Effective Communications| It Takes a Plan!

Comm. Plans Comm. Plans Social Media Social Media RACE PR in Action PR in Action Overview| Effective Communications Why Communicate? School communication is fundamental to student success and the overall organizational success. Achieving strong school communication between and among all stakeholder is most often achieved through the development of a School Communications Plan. (Graham-Clay, 2005) Overview

Similarities It doesn’t matter what size district or school you come from – the importance of communication remains the same. Students = #1 Customer Same Challenges: decreased funding and increased accountability Finding Opportunities: positives of public education Overview| Effective Communications

Importance Gets your message out to parents, community and students Allows you to clarify your goals and objectives Provides a vehicle to dispel rumors Crucial component of classroom, school and district perceptions Near the top of most surveys as problems areas Overview| Effective Communications

Comm. Plans Comm. Plans Social Media Social Media Section 1 PR in Action PR in Action RACE| Effective Communications Describes communications as four-step, continual cycle process. It involves: Research Finds out about the situations facing your organization, how they came about, who is involved in them, how they relate to your organization’s goals, and how you can maximize the benefit and/or minimize the harm they might do. Overview RACE

Action Uses your research findings to determine the best source of action, plan your response, and then implement these plans. Communication Takes advantage of all available media to deliver carefully focused messages through the most appropriate channels so they can have positive effect on your publics. RACE| Effective Communications

Evaluation Analyzes what’s been done during the first three steps to see how it affected your publics and their perception of your organization. Once this step is completed, you return to the research step and begin the process again. RACE| Effective Communications

Section 3 Social Media Social Media RACE PR in Action PR in Action Sample Plans| Effective Communications Reasons for Planning According to Sparc (2006), a strong communications plan should outline who you need to communicate with, about what, how you’ re going to do it and how often. Comm. Plans Comm. Plans Overview

A strong communications plan should: Support your organization in achieving its stated goals and objectives Improve your operational effectiveness Support or improve your relationships with those that are important to ensuring your success (stakeholders) Deliver measurable results to your organization Sample Plans| Effective Communications

A Communications Plan Should: State mission and vision of school Communicate priorities High student performance Healthy students in a safe, orderly and caring school Effective and efficient operations Informed and involved family and community members Strong family, community and business support Sample Plans| Effective Communications

Review Plans School Program/Project Similarities Audience Purpose/Messages Strategy/Tools Timing/Timeline Persons Responsible Sample Plans| Effective Communications

Comm. Plans Comm. Plans Explore RACE PR in Action PR in Action Social Media| Effective Communications CAUTION: Get your school and individual website RIGHT before proceeding! Should be your primary marketing and outreach tool Must be dynamic – avoid a static site Promote your site and train your audience to visit – list in ALL communications tools you use Overview Social Media Social Media

If Social Media is simply people having online conversations then public school districts should be conversing via Social Media. 25% of all time spent online is 35 minutes per hour (Nielsen) Over 1.3 billion active Facebook users, 70% log in once a day (CNN) Social media accounts for 1 of every 6 minutes spent online (comSource) Social Media| Effective Communications

Social Media Options Blogging/Wikis Tell your good stories Introduce ideas and plans Feature writing Feedback through moderated comments Use text, photos and video Samples Social Media| Effective Communications

Social Media Options Facebook Communicate Facebook url (website) Post links plus photos/videos Have comments policy Tag other schools/pages Ask/answer questions Samples Social Media| Effective Communications

Social Media Options Twitter Post once and hit two sites! Link directly from Facebook or vice versa On-the-go posting Embedded links (tinyurl.com) and photos Samples Social Media| Effective Communications

Social Media Options Video Options: Website, YouTube or Vimeo Photos Options: Website, SmugMug, Flickr or Facebook OQ (Quick Response) Codes Smartphone bar code reader Can send texts or s after scanning Free Google or free-online-qr-code-generators/ free-online-qr-code-generators/ Social Media| Effective Communications

Comm. Plans Comm. Plans Social Media Social Media RACE Advance PR in Action| Effective Communications FCS’ Public Information and Communications Department’s vision is that all stakeholders have consistent, timely and accurate information with opportunities for effective, two-way communication that result in increased student achievement. Our mission is to implement an effective communications plan. Overview PR in Action PR in Action

Goal: To help connect schools and the community by every means possible. We value open, honest communication with all stakeholders, and believe in positive working relationships with parents, employees, community members, business leaders and representatives of the news media. We believe that public education is stronger when all stakeholders are well-informed and involved in issues affecting FCS. PR in Action| Effective Communications

Review Areas of Focus Communication Guidelines for Schools Q & A Other Resources PR in Action| Effective Communications