Guest post by Superintendent Craig Olson

Even schools that do a great job with communication have room for improvement. I thought our school was cutting edge with how we communicated information to parents and members of the community, until we added social media. Through the use of social media, we have made a huge improvement in how we are branding our school district, and I thought we were going a great job of it before.

Setting a Strategy
Prior to making social media a priority in our school, we had no strategy at all. We didn’t have time and it wasn’t at the top of our list. We did as well as we could with the tools we had, but I was giving a half-hearted effort to something I half-heartedly knew something about.

A school social media expert had approached me about having her company manage our social platforms, but even then, I didn’t think we needed help. I thought, “Thanks for the idea; we can do that.”

Eventually, I realized we weren’t doing it! Without a plan, it ended up on the someday list every time other tasks took priority. The solution for creating a strategy for our school was to hire #SocialSchool4EDU, a company that would take care of managing everything for us. We were able to fund the program with donations from our community, which has been a wonderful solution for us. Other schools have a designated staff person who is the social media strategist. Either way, having a strategy and a plan of action is key.

Getting the Stakeholders on Board
The school board, teachers, administration, parents, and students are all stakeholders when it comes to communication in your school. Our students have been excited about the addition of social media. It gives them a stage to share all of the positive and fun things they do and they enjoy seeing the interaction from people in the community.

I was worried about whether or not our staff would provide enough content for posts, but they have come through in a big way. As with the students, this is another platform for them to showcase what they are doing well. It gives them a voice in the community.

Our biggest impact has been in the community. Parents love that we have upped our game and they are positive about the way we communicate with them. Community members who don’t have students in the school can also interact with the students in our school through social media.

Engaging the Community
We are the Hurricanes, and we have a saying that has been used for years—”like a cane.” It means doing your best every day. Around our community we see more than 150 banners with “Like a Cane” on them. Businesses and organizations have joined in the campaign to do their best. Now the campaign has transformed into our district hashtag #LikeACane! We incorporate that message into everything: Speak like a cane at our school board meetings. Collect data like a cane when we present. Study like a cane for a test. Talk like a cane with our peers.

Through our district hashtag, and consistent sharing of engaging pictures, video and other posts, we are hearing positive feedback all over our community. And, we have the Facebook data to back up the increase in engagement as well.

Reaping the Results of Greatness
I thought using social media would be a bonus on top of all that we are already doing. I used to think it didn’t matter all that much if we added one more thing to the mix. I didn’t realize until we jumped in that it was a need more than a want. I never anticipated the impact that it was going to have.

Branding and marketing is important! I have been speaking on this for years and sharing about all of the efforts we have launched in our district, but I was missing this one piece. Social media is foundational in the way we communicate because it is so engaging. We can tell our story, and we can get feedback from others. It is a listening channel. If you’re overwhelmed and aren’t sure how you can take on one more thing, I encourage you to partner with someone who can take your school from great to even greater. However, you decide to get started, do it #LikeACane!

Craig Olson is superintendent of Hayward Community School District in Hayward, Wis., home of the Hurricanes. Craig has been with Hayward for 17 years, and has been superintendent for the last seven. His team has worked hard to develop a community outreach program with their “Like a Cane” campaign.

E-mail: colson@hayward.k12.wi.us.
Follow the school on Facebook @HaywardSchool.