Boy howdy, has technology changed the way I do things! As a first year administrator, 7 years ago, I carried around a notebook (not a computer, but a spiral bound paper filled device) to keep my notes organized. Additionally, I was just beginning to understand how to use the Outlook Calendar feature in my email to schedule my events and meetings. To think, in less than a decade, I no longer carry around a notebook. In fact, I've exchanged pen and paper for a phone and tablet. Yes, I've evolved. Technology has not only changed how I keep myself organized, but it has also changed how I communicate with the public. Twitter and Facebook have become my first layer of public relations -- once again, I have put pen and paper aside.
Seven years ago, I found myself relying on a weekly newsletter to promote the wonderful things taking place in my building. I would work to gather some "feel good" stories to mix in with our important parent messages, combined with tips for parents to help make school as successful as possible. My secretary would compile this information and work diligently to have copies printed to send home and post to our school website. Eventually, we transitioned our newsletter to an online resource only. Paper copies were only printed for those families who didn't have access to the internet. At the time, we felt we were being "cutting edge."
Despite all of our efforts, we still had parents and families who were not getting our messages. On average, we would spend anywhere from 4 to 6 hours putting the newsletter together. This included several revisions and last minute additions, resulting in format changes. When parents, and even staff, continued to approach the office with questions indicating hey hadn't read the newsletters, we began to wonder if we were spending our time wisely. A lot of work was going into this, with little perceived benefit.
Fast forward seven years. I am now a major proponent for social media in the schools. When used appropriately, Facebook and Twitter can be an extremely valuable tool! Case and point, we are approaching our annual Grandparents' Day Luncheon and Cookie Social at my school. Last Tuesday, I met with the PTO to discuss the details of the event. We discussed the need to have volunteers to help the Food Service staff sell lunch tickets. On the spot, I posted a need for volunteers to help at our event. Within three hours we had enough volunteers! These additional volunteers came as a result of a Facebook posting.
Facebook and Twitter have become the first source of information for our families. In my opinion, we have two ways to approach this. A) we can dismiss this reality and put out fires after the fact. Or, B) we can jump on the bandwagon and use Facebook and Twitter. I choose to go with choice B and get the word out before someone invents their own version of reality. While I still work with my secretary to publish a weekly newsletter, I rely on social media to promote our deeds with the public as my first "go to" option. The community is generally buzzing about what is going on in our buildings. I believe it is best to give families positive and factual information to buzz about. In many cases, we can directly answer questions or concerns of public nature in a quick, factual, and professional manner. Twitter and Facebook allows us to do so, much more efficiently than a weekly newsletter.
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