U s i n g S o c i a l M e d i a To o l s t o E n h a n c e S c h o o l C o m m u n i c a t i o n P l a n s
13
Getting Started With Twitter
The second step to making any school-based Twitter stream easy to find is filling out the simple bio information that Twitter publicly displays about each user. Eric included a short sentence explaining that NewMilfordHS is a Twitter stream for New Milford High School in Bergen County, New Jersey, so that the parents and students could be certain that they had landed in the right place when checking Twitter for updates. To make the page stand out and to establish a brand presence, he used the school’s colors, mascot, and logo; he also provided a direct link to the school’s website. Once a school’s Twitter account has been created, updates can be added at any time. In fact, Eric started posting messages immediately, trying to see just what he had gotten himself into. Within minutes, he shared details about an upcoming parent night, a celebration of students on his school’s honor roll, and a link on parenting teenagers he thought his community might find interesting. He explains, “To get that information on our traditional website would have taken a week’s worth of emails and action by two or three different staff members” (Sheninger, 2010c). Principals using Twitter to reach out to the communities they serve, however, may discover that initial efforts to use Twitter as a tool for school-based communication are met with raised eyebrows. While most of the adults in any community are likely to have heard of Twitter—recent studies estimate that 87 percent of Americans are aware of the service—only 7 percent of Americans actively use it (Webster, 2010). Parents and other important stakeholders may see such efforts as fads until they are shown what communication in social media spaces looks like in action. Without convincing your community that your school’s Twitter stream is a valuable source of information, your work in Twitter will quickly become obsolete. For Eric, that convincing began by crafting a written description of how Twitter would be used in his building. (See “Introducing Stakeholders to Twitter,” page 24.) This description, which is shared with parents several times each year, provides a brief description of how Twitter differs from other social-networking tools. Next, his description explains the three different ways that parents can follow updates posted on Twitter: by signing up for their own Twitter account, by receiving updates as text messages, or by bookmarking New Milford’s Twitter page for future reference. While the majority of New Milford High School’s parents and students just visit the school’s Twitter stream on the web to view updates, several are signed up to receive text messages when new content is posted, and well over one hundred follow New Milford’s posts with their own Twitter accounts. Eric explains, “That versatility—allowing parents to receive updates on their own terms—makes Twitter unlike any traditional communication tool that I’ve ever used as a principal” (Sheninger, 2010a).
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For coauthor Eric Sheninger, using Twitter began by taking about five minutes to create a free account that communicated a bit of general information about his school. Knowing that he first needed a username that would be easy for parents and students to remember, he chose NewMilfordHS. The NewMilfordHS Twitter account follows a clear naming structure that parents could probably guess even if they weren’t sure of the school’s Twitter name. The direct address for New Milford’s Twitter stream, www.twitter.com/newmilfordhs, is posted on the school’s website and shared in as many parent messages as possible.