Use of Social Networking Sites at Independent Schools

What is Social Networking?

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities and/or affiliation with an organization. Most social network services are web-based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact. Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. Facebook and Twitter are two of the most popular social networking sites.

• Facebook is a free-access social networking website. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.
• Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length that are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them.
  

LinkedIn is another social networking site that allows users -- connected in some way or by some organization -- to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. YouTube is a public video-sharing website where people can experience varying degrees of engagement with videos, ranging from casual viewing to sharing videos to a particular network of people -- often through dedicated "channels." Flickr is an image and video hosting website. A ning is a site that allows people to creat their own social network around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data.

Independent Schools’ Use of Social Networking Sites  

Many independent schools are beginning to embrace social media as a way to increase their personal and constant connection with current and potential families, alumni, and donors. These sites build on “word of mouth,” a powerful marketing tool. That “word” reaches people where they already are, each day. And that word reaches parents of school-age children. Consider these statistics:

• Facebook users: On April 8, 2009, Facebook’s blog noted that it welcomed its 200 millionth user. Half of those people check their accounts at least once a day. And the fastest growing demographic among those 200 million are people who are 35 years and older. http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=72353897130
• Twitter users: Twitter reaching 4 million visitors in February 2009, up more than 1,000% from a year ago. People most likely to be going to Twitter are in the age range of 45-54, followed by those in the age range 25-34. These include the parents of school-age children. [Reuters blog post at http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2009/03/30/twitter-older-than-it-looks/]

A study of independent school admissions offices conducted by NAIS in June 2008 revealed that at the time, few schools were using “less conventional” means such as social networking websites like Facebook or MySpace (26 respondents or 6.2 percent) in admissions efforts. However, given the increased interest in finding new, and low-cost ways to enhance admission marketing efforts to counter the effects of the economic downturn, and the ongoing surge in participation in social media by the general population, this percentage likely has increased since June 2008.  

Examples of Independent Schools Using Social Media

To get an idea for the way your independent school colleagues are already using social media sites, see these links below.

• An Independent School magazine article (winter 2009) “Can You Hear Me Now? Social Marketing and the Social Web” discusses online tools schools are using to “test the waters” of social media to communicate with alumni and others.  It also addresses ways to face/embrace unofficial online communication about one’s school.
• At the Independent School Educators Network Ning, you’ll see a running feed of recent Twitter posts by independent schools. This will give you an idea of how some schools are using Twitter to connect with families and alumni.

Tips for Using Social Networking Sites in your Marketing and Communication Efforts

As you decide whether to engage in social networking sites for your school and/or to build your strategy, you will want to address questions such as:

• Would this effort fit in with your overall school marketing strategy?
• What are your specific goals for engaging in these new forums?
• What constituents are you trying to reach (alumni, current parents, prospective students, newly enrolled students)? Which social networking sites will best meet these goals? How will you set up the sites to meet these goals? Is there an individual at your school that people will be interested in hearing from regularly in a format such as Twitter? How will you promote your presence to these constituents (on your website, in newsletters, in parent meetings, through influential/tech savvy individuals)?
• Can you devote enough time to keeping this up to date in the long term? Who will be the champion?
• What social media format will you start with?
• How can you automate so that you can make use of information in many formats, and therefore save time?
• How will you put in measures to evalute your return on investment in this endeavor?
• Are there security issues you will have to face? What policies -- beyond existing policies-- should you implement among your faculty to remind them of good behavior in the use of their own Facebook pages?
• If you decide to embark on this effort, how will you make the case internally and to the board, for this use of your time?

See the following resources for discussion topics and for specific tips:

MARKETING/ALUMNI RELATIONS

• "Twitter Meet Facebook" is an article written by Peter Gow of Beaver Country Day School, giving a brief overview of schools' use of Facebook and Twitter. Also see a podcast with the same title, with guest Lorrie Jackson. Both resources are part of NAIS's Financial Sustainability Resources.
• “Message Matters” is a blog written by Lorrie Jackson, director of communication and marketing at Lausanne Collegiate School (Tennessee). Her blog and linked podcasts include tips for starting slowly, setting up your Twitter account, and deciding what kind of page/profile you should you setup on Facebook.  http://lorriej.wordpress.com/
• “Takeaways from Effective Social Media for Schools” (finalsite's archived webinar) http://www.finalsitesocial.com
  Tips include how to respond to unofficial Facebook pages about your school, what tone to set in messages, how to drive traffic back to your site, etc.
• "Using Social Networks and Social Media for Independent School Advancement" (slides and footage from an event held by WhippleHill and ISANNE) http://www.whipplehill.com/isanne/.
  Subjects covered include "Harnessing the Power of Social Media with Students," "Reach Out with LinkedIn," "Blogging Basics," "Analyzing Results," and more.
  
  SETTING POLICY
  
• As schools engage more deeply in social networking sites, it's still important to ensure safe use of the internet. For tips and curriculum related to educating students about safe use of the internet, see these sources: http://www.wiredsafety.org/educators.html and http://www.microsoft.com/protect/educators_us.mspx.
• See suggestions for schools regarding employee policies for use of social networking in this blog by Steve Taffee, Director of Technology at the Castilleja School, CA: http://taffee.edublogs.org/2009/02/12/social-networking-guidelines-for-school-employees.
• EdTechTalk is a collaborative open webcast community, at http://www.edttechtalk.com/. Among its many resources are podcasts on topics such as “21st Century Learning: Social Media in Education” http://www.edtechtalk.com/21cl_96  

NAIS’s Use of Social Networking Sites

We have recently created a Facebook page for NAIS and a Twitter profile for NAIS President Patrick Bassett. Our goal in doing so is to give our members new sources for getting information from NAIS, giving NAIS feedback, and connecting with other schools. We also wish to test these types of communication forums so that we can share our learning with member schools that have not yet used -- or are just beginning to use -- these forms of communication.  We encourage you to join us on the sites and welcome feedback. Please send thoughts to Myra McGovern, NAIS’s director of public information, at mcgovern@nais.org.

• Facebook profile: “NAIS – National Association of Independent Schools”
  On this profile, we will post news, video clips, questions for discussion, event notices, photos from events, and more. To become a “fan” of NAIS’s Facebook page, go to www.nais.org/go/facebook  OR go to Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ and type into the search box “National Association of Independent Schools.”  You must have created your own Facebook profile to become a fan or friend of any other profiles, including the NAIS profile.
• Twitter profile:  “PatBassett” – http://twitter.com/patbassett
  On this Twitter profile, NAIS President Pat Bassett will post brief updates about where he is presenting, what he is seeing/hearing as he works with independent schools, what he is reading or writing, and so forth. To “follow” Pat’s twitter profile, go to http://twitter.com/patbassett. You must have created your own Twitter profile to view any other profiles.