Social Media: Friend or Foe?

Ten Lessons Drawn From Meriden’s Social Media Use

Ten lessons we’ve learned in Meriden about how a school district can launch a successful social media campaign.

1. Teach all stakeholders. Provide embedded coaching for your teachers. Teach online safety and digital citizenship skills to your students. Support families with an easy-to-access help desk. Launch training sessions for senior citizens to learn from your high school students.
2. Create safe learning environments. Safety management software is vital, but don’t lose sight of the importance of personal relationships in building trust.
3. Provide clear device-usage guidance. Set parameters on when students can use devices in class and during the school day.
4. Encourage use by school administrators. Principals and their assistants ought to post, tweet and communicate with their stakeholders regularly.
5. Use a common hashtag. This builds connectedness and strengthens your district brand.
6. Develop a credible web presence. District and school websites provide accurate and essential information, so be sure to embed these social media feeds on your sites.
7. Provide options for notifications. Maximize the use of your notification tools and push your messages to your social media platforms.
8. Include all district operations. Food and nutrition services, transportation and facilities departments all have timely information to share with your community.
9. Task someone to oversee district social media. Designate a point person on staff for your district communications or consider a consultant to support your online presence.
10. Share good news. News coverage is quick to point out the struggles of society. Let us be the ones to share the great work of our students and staff.