What does it mean to inspire “positive gossip” within your school district? 

I can tell you that it’s not something that happens overnight. But it is a movement that starts from within, and it can start with a spark from just one person. And pretty soon, that spark spreads like wildfire!

That spark is John Casper, Communications Coordinator at Winona Area Public Schools (WAPS) in Minnesota, and the wildfire he spread is the basis of today’s story. 

You may have been one of the hundreds of attendees at John’s webinar a few months ago, where he shared his intentional strategies for building a culture of “positive gossip” at WAPS. Today’s blog reviews the essential components of that plan!

Journey to School Communications

John has a newspaper journalism background, and he transitioned his career to work at WAPS Communications in July 2019. He notes that WAPS experiences intense competition for students due to charter and private schools in the area, and has had several recent failed referendums, making it a challenging atmosphere that COVID-19 only compounded. 

But those challenges only motivated John to double down and work harder. In May 2021, John participated in the #SocialSchool4EDU “Fire Up Your Facebook Page” Challenge and took home second place, winning a free 1-year membership. He also attended the NSPRA National Seminar that summer and was further inspired after participating in a #SocialSchool4EDU webinar with Dr. Joe Sanfelippo in August. These three events gave John some much-needed “ah-ha” moments in his school communications role! 

Change Starts with Internal Messaging

During that webinar, in July 2021, Joe taught: “People won’t change the way they talk about our schools until we change the way we talk about our schools,” which John immediately took to heart. He decided to put a big focus on fostering positive internal communication at WAPS, since that would be essential before external perception could ever change. 

How? By creating a culture of “positive gossip” within the district!

At the NSPRA National Seminar, John learned how to create a strategic communications plan. He shared:

One of those goals I identified in the plan was to create a culture of informed, empowered, and inspired internal stakeholders. The objective was to make it known to all staff members the importance of their voice as a district ambassador and make it easy for them to submit content to be shared through district communication channels.

John’s “Ask-Show-Thank” Approach

“It is our job to tell the story of our districts, but we can’t do it alone.” – John Casper

There were already so many positive things happening within WAPS, every single day. But John couldn’t possibly capture all of them by himself. He needed to create an army of bought-in staff members to submit photos and stories that he could then share with the wider community on social media.

But this couldn’t just be a one-time ask. John realized he needed to ASK repeatedly, for stories and content, SHOW the stories back to staff through channels other than social media, and THANK contributors and celebrate their participation. Then, do it all over again! 

This “ask-show-thank” approach has been key in John’s success. Let’s elaborate on each of these steps. 

Ask: Make Content Sharing Easy and Accessible

So, how did John make his “ask” successful? It all started with a sticker! 

John credits Brian Bridges, Director of Communicators and Public Relations at Lake Hamilton School District in Arkansas and a fellow member of the #SocialSchool4EDU membership program, with the idea for creating a simple submission form and a QR code. Brian shared this idea in an episode of “Mastering Social Media for Schools.”

Check out this attention-grabbing, well-designed sticker!

John elaborated on his thought process with this design:

What I wanted our staff members to know was, ‘I want your stories. I need your help. What story do you want people to be talking about in our community?’ Our colors are orange and black. Orange catches your attention. I wanted something permanent, a sticker that they could put on their cabinet by their desk, or put on a folder. Some staff members put it on their laptops! I really wanted that call to action to be important, too. It wasn’t just ‘send your photos’ but ‘What STORY do you want to tell?’ We want to tell great stories about our school.

John ordered 500 stickers through Canva for less than $200 and put them into every employee’s mailbox during Workshop Week, when everyone was excited to be back at work. The QR code went to a hidden page on the website. He also recorded a video appeal and sent out an all-staff email as well, so the staff got the stickers as well as the email.

The results? The page had 350 views, plus 230 video views. He also had tons of positive comments from staff members, even some he hadn’t built relationships with, yet. On that page, he gave staff his email address for sending him photos and story ideas. Simple is best!

“The key thing was that the message was out there. They understood what I was trying to do.”

Show: Separate Positive and Administrative Communication

Just asking for content isn’t going to keep the stories rolling in. You also have to reinforce the good that those stories are doing in the community. 

John noted that because not everyone lives on social media (even staff, and he has the survey data to prove it!), he wanted to get positive stories in front of district employees on a regular basis. He now sends a weekly email newsletter on Monday mornings at 7:00 a.m. that consists of repurposed positive social media stories. 

But these aren’t mixed in with informative or administrative communications, too. John intentionally keeps these weekly “Winhawks In the Know” newsletters 100% positive!

“I didn’t want ‘Hey, here’s a bunch of photos of smiling kids’ along with a note about ‘Oh, pink slips are coming around next week’ or something like that. I wanted an entirely positive email. I wanted that to be the first thing that they saw every Monday morning!”

Thank: Converting Challenges into Sincere Gratitude

After a school year of asking and showing, WAPS’ Facebook reach skyrocketed by 100%, and 20% of staff members (100 people) were consistently sending in content for social media. But then, WAPS experienced two big setbacks – another failed referendum and a superintendent transition. These put a damper on the positive momentum and negatively impacted staff culture. 

Going into the following school year, John was granted a couple minutes to speak at Workshop Week in front of all the staff. Instead of using his platform to beg and plead with staff to submit content, he focused on acknowledging the climate and expressing his gratitude. 

I worried about the idea of ‘toxic positivity’ because I know that this is a challenging time to work in education, but I also wanted to challenge them to say that ‘hey, it’s our obligation to speak positively about each other, about our students, about our school, about education.’ So I started and ended by thanking them, and I asked that we change the way that we collectively talk about us. I challenged them to spread positive gossip. And I said, ‘It really starts by being in the right mindset. If you’re looking for the negative, you’re going to find it.’ I challenged them to find the positive things that are happening in their room, in their hallway, in their school, and in their district. And then I said, ‘The best education in Winona is happening right here in Winona Area Public Schools because of YOU.’

John’s message was inspired by this video that Joe Sanfelippo’s recorded. Trust me, it’s worth the 2-minute watch!

“Gossip can be positive too, people” – Dr. Joe Sanfelippo

In addition to his inspiring message to all the staff, John handed out buttons and stickers with similar messaging and has been writing handwritten thank-you notes to staff members who submit content, too. 

And did all of these thank yous work? You tell me!

Today, he has 150 staff members submitting content on a regular basis, and his weekly emails are getting an even better open rate than the previous school year!

Shared Wins are Even Sweeter

After speaking in front of his colleagues, John turned to another safe space: Our private membership group. (Don’t worry; I have his permission to share this screenshot!)

With this post, he wanted to celebrate his “win” among people who would really get it – other school communicators. Of course, we all rallied around him, because that is a big achievement! Not every school communications department or social media manager gets a platform like that, in their school or district, and John’s carefully thought-out message clearly resonated with his co-workers. 

John shared:

Finding a group to share your successes with – being a part of something that’s bigger than yourself – that is really important to me. I was feeling the love from my co-workers that day, but I also really felt the love from the school communicator community that day. The membership group is nice to go to for help and for resources, but it’s really important to have a place where you can celebrate the good things that are happening in your life as well.

Way to go, John!! We are all so proud of you. 

Remember, Persistence and Consistency are Key

ASK for stories and content. 

SHOW stories back to staff.

THANK contributors for their participation.

It’s a simple formula, but working the system, year over year, has proven successful for WAPS, and I’m confident you can replicate something like this at your school, too!