Communication Toolbox for schools

Myth: I dont have to brag; people will do it for me Its great if someone says something nice about you, but dont hold your breath. Although letting others do the bragging for you is one tool in your goody bag, it isnt your only tool. And its no substitute for you. No one is going to have your interest at heart the way you do. No one will ever tell your story and get people excited about you like you can. - Peggy Klaus in Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It

Communication Toolbox for schools

Why Tell sTorIes
Communication is a conversation. Communication is an unfolding story. Communication involves listening and sharing. Storytelling creates connections between an organization and an audience, between people and ideas, between the past and the future, between the known and unknown. Stories capture an audiences attention. Stories give people a reason to care. Stories are sharable. Stories are interactive. Stories have a call to action. Stories have structure: beginning, middle, end. Stories can be short or long. Storytellers can be the principal, a teacher, a student, a parent, a community or church leader, the pastor or a mix of all of the above! Use stories: in classroom newsletters in a school e-newsletter in Facebook or Twitter updates in a school podcast or vodcast on the school website or blog in conversation in photo captions in constituent church and/or conference newsletters in the Gleaner and other magazines in the community newspaper __________________________ __________________________ Stories to tell: community service projects class projects or curriculum units (academics) campus ministry/spiritual life activities guest speakers field trips value of Adventist Christian Education volunteers (needs, appreciation) school community events (invite, report) donor opportunities student association activities school facility updates school mission, vision, values __________________________ __________________________

Where To Use sTorIes

sTorIes To Tell

Communication Toolbox for schools

sTory sTyle
Stories answer: Who (subject): What (active verb followed by descriptor): When (date, day of week, season): Where (location): Why (context): How (details):

short Form
example 1 (140 characters): Buena Vista seventh graders assembled 150 personal care kits this spring for a #communityservice project to help disaster & tornado victims. example 2 (139 characters): Buena Vista seventh graders assembled 150 personal care kits for disaster victims this spring. View a photo gallery at http://bit.ly/bvcarekits.

Where To Use sTorIes

long Form
example 3 (249 words): Auburn Seniors Participate in U-Days, Win Knowledge Bowl

Intro sets context

Background information Quotes add voice, viewpoints, opinions

Information woven between quotes

Call to action

April 2011 Auburn Adventist Academy seniors joined seniors from 14 academies in the Pacific Northwest to attend U-Days at Walla Walla University in early April. Seniors got a taste of the higher education experience through attending classes, meeting professors and current students, eating in the cafeteria, staying in the residence halls, participating in ASWWU (associated students of WWU) activities and touring campus. Additionally, students formed teams for a Knowledge Bowl hosted by Jim Klein, Walla Walla University associate professor of computer science. Our class officers nominated and selected individuals we believed possessed a wide range of knowledge in various academic fields, says Ryan E, senior and a Knowledge Bowl participant. Just like March Madness, WWU made a bracket to show how the competition would play out; the Bowl was tiered until the top two teams (ourselves and Portland) competed against each other. The Knowledge Bowl featured nine teams from Columbia, Auburn, Gem State, Mt. Ellis, Laurelwood, Upper Columbia, Walla Walla Valley, Milo, and Portland Academies in a bracket-style game that tested their knowledge of history, literature, film, biology, physics, chemistry, physical education, general knowledge, and more. Having the support and enthusiasm of our classmates made the Knowledge Bowl easy, and enjoyable; it became more than nerd tournament, says Ryan E. It was something our whole class could be proud of. Auburn seniors Kyle B, Ryan E, Michelle S and Misha K won the Knowledge Bowl. AAA is proud of these students achievements! For U-Day photos, visit Walla Walla Universitys Facebook Page.

Communication Toolbox for schools

TWITTer has the shortest space in social media for storytelling with 140 characters (including spaces). Your story needs to communicate one message while giving enough context. Advice from Dom Sagolla (author of 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form): Learn to save space by saving spaces. Remember that you technically need just one space between the period at the end of a sentence and the start of the next. Be short, blunt, vigorous, concise. Minimize adverbs and articles. Commas are a favor to the reader, not always necessary. Eliminate personal pronouns. When all else fails, invent a tag. A great tag works as the target of a search, and also declares its place within the message. Most tags are left at the end of the message, but they may work anywhere. If you can tell a story in Twitter, you can tell a story anywhere! ACTIVITy: What story can you tell in 140 characters? ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ (140 characters)

Short Form reFerence GUiDe hashtag or Tag: a word or phrase proceeded by the # symbol. Tagged words are linked to a search for the same word or phrase. mention: to place the @ symbol in front of a username in a tweet or update. Ex: @washconf rt (re-tweet): a copy or facsimile of another tweet, with attribution shortened Url: generated by Twitter or Bit.ly to save space

Communication Toolbox for schools

Once you write your story (short and/or long forms), share the story through all of your communication outlets. Go ahead, brag about your school!

