Strategic Use of Social Media

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS are a disruptive innovation in how we approach teaching and learning today.

Many of us use Twitter for professional development, creating our own personalized learning communities that allow us to follow those who inspire us and to collaborate online with colleagues, sharing new knowledge and perspectives. We use Linked­In to develop connections with like-minded individuals and thought leaders and to share articles of interest and influence.

Social media tools help us create an online presence for our districts. We use social media to brand our school districts through videos, pictures and live feeds that highlight the great teaching and learning going on in our districts. We celebrate our school districts’ achievements. After my AASA president installation last year, I thanked my Brown Deer school community for supporting me and posted several photos of the event on LinkedIn — a post that was viewed more than 17,000 times.

We use social media to build relationships with a wider audience of stakeholders — relationships that for me have proven critical during a crisis in the district community.

The Social Media Lounge at the AASA National Conference on Education in February provided myriad opportunities for school leaders to learn from other superintendents how to use social media tools and how to best leverage those tools for ongoing and effective communication. In the lounge, sponsored by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, attendees learned about best practices, gained hands-on social media assistance, made new connections and took advantage of photo and video opportunities. This was the sixth year the Social Media Lounge has been a part of NCE — a recognition of social media’s importance in school district leadership.

Those who were unable to attend the conference could follow the activities, including key takeaways from sessions, via a live Twitter feed. The archived feed is available online with a photo gallery.

During the AASA conference, educators took to social media in droves, using the hashtag #NCE2020 and #NCE20 and generating more than 30 million impressions, according to postconference statistics! Additional hashtags that also had a large data impact were #LovePublicEducation and #LeadersMatter. Many district leaders used hashtags to promote their schools or conference events, such as #TeamBrownDeer, #GoCrickets, #GAELstrong, #JoyfulLeaders, #WomenLeadersMatter and #BoldWomenBoldCoffee.

AASA’s widespread social media presence ensures your voices are being heard loud and clear across the country and around the world. Each year, the association promotes the love of public schools through an effective marketing campaign that is spread in part through social media via #LovePublicEducation. In February, thousands of schools across the country participated in another campaign: Public Schools Week 2020. Supported by several education organizations, including AASA, this public relations campaign (#PublicSchoolProud and #PSW20) highlighted the amazing work taking place in our classrooms.

Sharing the many great stories that champion public school education across the country brought attention to the critical issues facing us in education. While this week was a special tribute, we need to stay diligent in communicating our advocacy of public education all year long.

You can make an impact on education locally, nationally and internationally through effective use of social media tools. We all have an entry point into this approach. Celebrate your schools every day and control the message of all of the goodness happening in your classrooms. All it takes is a smartphone, a few photos and an encouraging message to inspire, innovate and lead greatly.