School Pr And Social Media - NSPRA 2008

Evelyn McCormack       NSPRA 2008

School PR & Social Media

What's Social Media?

• Blogs, Wikis

• Social Bookmarking Sites

• Social Networking Sites

• RSS Feeds

• Web 2.0 Tools and Apps

The Machine is Us/ing UsProf. Michael Wesch, Kansas State University

mediatedcultures.net

And Why Should I Care?

• Social Media spreads the word (online) about your schools

• Helps promote you

• Outlet of expression for school leaders & communicators (blogs, enewsletters, online press releases)

• Alternative to print media. You manage the message

• Collaborative and user-generated

• Work more efficiently

• It is the future

Your Social Media Toolbox

• Firefox as your browser• Google, iGoogle & Google Docs

• Web 2.0 Apps  RSS Feeds

• Social Bookmarking Sites  •  Blogs & eNewsletters

RSS Feeds & Social Bookmarking

• RSS allows you to receive all your favorite websites and blogs, instead of searching for them.

Web-Based Social Bookmarking Sites

Credit: ebizmba.com

Credit: ebizmba.com

How Social Bookmarking Works...

• Sign up free with Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumbleupon and/or any other bookmarking sites.

• Install browser plug-in to easily click on the symbol and automatically save your favorite web pages.

• Go back to your bookmarking site and "tag"  favorites to organize your bookmarks.

My plug ins on my Firefox browser for Del.icio.us (top) and Stumbleupon (bottom)

My Del.icio.us Page & Bookmarks

Wikis, Blogs & Online Press Releases

Excellence in Elmsford is actually a blog created using the free blog platform, Wordpress.  The comments option is turned off, and it's emailed to the community.

Social Bookmarking Buttons

Subscribe button for RSS

No comments, but you can email him directly

I created this blog on the free Edublogs platform,  used exclusively by educators or administrators. Note the "Blogging from NSPRA" link at the top.

Your Homework -- when you get home, read this blog & tell me what you think .

Use Wikis to Plan & Communicate

NYSchoolPr People is a wiki created online for the Westchester School PR Assoc. and the Rockland School PR Assoc.

Online Press ReleasesAn online press release I created in April to publicize an event. Used letterpop.com to create it online. It's been viewed 58 times, and not by me!

Direct link to our website

Direct links to websites

Shameless Self-Promotion: Social Networking

Get a LinkedIn Profile

Build a Facebook Page

Get a Visual CV

Get a Facebook Page?

Facebook: 39 million active users

Existing Facebook Groups: Public Relations Society of America (3,488 members), PRWeek Networkers (1,839), PR Job Watch (2,354), The Official Facebook PR Group (7,407).

You can make it as private as you want.

A swurl page -- everything you've done online in a timeline view.

A Ton of Resources• The Complete Web 2.0 Directory

• PR 2.0

• Letterpop

• Social Bookmarking in Plain English (video that explains it all very simply)

• RSS In Plain English

• Mediated Cultures at Kansas State Univ.

• A-Z Glossary of Web 2.0 Terms

• The Common Craft Show (video how-tos)

• PBWiki

• Writewith.com (group writing/editing)

• Wordjot.com (website that creates enewsletters for you and will let up to 3,000 people subscribe. Cost is $19 a month.)

• 280 Slides (create online slide shows that you can share)

• Nancy White's Online Interaction Glossary

• PR Open Mic

• PRBlogs.org

• Snipshot (edit your photos online/alternative to Photoshop)

• Media Bistro