South Carolina Association of Christian Schools presentation of social media

How to use Social Media in Christian Schools?

Practical applicationsBy John Roland, MDiv

Regional VP Dennis Baumann Smart Tuition

Twitter: @jaroland74 and @baumann_dennisEmail: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

John Roland, @jaroland74

Social Media Benefits . . .Four main benefits: • communication• collaboration • community • collective intelligence

opportunities

Social Media Revolution 2015• https://youtu.be/jottDMuLesU

https://youtu.be/jottDMuLesU



• Social Media (SM) and the Donut Factor---We can define social media in terms of donuts, but think of SM more like an appetizer or dessert in your marketing mix. It’s certainly NOT the main entrée and won’t fill you up … yet.


“We don’t need social media.” • You may be ignoring social media, but it’s not

ignoring you.• Ignore Social Media at Your Own Risk. • Churches, Ministries, and the entire community are

active in social media. • They engage in peer discussion. • If you don’t engage with them, the conversation

continues.• But, it goes on without you.



2014 Pew Research Survey • The results in this report are based on

American adults who use the internet. Other key findings:

• Multi-platform use is on the rise: 52% of online adults now use two or more social media sites, a significant increase from 2013, when it stood at 42% of internet users.

• For the first time, more than half of all online adults 65 and older (56%) use Facebook. This represents 31% of all seniors.

• http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/social-media-update-2014/#socialmedia


How does Social Media relate to ministry?

• Social media is ALL about the

SOCIAL in the Social Media.

• Media will change, SOCIAL will not. It is ALL about people. It is a tool to CONNECT to people.

• Sound familiar? • Are you good at Pastoral Ministry? Social media

is for you!

Why Social Media? Think Dale Carnegie

• 1. AROUSE IN THE OTHER PERSON AN EAGER WANT (establish a problem solver brand)

• 2. BECOME GENUINELY INTERESTED IN OTHER PEOPLE.

• 3. GIVE HONEST, SINCERE APPRECIATION• 4. BE A GOOD LISTENER. ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO

TALK ABOUT THEMSELVES• 5. TALK IN TERMS OF THE OTHER PERSON’S

INTERESTS• 6. REMEMBER THAT A PERSON’S NAME IS TO THAT

PERSON THE SWEETEST AND MOST IMPORTANT SOUND IN ANY LANGUAGE

• 7. SMILE (present yourself in a pleasant, happy way)https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/significantly-improve-your-online-marketing-applying-seven-graham?trk=object-title


Social media is a super tool!


Social media can be misunderstood

• https://youtu.be/lJ0yD-9CDwI

https://youtu.be/lJ0yD-9CDwI

Cannot fool all the people . . .• In the 15 years since Bill Clinton sat in the Oval Office, the Internet

overwhelmed the media "gatekeepers"—the few dozen priestly reporters and editors who determined what news, opinion, and gossip the public would hear about.

• Today, there are 300 million people equipped to do their own reporting, writing, and publishing. You can't keep the truth from them. You can't bully them all or fool them all.

• That is why transparency, authenticity, and accountability are sacred attributes of any modern leader. Whether you're running a church, a business, or a political party, leadership is now a lying-free zone.

• http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/hillary-clinton-a-pay-phone-candidate-in-an-iphone-world-20150310

Watch Out, Pastors: Millennials Are Fact-Checking Your Sermons

• The one-way communication from pulpit to pew is not how Millennials experience faith.

• By nature of digital connectedness, Millennial life is interactive.

• For many of them, faith is interactive as well—whether their churches are ready for it or not.

• It's an ongoing conversation, and it's all happening on their computers, tablets and smart phones.

• What's more, many of them bring their devices with them to church.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/october/watch-out-pastors-millennials-are-fact-checking-your-sermon.html?paging=off

Top 4 Ways Millennials are integrating technology & faith by Barna

https://www.barna.org/barna-update/millennials/640-how-technology-is-changing-millennial-faith#.VQ4rKY7F9yy


Watch Out, Pastors: Millennials Are Fact-Checking Your Sermons

One-in-Five Americans Share Their Faith Online

http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/06/religion-and-electronic-media/#electronic-forms-of-religious-engagement

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/08/05/72-of-online-adults-are-social-networking-site-users/


Who are your followers??

• To truly take advantage of the benefits, we need to know who is in our network or “tribe.”

• Seth Godin defines a tribe as “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”


What do you want to POST?•P: People (Who do you want to reach?) •O: Objective (What do you want them to do?) •S: Strategy (How to do it?) •T: Technology (Implementing Technology)


Pick 5 Social Media channels and stick with them.


Facebook is still King! Even $5 ad can go a long way!


