Let Your Community Connect With You On Your Website

If you do nothing else, you must do this:

You must add links to all of your social media accounts on your main website.

Make the links easy to find and put them all in one place, but don’t push them down your community’s throats in any way. Just let them know that if they’d like to connect with you and get more information about your business or school, they can do so by connecting with you through one (or all) of the various social networks.

Take a look at the following school websites and see how they linked to their social networking sites from their school’s main website.

Click here to go to the next Facebook Module.

Send all questions to contact@socialmediaschools.com and we will respond within 24 hours!

Linking Your Social Media Accounts Together

One of the quickest and easiest ways of increasing the number of people who follow you online is to interlink your various social media accounts.

In this course we are mainly concentrating on Facebook and Twitter, so we will start there.

Twitter

If you have your Twitter account all set up, there are four main ways to link your Twitter account with your organization’s Facebook Page.

1) The first thing you could do is change the link in your Twitter profile so that instead of pointing back to your official website, you instead link to your Facebook page. I generally don’t recommend this, because I think it’s better to have people go back to your official website, but this might be something worth playing with… at least for a short amount of time.

2) You could also add a brief line or two to your Twitter Bio where you let your followers know that you are also on Facebook. You won’t be able to link to the Facebook Page here, but at least you’d be letting people know that they can indeed find you on Facebook if they perform a quick search.

3) You might also want to create a custom background design that lets your Twitter followers know that you are on Facebook. You can include your Facebook URL here, but it won’t be a clickable hyperlink.

4) Finally, use your Tweets to occasionally remind your Twitter followers that they can also follow your business/school on Facebook. Every couple weeks (at the most), send out a short message that says something like,

Did you know that Social Media Schools is also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-Media-Schools/76772812225

Make the message short and sweet… and don’t push your other social media sites too often. Moderation is the key.

Facebook

Just as you did in Twitter, let your fans on Facebook know that you are also using Twitter.

1) You can enter this information in the short little bio section underneath your school’s Page photo.

2) You can add the URL to your Twitter account to your Facebook Page underneath the “Info” tab.

3) Or you can, like you did in Twitter, send out an occasional message on your Page’s wall in which you simply let your Facebook fans know that your also on Twitter. Be sure to include the link to your Twitter profile and don’t be too pushy.

Other Sites And The Obvious Overlap

Once you’ve finished syncing your Facebook and Twitter profiles, do the same thing for any other social media accounts you might be using. If you are using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Flickr… do what you can to make sure they all point to one another.

You should know that even after interlinking your various social media accounts, many people will still choose not to follow you. However, many people will!

What typically happens is that most people will follow you in a single location. Some will follow you on Twitter. Others will follow you on Facebook. But a few people will choose to follow you in every single location. Whatever they choose to do, that’s up to them. Like I’ve said before, your goal here is to simply get the information out to the people who want it. Then let them decide what information they want to consume and where they want to receive it.

Click here to go to the next Facebook Module.

Send all questions to contact@socialmediaschools.com and we will respond within 24 hours!

Syncing Twitter And Facebook

In order to sync your school’s Twitter account with your school’s Facebook Page, just perform the following actions.

1) Search for “Twitter” in Facebook.

2) Click on the first “Twitter” application that shows up in the search results. (It’s made by Twitter itself.)

3) Click the “Go to Application” button on the left side of the screen.

4) Allow Twitter to access your profile by clicking the long gray button at the top of the page.

5) Select your school’s Page from the drop down options. Be sure not to leave it on your name, otherwise your school’s Twitter posts will be automatically added to your personal profile and not your school’s Facebook Fan Page. (In the example below I would select “Social Media Schools.”)

6) Now click the blue “Allow Status Updates” button.

7) You will then be prompted to log into your Twitter account (via the Twitter application inside Facebook).

Once you’ve completed that process, your Facebook messages will begin to show up in Twitter! But there’s one more step to send information from Twitter back to Facebook.

8). After you test out the Facebook to Twitter functionality by typing a message on your Facebook Page and clicking on “Update,” click on “Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status”

9) Allow status updates from Twitter back to Facebook.

