A M E T R I C S

Why measure?

Internal purposes:Inform decision-making about your organization or cause

Testing messages or products before launch

Market research into constituents, supporters, volunteers

Data about supporters’ giving habits, donation patterns

External purposes:

charitywater.org

Internal & external reasons

Business goals/objectives

Raise funds for a cause

Things to measure (metrics)

# of new donors & $ raised

# of volunteers & volunteer hours

Deeper dive—metrics: socialbrite.org/pta

Get more volunteers

Get people to attend event

Increase comments on blog

Grow newsletter list

Make our content more viral

Get people to take action

# of registrants, year over year

# of subscribers over time

# of shares, # of comments/post

# of people who signed petitions

avg. # comments/post

Map metrics to goals

Start with an Events or Messaging Calendar

Planning, planning, planning!P R O C E S S E S

Create a Content CalendarM O R E P L A N N I N G !

The power of story

Cave drawing, Lascaux, France, 17,000 years ago

Awareness > Influence > Action > Impact

Your nonprofit is a media outlet Awareness > Influence > Action > Impact

C O N V E R S A T I O N F O L L O W S I N T E R E S T I N G C O N T E N T

Find emotional core, use videos or photos to make us feel

invisiblepeople.tv

Use personal storytelling

www.neafoundation.org/blog

Take a page from NEA Foundation S T O R Y T E L L I N G

Don’t look now but you’re a content creator! Using Animoto

D E M O C R A T I C S T O R Y T E L L I N G

Create lightweight media

Find your internal storytellersList volunteers’ skills

Who’s good at photos?

Video?

Writing?

Facebook or Twitter?

Create a Blog Squad

Who’s good at community outreach?Open your blog to guest posts

1.11 billion members worldwide — 76% of US Internet users are on Facebook

0

500

1000

2004 20052006

20072008

20092010

20112012

Today

Facebook’s global growth rate, 2004-2012, in millions

Facebook: The social networkL E T ’ S G E T F R E A K Y

Why do Facebook?Remind parents of upcoming events.

Answer questions from parents & public.

Solicit feedback on events & programs.

Build community among parents.

Enlist volunteers.

Mobilize parents on legislative issues.

Educate parents on how the PTA benefits the school.

Discuss news & important issues. Tons of public education officials are on Facebook & Twitter.

Setting up a Facebook pageAssign responsibilities, share tasks, appoint administratorsFind some good photos of your school or students for the cover imageUse school logo as your profile picFill in profile info, including links to school websiteCreate a friendly url: facebook.com/LincolnElementaryPTAGet traction before you publicizeCross-promote in other channels Monitor updates, comments on your pageUse Facebook Insights to assess and recalibrate

Get into those news feeds!edgerankchecker.com

Article: http://bit.ly/edgerank-checker

F A C E B O O K

Use a friendly urlDon’t do this:

K E Y S T O S U C C E S S O N F A C E B O O K

Use a cover imageDon’t do this:

K E Y S T O S U C C E S S O N F A C E B O O K

Rotate your cover photo

Try to foster engagementWhat really works well: Photos!

What doesn’t workAnnouncements. Without photos

How to succeed on FacebookUpdate 1 to 2 times a day.Keep your posts short.Be topical and visual.Share posts you spot elsewhere.Answer or Like all comments. Ask questions, stoke conversations.Create Events pages, invite people.Post polls.Be civil. Almost never delete negative posts.Cross-promote your Facebook Page in other channels/sites. Link to your blog, videos, Flickr pages.

Secret groups on Facebookfacebook.com/groups

Aligned, integrated, strategicInclude social media logos on your PTA website

Conversation, not marketing

Give your content a social life

Highlight student news H I K I N O

Stretch break!

Creative Commons photo on Flickr by tom@hk

Let’s talk Twitter!T W I T T E R

Identify your Twitter team

Name the account the school name + PTA but keep it short

Make your Twitter profile keyword rich, include a link to your Facebook page

Use the school logo as the profile image

For gosh sake, use a unique background image

For gosh sake, don’t make it private

Find parents or staffers who use Twitter & follow them.

