What happens when you assemble over 1,000 people from North America who are all dedicated to school communications? Well, one little blog entry from me can hardly do it justice, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.

Last week in Chicago, the National School Public Relations Association held its annual seminar. This group provides school communication training and resources to school leaders throughout United States and Canada. The mission is to advance education through responsible public relations and communication that leads to success for all students.

After helping schools with their social media for two-and-a-half years, I knew this was the place for me to take my skill set to the next level. My goal was to learn more about social media best practices and referendum/bond strategies. I got that and so much more! Here are my top nine takeaways as I reflect on my time networking and learning at #NSPRA2016 :

1. 1. Dedicated People– The communication teams from schools are some of the hardest working people in schools. Not only do many of them work twelve-hour days plus, most of them spend time on the weekends working too! Whether they are a one-member communications department, or a staff of five, these people care about the education of our students. While they are busy shining a light on their amazing students and staff, they rarely get a spotlight shined back on their efforts. It was neat to see the Gold Medallion Awards go out on Wednesday night to districts like Minnetonka Public Schools (MN) and Tolles Career & Technical Center (OH). Humble recipients, but so well deserved!
   2. Empowering Staff – The more staff members you have in your schools who are utilizing social media to tell their stories, the easier your job will be. My friend and author Kristin Magette, APR shared a funny slide that shows the fear of letting everyone use social media. But the fact is, it makes things easier if you give them the power! Make sure staff knows the children who can’t be pictured on social media, and then let the team go. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more — train them, trust them, and watch the engagement with your school district grow.

1. 1. Communication Builds Trust – The more transparency you can build in your school or district, the more trust you will gain from your parents, students and community. Inherently this makes sense, but in presentation after presentation, data backed this up!
   2. Live Video – Just last week I shared that the key to more engagement is more video. Click here to read that post. But more than just video, the key is now to share live video. Facebook now has the live streaming option. The photo below from Kristin’s presentation shows how easy it is to use on your mobile device. This may make you a bit nervous, as kids can be so unpredictable on camera, but start small and go from there.

1. 1. One Day Twitter Campaigns – Campaigns can be overwhelming to think about, but have you ever thought about a one-day campaign? Jennifer Delgado shared amazing insight into how she plans, executes and reports on the success of one day Twitter campaigns for District 214 in Illinois. There is a recorded webinar on this topic that can be accessed by members only. If you are interested in joining us, learn more here.
   2. Text Messaging – My friends at Blackboard shared that in their research on communication in schools, the most preferred method of receiving information is through text messaging. Almost twice as preferred as any other method! Are you texting yet at your school? If not, make this a priority. It is what your parents and students want!
   3. Snapchat Geofilters – You may not yet be using Snapchat as a platform for your district, but I can almost guarantee it is your students’ go-to social media platform. My friends Emily Neubauer and Irene Cardozo from Racine Unified School District shared this cool idea with me the first night of the conference. You can create your own school branded geofilter for your students to use on Snapchat. When they are snapping photos within your geographically defined area (maybe a two-mile radius of your school), the filter will show up as an option to use for photos. Look at the the example below from Boston College. Here is a helpful article to help explain how you can do this for your school.

