If your school is like every school I’ve ever visited, cool things happen all the time!

In addition to this though, your staff members wear as many hats as possible. You don’t have an extra person to just worry about taking photos at opportune moments throughout the day.

So, what’s the trick?

The key to successfully sharing your school’s story with the world is to get everyone involved. How do you do that and still harness some control? There are a few options in this article that I’ll talk through, but it all starts with a common e-mail address where everyone can submit social media moments.

We ask staff to send in just two pictures a month. That shouldn’t overwhelm them. Along with the photo, they provide a small blurb about the activity or project that the students are working on. They aren’t required to get super creative; that is your social media team’s job.

Who makes up your social media team?

This is the group of people that actually post and monitor the conversations going on in Facebook-land and the Twitterverse. The role is a very important one. Consistent posting, balanced school representation and keeping those comments positive are just a few of the main responsibilities.

These are the options I’ve seen schools use:

1. Communications/public relations personnel – Larger school districts tend to have a designated position to handle social media. Among other things, this person or department will handle website updates, press releases, media coverage, crisis management, etc. Social media is also an important role. They still can’t be everywhere, so grabbing stories and images from the staff and students is critical. My friends Kristin Magette from Eudora, Kansas and Brian Nicol from Howard-Suamico School District in Wisconsin are two of the best!
2. Student interns – Many schools like Hillsboro and Shullsburg put their students in charge of their social media channels. Empowering and trusting them is a big step, but one that upper classmen take seriously. I think this is great because the skills learned can truly relate to real jobs in the future (hint, hint – look me up when you graduate!)
3. Faculty – Have someone on staff who wants to keep the world updated? Great; give them the power. This could be one person or a group of people. I’ve seen this be the administrative assistant, the third grade teacher, or the yearbook advisor. It should be someone who truly WANTS to take on the roll and most schools just have this rolled up into their daily responsibilities. Schools rocking it with this option include Turtle Lake, Birchwood and Frederic.
4. Superintendents and/or principals – Owning the story and really being present in what is happening in the school is important. Many schools like Fall Creek, New Richmond and Clayton let the updates fall on the shoulders of the superintendent. This becomes part of their daily routine and the strong relationship that these leaders have with their students and staff is noticeable!
5. Parent volunteer – Some schools will get an active parent who would love to keep the community updated. This can work out great if the story can be balanced (representing the entire school, not just athletics or just elementary students for example).
6. Outsourced (like #SocialSchool4EDU) – You pay a specialized team to manage your social media channels. Since we are 100% focused on serving schools, we put our proven system to work for you. No guessing on whether you are doing it right. Your school gets to focus on creating a great experience for your students and we ensure your story gets told to the world. Schools using this include Chippewa Falls, Bloomer and Cumberland. And the best thing is, sometimes this outsourced option is just a one-year investment. We get the system set up, get you trained, and then your team can take it from there.

No matter what option you choose, education is key. You want to make sure that the people in charge of the channels feel confident in the settings and other items that can get tricky with the ever-changing social media platforms.