Brand your newsletters, emails, flyers with your Twitter url

Getting set up on TwitterT W I T T E R

No, no, no!!

Staff should be trained.Not a broadcasting medium. Start by listening & observing.Be conversational, not officious. Tweet several times a day.Use it to solicit ideas, show support for students, announce events, mobilize action, educate public & students about current events, point to articles, identify experts.#1 traffic driver: retweets. Use ‘Please RT’ strategically.Tweets with a URL are 3x more likely to be retweeted.Twitter drives 4%+ of traffic to NY Times, 12% to AOL, Yahoo.

Make Twitter work for youT W I T T E R

See how other PTAs use Twitter

JD’s 60-30-10 Twitter rule60% retweets, pointing to value, sharing other voices

30% responding, connecting

10% promoting, announcing

Search by location: twitter.com/search

Use Twitter strategically

Tweeting about PTA in San Jose

Tweeting about PTA in LA

At left, widget found at: http://journchat.info

Find relevant hashtags through Twitter Search or tagdef.com

Join (but don’t spam) conversation threads

Start your own hashtag

Some hashtags to latch on to: #women #pta #latino #education #nclb #politics #Obama #news #media

Use hashtags to join conversationsT W I T T E R

Don’t be like this guy!

Creative Commons photo on Flickr byJason Means

Don’t do all the heavy lifting!U S E Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y

here’s an amazing difference between building an audience and building a community. An audience will watch you fall on a

sword. A community will fall on a sword for you.

— Chris BroganAuthor, “Trust Agents”

Build community, not eyeballs

Use Pinterest

Spread word through visualsDonorsChoose.org

P I N T E R E S T

Find your champions!

Find the big kahunas in your sector by using your listening post. Then, influence the influencers.Establish a rapport and only then reach out to try to convert them into evangelists & ambassadors for your cause.Scope out Twitter Lists that intersect with your organization or social cause.Connect with other social media influencers through their blogs and other networks.

Little Bird: getlittlebird.comI N F L U E N C E R T O O L

Generate an Attention Wave to socialize your campaign

Use social love handles!

WordPress & its plug-insDropbox, Google docsDrupal, Joomla

Free content! Free resources!

Free services!

Free photos Free videos (eg, TED talks)Free music & audio

Socialbrite.org/sharing-centerCreativecommons.orgTechsoup

Free expertise!BarCampPodCampWordCampSocial Media ClubFree software & platforms!

Google GrantsYouTube for NonprofitsGoogle Earth for Nonprofits

The awesome power of free

Creativecommons.org

Rich source of free commercial & noncommercial images

Flickr: 260 million licensed photos

Use them for your blog, website, email or print newsletter, presentations, reports, etc.

Don’t just take. Share!

flickr.com/creativecommons

HootSuite Pro Dashboard to manage Twitter, Facebook

Best Twitter tools Twtrland, Twitalyzer, Listorious

Social Mention Monitoring, real-time search & alerts

Google Drive Collaborate in the cloud

Klout, Kred Find influencers

Eventbrite Grow your event audiences

Google Analytics Free, rich measurement insights

Evernote Largely free storage in cloud

P R O D U C T I V I T Y T O O L S

Use what works!

Libre Office Free open-source office suite

Free tutorials on the best way to use Facebook, Twitter & blogs

24 online fundraising sites

Free reports

Free photo, music, video directories

Collaboration tools

How to use mobile strategically

What you’ll find at socialbrite.org/ptaResources & tools

Lay the groundwork before plunging in.

Create a plan, begin with a strategy, not with the tools.

Measure, measure, measure!

Tell your stories.

Use your community — your biggest resource: your supporters!

Key takeaways

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you

are heading.

— Lao Tse

Don’t settle for the status quo

JD Lasica, founderSocialbrite consultancyemail: jd@socialbrite.orgTwitter: @jdlasica @socialbrite

Thank you! Grab my card!

Tons of resources athttp://socialbrite.org/pta