sTory sTrATegy

story strategy
Your school website/blog is the foundation of your storytelling strategy. Post stories on your school website or blog. TIP: Reference your school URL in the storys call to action Why? This generates web traffic and gives people a chance to look at additional school stories and information. TIP: Refer back to your website in your e-newsletter, print documents, email signature, business cards, social media presence. This is called integration. TIP: Treat your website home page as a blog, with short snippets of interesting and/or useful information with links to more information about the topic you are sharing. Think of yourself as a curator who finds and shares information that is captivating. Place the story in the schools newsletter or e-newsletter. TIP: Share your story automatically by subscribing the Office of Education and the Washington Conference Communication department to your school newsletter. Email addresses: education@ washingtonconference.org and info@washingtonconference.org. Consider adding constituent pastors to your e-distribution list as well. When we see or hear a good story, we like to share it! Share a link in a social media network. Provide a forum for comments, conversation and interaction. Feature a variety of content. TIP: Stories with photos attract more people. Photo caption stories are even better than galleries. Both are a great asset. TIP: End posts with a question, a request for input or advice, or a call to action. Stimulate interaction. call to Action Word Bank: view, read, call, visit, explore, learn more, discover, contact, email, volunteer, browse, subscribe, enroll, apply, register, sign up, RSVP, download, request, watch, listen, share TIP: Listen in the social media environment. Follow other schools on Facebook. Subscribe to e-newsletters. Glean ideas.

InTegrATe

Communication Toolbox for schools

The purpose of social media is to empower and enable conversations digitally. - Chris Brogan in Social Media 101
FAceBooK is the largest social media forum right now. You have opportunities to set up a Page for public viewing or a closed Group where interested parties must be approved before they are allowed to join and participate in a conversation. I have yet to see an effective Facebook Group. Groups do not work as smoothly because they do not show up in the News Feed. Participants need to purposely go and visit the Group, and often this is not top-of-mind. Content for a Target Audience Facebook is a good communication option if you want to target a large, diverse audience of educators, parents, students, donors, etc. A quality Facebook page needs a steady stream of information such as articles, links, photo galleries, resources, stories, announcements, etc. Frequency A good rule of thumb for post frequency is no more than three times per day (morning, mid-day and afternoon/evening) and at least once per week. This appeals to various audiences and keeps the conversation going. It takes time to build a Facebook audience, develop quality relationships and create a sense of trust. Want to see how an audience might respond to education items on Facebook? Submit a status update to info@washingtonconference.org for www.facebook.com/washingtonconference.
Introducing google+

Where To Use sTorIes

A rising social media opportunity is google+. It takes the best of social media (Facebook, Twitter, video chat, blogging, etc.) and puts everything into one platform. This is a brand new service and invitation-only right now. They are supposed to be rolling out branded pages in the near future. It is currently people-based only. G+ has the ability to set up Circles such as students, parents, teachers, etc. and to tailor communication specifically for these audiences (with no overlap). You can post a message for teachers and only teachers will see the message. Hangouts (group video chat for up to 10 people) is a great interaction feature.

Communication Toolbox for schools

PhoTos Wherever you go, whatever you do with school activities, take photos. Document the event or activity. There are three types of photos you need to capture: context, mid-range and close-up. Take photos of students in action or posed in action. Pictures should feature at least three children/students in the photo. Photos may be taken with any camera. In low light settings, increase your cameras ISO (if possible) or use flash. Check your photo size settings. You want your original file to be at least 1 MB in size. This usually requires the Large file size setting. Select your top 3, top 10, top 20 photos to share. You may want to use a photo sharing service like Flickr, Picasa or SmugMug and then share the gallery link on Facebook, Twitter, e-newsletter, website, etc.

Where To Use sTorIes

ViDeo ShArinG Perhaps you would like to share video clips from your school (1-3 minutes is a good length). Explore DropShots (the number one private video sharing service on the Internet), Vimeo, YouTube, SchoolTube, Google Video. Videos can also be uploaded directly to Facebook. Check file format requirements for each service. Here is an article with a video sharing service comparison: http://www.dvguru.com/2006/04/07/ten-video-sharing-services-compared/

More oPTIons

More CoMMUnICATIon oUTleTs There are an abundance of communication outlets and opportunities. With any new communication tool, watch and learn to see how others operate in this network to learn the code of conduct. Watch, learn, imitate, innovate. Whatever options you choose, learn to work smarter, not harder to communicate with your target audience(s). Start small and build as you gain experience and have time or people available. Brainstorm implementation ideas by emailing the Washington Conference Communication department at info@washingtonconference.org.

Communication Toolbox for schools

Presented by Heidi Martella, Washington Conference communication director, at Teacher In-Service on August 8, 2011. Questions? Email info@washingtonconference.org