Take one look at Portage Community School District’s latest cover photo (pictured above), and you can tell that this district is all about capturing unique, candid moments and sharing them with their community!

PSCD currently has a total of 2,350 students attending their one primary (kindergarten and first grade) school, four elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. With 3,785 fans on Facebook alone, they are clearly reaching a huge portion of their #PortageWarriorWay community!

In charge of PSCD’s social media efforts is Dawn Brauner, the district’s communication specialist, who was kind enough to chat with us about the position that she has had for a little over a year. In addition to being part of our #SocialSchool4EDU membership program, Dawn has a degree in public relations, and her two children have made their way through the Portage schools, making her an excellent person to gain insight into PSCD from.

When did your school or district start using social media?
The Portage Community School District started using Facebook and Twitter in 2010, and we added Instagram in 2016. Prior to the implementation of my position in July of 2018, a number of people were responsible for all of the social media but we had limited coverage as this wasn’t their only responsibility. When I was hired last year, the social media fell under my job duties and we now have multiple daily posts on all sites.

Who is responsible for managing your social media channels?
I am! That being said, I do have a couple of people available to help me out and monitor content as needed. I also do not take care of our YouTube Channel – the district was fortunate to have a high school student who took videos of the concerts and other special programs and a technology person who edits and posts them. However, our high school videographer just graduated, so that role will also become mine as the communication specialist. I will continue to rely heavily on one of our technology people, Angela, as she is awesome with videography! One of the best pieces of content of late – a “seniors walk the halls” video to celebrate graduation – was created by her. She and I took video footage which was filmed on a Thursday and Angela had edited and added music so it was ready to post on Friday morning! It has received so many likes, comments and shares – she did an amazing job!

What strategies do you use to gather content for your social media channels?
While I am usually the main source for content, I have reached out to and rely on teachers who send photos of classroom events or contact me so that I am aware of and can attend upcoming special events or projects. In addition to social media, I am also responsible for district photography, so I take pictures of as many events as I can. When I am unavailable to attend events, I think it is important to have personal connections within the schools so that I can outsource the coverage if need be. I also regularly check school calendars, school newsletters, and daily announcements for sporting events, concerts, special programs, and so forth.

What impact has social media made for your school or district?
More people in the community, both school families and otherwise, are aware of what is going on in the classrooms. We already had great community support for our schools, but I think we can expand on that via social media as more people are noticing the great things going on in the classroom and with our students and staff that they might not have been aware of before.

What type of social media campaigns or features do you use?
I’ve developed a post topic for every day that I schedule out to run at 6 am Monday through Friday:

• Motivational Monday – a motivational quote and photo of students and/or staff
• Timeout Tuesday- a listing of our athletic events, times and locations from Tuesday through the following Monday
• Portage Warrior Wednesday- featuring a Portage Community School District Staff Member
• Throwback Thursday- a photo from one of our previous yearbooks
• Fun-Fact Friday- a graphic highlighting a fact about something in our district.

By keeping these features consistent, we are able to promote engagement with our fans, as they know what to expect and can look forward to their favorite types of posts on a daily basis. Additional posts are then added throughout the day. As we enter the next school year, I will be changing one or two of these features and adding more video segments. For the summer, I have co-opted the Bitmoji staff feature idea from the #SocialSchool4EDU membership group as a #PortageWarriorWednesday post. Check out mine!

Social media isn’t always easy… What have been one or some of the struggles that you have faced?
It has been difficult dealing with some of the negative comments at times. You can have a post that you think is very positive, and someone may leave a negative comment just because they had a bad day. One way I deal with this is to rely on other followers’ positive engagement and responses to negativity, but you also just have to take the comments in stride. I joke that my new spirit animal is the armadillo – because they can roll up into a ball, get chewed on, and then get up and move on!

What is your school or district hashtag? How do you promote it?
Our hashtag is #PortageWarriorWay (recently changed per Andrea’s suggestion last fall), and we promote it on our social media pages, first as separate posts and also by including it on our cover photos and as the final hashtag on all posts. I will also be promoting it during our fall teacher inservices; I also hope to add it to an Instagram-type frame for back-to-school promotions at the schools this coming fall as well.

How has #SocialSchool4EDU helped your school tell your story through social media?
I have gotten so many ideas from the lists, webinars, live office hours, etc., first from #SocialSchool4EDU and now the Social Media Crew for Schools page – you are my go-to source when I hit a roadblock for ideas and just for inspiration! By being a part of the membership group, I feel like I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time I am trying to diversify our social media efforts. I can take ideas, or tweak ideas and efforts we’ve used in the past, such as featuring seniors’ post-high school plans and add my own touch to them by creating graphics and original photos! Moreover, I can use other members’ experiences to answer any questions I may have, and I know that I am not out here alone as a school social media coordinator.

You are definitely not out here alone, Dawn! We thank you so much for sharing the #PortageWarriorWay social media story with us, and we hope that those of you reading also feel connected to the wider school communicator community.

A guest post from Hannah Feller, our youngest account manager! She is currently completing the BA program in English Literature and Linguistics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She is thrilled to be able to apply the theory she works with at university to social media for schools.