In order for me to manage my school's social media channels I've developed a social media system (SMS). By using my SMS I've been able to find time to locate, share, and make media. I'll be the first to tell you that my system is not a finished product and I'm constantly tweaking it.
Below are listed my school's social media channels, tools I use, my SMS, and the goals for posting to each channel.
Our Social Media Channels
Tools I Use
- Hootsuite (Web and iPhone)
- Google Reader
- Google Alerts
- Boxcar
- iPhone
- TwitterFeed
- Bit.ly Custom
My Social Media System for Schools
Daily
- Boxcar – allows me to monitor any mentions or Direct Messages (DM) for our school's Twitter account. Whenever we receive either I'm able to quickly determine the action needed, if any.
- Google Alerts – allows me to monitor the web for content based on the query of my choice. I've set up alerts for our school's name and it's variations. This works behind the scenes and email's me when it finds new content. I quickly determine the action needed, if any. This is a great resource for finding information in the newspaper, or on blogs, about our school.
- Google Reader – allows me to subscribe to RSS feeds for blogs and websites that are related to all aspects of education. I check this out daily to cull content which I can share through our social media channels that is not related to our school.
- Hootsuite – I use Hootsuite to manage our school's Twitter account and Facebook page. Hootsuite allows me to see our Home Feed, Mentions, DM's, and Pending Tweets in one place. It also allows me to schedule tweets in the future so I don't need to remember to post items at certain times. Hootsuite also allows me to post to our Facebook page at scheduled times as well.
- TwitterFeed – I've set up the school's RSS news feed to automatically publish to Twitter. We tend to update our news items frequently and this automated method helps me save time. I've chosen not to automatically publish to our school's Facebook page because it became “too noisy” on our Facebook Wall.
Weekly
- Blog – We try to post to our blog at least once a week. I think that time interval is a basic requirement. Less than once a week will not achieve the SEO benefits and engagement you'll hope to get. I hope that we can increase our blogging frequency in a few months but we are starting slowly in order to maintain quality.
Monthly
- Bit.ly and Hootsuite – each month I like to check our link analytics to see which tweets earned the most clicks. I also like to evaluate the time of day and which day of week earn the most clicks.
- Facebook Insights – each month I also like to check the Insights on our Facebook page. I look for patterns or trends.
Goals
- Twitter – we try to post to Twitter 3-4 times/day. Currently, we are trying to post information related to school 75% of the time and information not related to school specifically (e.g. related to the community or education in general) 25% of the time.
- Facebook – I try to post to Facebook 2-3 times/day. I found that posting more than that caused our Wall to become too cluttered and “noisy”. Currently, I try to post information about the school most of the time but occasionally will post information not related to school.
- Blog – As I already mentioned, we try to post 1 time per week. I would like to increase the frequency with which we post but have decided to start slowly and be successful.
Well there you have it. The social media system that I utilize to manage the social media channels at our school. If you have any questions about my system, or would like more detail about a particular area, please mention that in the comments below.
photo credit: Librarian Avenger
