Advice About Social Media for School and PR Professionals

Posts tagged Social Media

When the Bullying of a Bus Monitor Goes Viral

Jun25
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Evelyn McCormack

Karen Klein, via People magazine

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has published a fascinating look at why the story of Karen Klein, the bus driver who was mercilessly bullied by middle school students in Greece, N.Y., went so viral.
Among other things, the story says, viewers of the YouTube video shot on the bus identified with Ms. Klein, who is a senior citizen and who didn’t fight back.
“This is a glance into the heart of darkness of the human spirit,” said Syracuse University media professor Robert Thompson in the D&C piece. “But it’s not a serial killer, it’s our own kids.” Everyone loves an underdog.
Even more interesting, from strictly a social media point of view, is that the video only had a few dozen hits on YouTube until Daniel Kiernan posted it on Reddit, a social networking site.
“Users on a second site, 4Chan, picked up on it, and soon, links were being posted to Facebook and Twitter, and views on the YouTube video were growing exponentially. By Friday, the video had amassed 4.2 million views…”
The Democrat and Chronicle also notes Rochester’s two other popular local YouTube sensations — when Jason McElwain, an autistic high school senior, scored 20 points in a basketball game, and when Emily Good was arrested for filming a traffic stop.
Timing is everything. When McElwain scored those points in a Greece Athena High School basketball game in 2006, Facebook had only 10 million fans and Twitter hadn’t even been born. (A segment on ESPN actually vaulted him into the national spotlight.)
Meanwhile, Ms. Klein’s popularity has grown so much as a result of social media, that more than 29,000 people have donated $648,000 (as of this writing) to a fund established by Indiegogo.com, a fundraising website that didn’t even exist until 2008. Ms. Klein was making $15,000 a year as a bus monitor.

Posted in education, Internet, schools, Teens, The Press, video, youtube - Tagged , , ,

Social Media and the PTA

Nov15
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Evelyn McCormack
Infographic on how Social Media are being used...

Image via Wikipedia

Just like educators and school public relations folks, Parent Teacher Associations around the country are currently struggling with administering social media sites, especially Facebook fan pages.
Cognizant of the need to reach out to members, raise funds and build support for their schools, PTAs from California to New York are beginning to create fan pages, monitor comments, and generally learn more about building fan bases on the world’s most popular social media sites.
So the audience last week, when I presented at the New York State PTA’s annual conference, was about as lively as you can expect. And once again, the learning curve was all over the map and included one audience member who noted that she had no experience on Facebook along with others who corrected me on a couple of social media fine points I probably should know by now.
Like any presenter, I’m sure, a lively audience is the best scenario. I love a lively, talkative audience with their hands in the air. It’s so much more rewarding than a group that looks comatose while you’re up there talking.
Here’s my presentation. Enjoy. And by all means, raise your hand!

New York State PTA Presentation
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How Social Media Has Transformed the Educational Landscape

Jul27
2011 1 Comment Written by Evelyn McCormack
The San Antonio Skyline.

Image via Wikipedia

Once again, I presented on social media at the National School Public Relations Association annual conference, this one held in funky San Antonio, Texas, in early July. What fun that city was!
My audience this year was packed with school PR folks now using social media on a daily basis to get the word out about school districts as far-flung as Texas, Nebraska, and New York. I remember presenting on this topis just two and three years ago, when social media was little more than a buzz word and I looked out over a sea of perplexed faces. So much has changed.
Anyway, my sincere thanks and gratitude to the fine people at SchoolMessenger, who sponsored my presentation, raffled off an Amazon Kindle at the end of my workshop, and were great to work with.
Here is the presentation:

Sea Change: How Social Media Has Changed the Educational Landscape 

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Posted in Communications, education, facebook, google, Public relations, schools - Tagged , , ,

Curious about Twitter?