1. Service Partners – The tools available to make our jobs easier are all around us. The NSPRA group had many companies with informational booths, along with other companies that were attending just to learn and network, like me. Check them out to see if they could serve your district.
   • Alumni Nations – Helping public schools energize and engage their alumni and other constituents to position schools as the foundation of strong neighborhoods, workforces and communities.
   • Argo Translation – Your foreign language translation department.
   • Blackboard – Blackboard builds education technologies and engaging interfaces focused on the learner, and offers services, analytics, and communication tools to support learning for all.
   • 4Schools – Innovative line of web applications created by educators, for educators.
   • eSchoolView – School websites
   • Finalsite – School websites
   • Firestorm – Crisis management
   • Gaggle – Gaggle Safety Management combines technology, including an anti-pornography scanner and customizable blocked words list, with expert student safety representatives, who review content 24/7 to assure students are safe.
   • K12 Insight – Provides solutions for schools that want to engage their communities
   • MarketVolt – E-mail marketing software
   • Peachjar – Digital flyers
   • Lawrence Ragan Communications – Publisher of corporate communications, public relations, and leadership development newsletters.
   • School Maps Online – Responsive and mobile friendly tool that shows schools of attendance and color-coded boundaries.
   • School Revenue Partners – Helping schools raise money
   • SchoolMessenger – Notifications and websites to custom mobile apps and social media.
   • SCoPE – Easy-to-use standardized survey program for parents, staff and community.
   • Siteimprove – Build a better website through quality assurance, policy, accessibility, web analytics, SEO analysis and performance response.
   • Thoughexchange – Software and services that allow school communities to have productive online conversations.
   • Voss & Associates – Full service marketing and communication company.
   • Whisper Digital Signage – Easy digital signage that works on any screen.
2. Social media is great, but nothing beats meeting face to face! Over the past twelve months, I have become increasingly involved with some incredible members of NSPRA through an awesome Twitter chat called #K12PRChat. While this has been so helpful to me (seriously, check it out for yourself every other Tuesday at 7 pm CST), nothing can beat meeting someone in person. You need to connect with others in person. NSPRA’s annual event is the perfect opportunity! Next year will be in San Antonio, TX.

OK, this was a pretty quick tour of my top nine takeaways. Be assured that I’ll be diving in deeper on many of these topics in upcoming blogs. Never miss a topic by signing up here for me weekly newsletter. You’ll also receive my top 100 ideas for social media posts for schools.

I also used the power of Twitter to get feedback from others who attended. Enjoy their reflections below, in 140 characters or less!

• Joshua Sauer ‏@JoshuaTSauer  #NSPRA2016 takeaway: You’ve never truly met until you actually meet. In-person communication & networking is vital. I grew a lot in 3 days.
• Bob Satnan ‏@b_satnan  Focus on community’s shared aspirations, what is achievable, authentic  @RichHarwood  #NSPRA2016
• Greg Turchetta ‏@NewsBoss Innovation, inclusion, research-based decision making,& the most amazing, selfless, fun #schoolpr peeps! #NSPRA2016
• Stefanie Boe ‏@StefanieBoe  What a blessing to meet other people who do this job. I have so much to learn but now know where to find answers. #NSPRA2016
• Janet Swiecichowski ‏@jswitch   Truth, transparency & trust in education. Our children deserve no less! Just love children! #NSPRA2016 @JulieThannum
• Tracy Jentz ‏@tjentz  I can stop trying to be a designer and use tools like @canva, Adobe Spark products, @over, etc. #NSPRA2016
• Brian Woodland @brian_woodland @BBDaneDell The greatest room is the room for improvement. Know that full well 🙂
• Shawn McKillop ‏@ShawnMcKillop  Social media brought us together, @NSPRA gave us a place to unite. Incredible learning. Feeling #grateful #NSPRA2016
• Joëlle Doye ‏@Rockshot_Joelle  You can’t understate the importance of relationships and real connections #NSPRA2016
• Catherine Kedjidjian ‏@cateked  We must tell civic parables. #NSPRA2016
• Shane Haggerty ‏@shanehaggerty  Mine was @RichHarwood saying “we need to tell a new set of stories that provide our communities hope.” #NSPRA2016
• Julie Thannum, APR ‏@JulieThannum  Sharing & learning happens best @NSPRA We get smarter, stronger and more strategic when we are all together #NSPRA2016
• Dane Dellenbach ‏@BBDaneDell  Be courageous and make it happen, dont fear failure but learn from it.
• Kristin Magette, APR ‏@kmagette  Just one? Would have to be inclusion – being intentional & courageous to do what’s right for all kids. #NSPRA2016