Top 5 best-performing Facebook posts for schools

• 1. New principal selfie• 2. Video to support an ill

student• 3. #ThrowbackThursday—old

pictures• 4. Elementary homecoming

tunnel—engaging with high schoolers

• 5. Special announcement


Twitter is a great communication tool


Twitter is a great tool in a crisis


Twitter Chats for Teachers• Chat groups form around a specific

topic of interest and meet regularly through Twitter.

• Each group is defined by a specific hashtag, the symbol #.


Twitter Chats for Teachers• To join a group, simply type in the group

hashtag which allows you to follow the posts and contribute to the conversation.

• To contribute, simply post each tweet followed by the hashtag – now your tweets appear in the running feed for the group.


Twitter Chats for Teachers• Grade Level Chat Groups: For instance,

#kinderchat, #1stchat, #2ndchat, and #• Content area chat: #mathchat, #sschat,

#alg1chat, #scichat, and #pechat.• State & Country Groups: #wischat, #iachat,

#edchatri, #INelearn, #ohedchat, and #njed. • Administrator & Leadership Groups:

Check out #edleadchat, #21stadmin, #edleaders, #cpchat, and #satchat to connect with lots of great leaders.


Twitter Chats for Teachers


Google Hangouts


Google Hangouts

Comments on Google Hangouts• FREE—just need a webcam and a gmail

account.• Interview subject matter experts to provide a

value add to your parents and prospects. • Framing your school as experts in education,

parenting, Christian faith, etc.• Focus on authenticity rather than flashy

videography. • Posts on YouTube channel automatically.

Comments on Google Hangouts• 1. Inviting Expert Guests to Speak to

students who live elsewhere. • 2. Broadcast or Archive Live Faculty

meetings or Parent meetings. • 3. Converse digitally in groups or

one-to-one: Up to 10 on a screen. • 4. Virtual Office Hours. Talk with

staff from home by video.


Mobilize Parent Ambassadors

Mobilize Parent Ambassadors• Parents are often overlooked as brand

ambassadors, an ideal role when word-of-mouth is important to your enrollment numbers and overall image.

• Empower parents to write recommendations for your school.

• As they like, comment, and forward your posts, they are expanding your reach exponentially.

• Encourage all your parents at parent meetings (“pull out your phones”) to “like” your page.

Mobilize Parent Ambassadors• Make heroes out of parents. You then co-brand

with them and engage their contacts (potential parents).

• Interview your professional parents for value adds to the school and highlight the quality of families you attract to your school.

• Make 30 second video endorsements of your school from past and present parents of WHY they chose your school. You only need an iphone.

Engage your local ecosystem• Highlight your local partners on social media. • You can co-brand with popular partners and

engage with their followers. • Highlight the police, fire department, municipal

sports, local heroes. • Promote community events and be seen as an

active partner to your fellow community leaders. Seek for them to reciprocate with referrals to your school.


• Tremendous opportunity to network with your parents.

• Endorse people, recommend them in their areas of excellence.

• Wonderful tool to connect and support people where they are.


Listen to the voices . . .• What is being said about you in Social Media? • Set up Google Alerts that notifies you when someone

mentions you on the internet. • Set up a listening station. Great example on how to

do it: www.zephyrmarketing.net • Social Mention* searches across multiple channels for

mentions of you or your ministry in real time

Tools to manage Social Media• Hootsuite.com• Buffer.com • Both FREE sites allow you to

schedule your posts and bring some balance to your social media activities!

How school administrators use social media?

• Thank teachers & staff by name using their Twitter account handle. Make heroes out of them.

• Encourage by endorsing and recommending parents and volunteers on LinkedIn.

• Include as many pictures & videos (with permission) of people and volunteers in your posts as possible.

• Create authentic online connections (Google Hangouts) to thought leaders.

How staff use social media?


Future of Social Media?

Future of Social Media?• Everything is going to mobile

devices.• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

GRiwUCXPo8U&list=PLEkF__EZwFZKYfGAqPtFWa_oz2geAfucE&index=9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRiwUCXPo8U&list=PLEkF__EZwFZKYfGAqPtFWa_oz2geAfucE&index=9




Future of Social Media?• It is all about short, quick video. • Posts are viewed exponentially more

when a picture or video is attached.• Meerkat, Vine, Instagram, &

Snapchat are expected to grow tremendously.


Future of Social Media in ministry?

• MOOCs teaching classes. • Interactive sermons (live tweets, texting).• People taking selfies of them living out

the theme of the message. • Continuous dialogue with ministry leaders

is expected. No more gatekeepers. • More video conferencing for conventions.


Do not be afraid! • Social media is ALL about the

SOCIAL in the Social Media.

• Media will change, SOCIAL will not. It is ALL about people. It is a tool to CONNECT to people.

• Sound familiar? • Are you good at Pastoral Ministry? Social media

is for you!


Education

South Carolina Association of Christian Schools presentation of social media