Mar05
2009 2 Comments Written by Evelyn McCormack

I meet more people in my line of work who have finally created Facebook or LinkedIn accounts, but consider Twitter the final frontier in their online/digital life. I hear: “Who’s got the time?” Or: “What do you use Twitter for?” Or: “I already suffer from Information Overload!” Nevertheless, Twitter has presented us with grounbreaking implications for our everyday lives and for the way we communicate. There’s probably no better way to explain this than to show you a video from a TED conference, in which Twitter co-founder Evan Williams explains its many uses. By the way, during 2008 alone, Twitter exploded in size by 10 times.

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Objections to Social Media at Your Job? Walk This Way…

Sep04
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Evelyn McCormack
Gannett Co., Inc.Image via Wikipedia

Although I’m just getting to this post at ReadWriteWeb, I think it’s so important to read it. Writer Marshall Kirkpatrick lists Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond. I hear these objections a lot — from colleagues still getting to know this stuff, from superintendents who don’t want to blog because of the reactions they might elicit, from adult students who say they just don’t have the time. But Kirkpatrick says that anyone using this media now should be ready to meet these recalcitrant objections with a handy list of responses. For example, when they groan that “our clients don’t use this stuff/it’s too geeky,” let them know nicely that:

Many of these tools provide value vastly disproportionate to the literal number of people they reach. These are like high-value focus groups where you’ll gather information and preparation to engage with the rest of the world.

Editor and Publisher also featured a story earlier this year that looked at how newspapers need to seriously consider making cultural changes, including more use of social media and the web. (I just heard recently from a handful former newspaper colleagues who’ve suddenly found themselves out of a job, and I’m personally losing money on my Gannett stock.)

For me, as a public relations professional with work in the public education sector, I find myself always urging people to get on board this online media train. I hope they begin to robustly use the tools the web offers them to communicate and to promote their fine schools.

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Posted in Internet, Journalism, Public relations, The Press, Web 2.0 - Tagged , ,

Swurl — Your Online Presence

Jul14
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Evelyn McCormack

For anyone who’s a Web 2.0 junkie like myself, Swurl is another tool that allows you (nay, encourages you) to follow yourself and your online presence — all on one page. But it’s not just about vanity, folks. It’s also a great tool that provides you with quick links to all your web places — Facebook, blogs, Twitters and more. Swurl gives you two ways to view all your web entries — in list form, which looks like a bookmarking site, or in a cool timeline view. You can see mine here:

Every item is in the small box next to the date, and direct links to those items are in blue. Check it out and see if it works for you.

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Posted in blogs, collaborating, Communications, facebook, feeds, social bookmarking, Web 2.0 - Tagged , , , ,

Presenting without Web Access…

Jun24
2008 1 Comment Written by Evelyn McCormack
Meetings are often held in conference rooms

Image via Wikipedia

I just recently learned that I will be presenting a Gold Mine session at the National School Public Relations Association conference in Washington, D.C., titled “School PR and Social Media,” without web access in the meeting room. Yikes!

Apparently, NSPRA’s being asked to pay huge prices for use of the Internet at the hotel, particularly in its large meeting rooms. That’s not very nice — and we all thought the Internet was for everyone. In addition, because it’s a big hotel, the only way you can pick up wireless from a meeting room is by perhaps doing your entire presentation with your laptop by the window.

Oh well. This will be interesting — a presentation about using social media without Internet access. Screenshots, here we come!

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What is Social Media?

Jun03
2008 4 Comments Written by Evelyn McCormack

I found an interesting eBook, “What is Social Media,” that’s worth reading when you have time for 40 pages. The good news is that you can come here anytime you want to catch up on your summer reading. It’s a well-organized and easy-to-read guide to the basics — blogs, Youtube, Digg, Delicious, and more. Once you read it, you’ll understand all those crazy terms that have been leaving you behind in the dust!

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Posted in blogs, Communications, Editing, facebook, feeds, myspace, social bookmarking, Web 2.0, Wordpress, Writing - Tagged , , , ,

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