1. Taking the Social Media Plunge: Leveraging the Power of Social Media to Effectively Market Your School

2. The power of social media A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN JUST 60 SECONDS...

3. It’s That Powerful?

4. What is Social Media? “...forms of electronic communication (as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.” - Merriam Webster In plain English, it’s people interacting through conversations online From monologue to dialogue Key Social Media Platforms- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, YouTube, Instagram, Wikipedia, MySpace...

5. Why Become a Part of the Conversation? You’re already involved, even if you don’t know it ‘Everybody’s doing it’ They’re already talking about you You might as well participate in the conversation (and shift it, if necessary) Easy economics- the ROI can’t be beat Comparative advantages Word of mouth spreads fastest Viral effect can carry a message a long way It’s FREE!

6. Why Become a Part of the Conversation? Social media is growing...a lot...very quickly 56% of Americans have a social media profile The fastest growing demographic on social media is 45-54 Over 65% of people age 12-44 have a social media presence; this is much larger among teenagers Nearly a quarter of Facebook users access their account at least 5 times per day 27% of internet use is spent on social media sites 15% of mobile internet traffic is for social media...and 73% of your parents own smart phones (as opposed to 32% five years ago)

7. Just How Crazy Is It? More than 1.1 billion active Facebook users; 699 million use it daily Nearly 550 million active Twitter users 9,100 tweets happen every second 1 million YouTube videos are viewed daily On average, 700 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every month

8. I’m In, But How Do I Do It? What are your goals? Who are you talking to? What is your objective? Is it reasonable? What platform should you use? Twitter? Facebook? Anything else?

9. The Rules of Engagement Content Inform/Educate Engage Be careful- keep it apolitical It’s one post, not a novel Photos make a bigger impact Minimum expectations Not effective if not used Don’t get crazy Policy Board policy Social media protocol Social media norms

10. The Rules of Engagement Advertising your social media presence Not very useful if nobody knows about it Be shameless- put it everywhere and regularly remind people Organizing your organization Who’s tweeting? When? How often? Is it working? Reaches, retweets, likes, etc. What are you hearing?

11. The Power of Social Media It’s working for Iredell-Statesville Schools...

12. The Power of Social Media...and it’s working for our schools, too

13. But I Still Need Some Help... EdSocialMedia.com http://georgecouros.ca/blog/social-media-for- administrators http://georgecouros.ca/blog/social-media-for- administrators Look at other districts/schools who successfully and effectively participate in social media

14. Go Ahead, Ask Us Anything Questions Concerns ‘Play’ time @ISSCHOOLS IREDELLSTATESVILLE SCHOOLS