4 Major Mistakes Your School Might Be Making With Social Media… And What You Can Do About It

For many school administrators and education officials, the Internet (and especially social media) is an entirely unknown world. However, most school officials know that these new tools need to be put to good use. But the question I’m often asked is, “How exactly?”

For the past two years I’ve been working with schools around the world to tackle this very question… and I’ve created The Social Media Schools Master Course for those schools wishing to quickly and easily start using social media (without making the mistakes so many schools have made in the past).

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Why Don’t You Have More Friends?

Is social media making you lonely? Do you not have as many friends as you’d like? Got only a handful of fans on Facebook and just a few followers on Twitter?

You might be thinking to yourself, “What am I doing wrong?”

Today I’d like to address that question and maybe, just maybe, make you a few more friends in the process.
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A Lesson For Schools – Social Media Is Like A Party

The video at the end of this article shows Internet marketing guru, Perry Belcher, explaining how he uses social media to attract new clients and make more money.

While the video is targeted at small business owners looking to use social media as a means of increasing sales, there is a lot in the video that schools can use as well.

The main point Perry is making in the video is that you need to treat social media as though it were a party. Each of the various social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, etc) are a different online party. And when you go to a party, you don’t want to show up and immediately start talking about yourself.

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Schools Using Social Media To Communicate And Educate

When it comes to schools using social media, there are two main areas of discussion.

1. The first is that of communication; where social media is used as a tool for school administrators to communicate with parents, teachers, students and community members. In turn, these new online tools are also used as a way for parents, teachers, students and community members to voice their views and opinions back to school administrators and education officials.
2. The second area of discussion is that of education, where social media is taught and used in the classroom as a platform for sharing, learning, and growing.

The first area of concern (communication) is a no-brainer. Of course your school should be using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr to keep in touch and communicate with the people in your “tribe”. Social media sites such as these are a great tool for school officials to have. The tools are free, easy to use, can be run by a single person within your organization, and best of all – your parents, teachers and students are already using these services.

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Join Me On The New Social Media Schools Facebook Page

This is just a short post to announce the creation of the new SocialMediaSchools.com Facebook Fan Page. I plan to post some additional articles and links to the Page and if you are already using Facebook, this will be a great way to stay informed about the changes taking place in the world of social media, the Internet, and education.

Here’s the link to the Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-Media-Schools/76772812225

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How To Social Media Videos For School Administrators – Coming Soon!

We’ve got some exciting news!

SocialMediaSchools.com is currently working to create a series of how-to videos that will give school administrators a step-by-step break down of how to set up social media profiles and use social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to connect with, educate, and inspire their teachers, students, parents, staff and community members. 

These training videos are expected to be finished by the end of May 2009 and we are rushing to get them done in time for you to integrate into your school system before the start of the 2009-2010 school year.

We believe it is imperative that we get this information out there as soon as humanly possible because we know that social media is going to play a significant role in the education system over the coming months and years.

Our plan for these videos is to answer all the major questions you might have in regards to creating, using, and moderating a social networking account.  
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