10) Check to see if it works, by logging into Twitter.com from a different browser window and entering a status message. Your message should, within a few seconds, automatically post to your school’s Facebook Fan Page.

Autofollow Messages & Predetermined Tweets

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Download .mov Video – Download .mp3 Audio

A good way to greet new Twitter followers is by sending them a short welcome message via a direct Tweet. This can be done manually, but that takes time and energy (two things I am trying to help you cut down on).

So rather than manually write back to every person who decides to follow your school on Twitter, you can create an auto-follow message, which automatically sends new followers a direct message of your choosing.

To do this, go to SocialOomph.com (Note that in the video above I refer to this website as TweetLater.com. The site used to be called TweetLater.com and just recently changed their name to SocialOomph.com) and register for an account (It’s free!).

Once you’ve created your account, watch the video above to see how to create an auto-follow message for your school’s new Twitter followers. And continue watching to learn how you can set up Tweets in advance, which will be sent out at predetermined times, so you don’t actually have to be near a computer to send out your Twitter messages.

If you have any questions, leave a comment below or leave a message in the member’s forum.

Using Splitweet To Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts

If you have a single person within your organization who is doing the Tweeting for several individuals, setting up an account with www.splitweet.com might be a good idea.

Splitweet.com is a free service which allows you to post to several Twitter accounts at once, without having to constantly sign in and out of the multiple accounts you are running.

This could come in handy if, for example, your head secretary is posting to the Superintendent’s Twitter account, the School’s Twitter account, and her own personal Twitter account all at the same time.

To see how you can use Splitweet.com to manage multiple Twitter accounts in your school, watch the video below.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Download .mov Video – Download .mp3 Audio

Creating A Private Twitter Account Just For School Officials

Some schools will want to create a Twittr account that is accessible only by school staff, teachers, and administration.

A Twitter account such as this could be used to share information that is intended for school officials only – and not for the parents, students, or public at large.

To create a Twitter account for your school that is restricted to only those you wish to receive the “Tweets”, you need to create a new Twitter account using the steps provided in Module 1.

Once you have your new account created, log into the new account and click on the “Settings” link in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Then click on the “Password” tab.

You will then be asked to enter a password (twice – for verification purposes) into the two boxes on the bottom of the screen.

After clicking “Change” your Twitter account will now be blocked to everyone except for those whom you give the password you just created.

You can now go about distributing that password to the peple you want to receive your messages.

If you have any questions about how to set up a private Twitter account or how to go about using such an account in the future, leave a comment below or feel free to post in the Member’s Forum.

Using Twitter Search To Help And Inspire Your Community

At this point, many schools begin getting power hungry. They see how easy using Twitter Search is to find people in their community and they often times feel the need to pump those people with their school messages.

But as I’ve said time and time again, Twitter (like all social media) is not supposed to be a means of pumping people with information they don’t want. Instead, it is supposed to be a tool that gives people the option of following whomever they want.

Using Twitter Search, you are able to tap into and communicate with people who were not and are not currently following you, but this does not mean that you should use this tool to pump these people with messages they don’t want.

As we move forward, I encourage you two use Twitter Search as a tool for helping and inspiring your community. Ask questions, get feedback, tell your story… but never pitch, sell, or spam. Doing the first three will give you a huge amount of success in the world of social media, while the last three will leave your community steaming.

Twitter Search is a powerful tool, but don’t go crazy with it. Check in once or twice a day, see if there is any conversation taking place that is relevant to you or your school, respond if necessary, and then go on with your day.

Use this week to experiment with Twitter Search. Let me know how it goes and please share your experiences with the other Social Media Schools Master Course members in the community forums.

Let’s Talk About Education On Twitter

In addition to SocialMediaSchools.com, there are a number of people and businesses talking about social media, technology and education on Twitter. I’ve created a short list of some of the great education and technology users I have found on Twitter and posted their names below. You may want to follow some of these people/businesses to see what they have to say about the future of technology in the education field:

• Education News: educationblog
• Education Update: EducationUpdate
• Inspiring Education: InspiringEd
• Education Times: edtimes
• Education.com: JustAskEdu
• UK Education Matters: SchoolDuggery
• Education Works: edworks
• LA Times Education: lateducation
• Texas Education Agency: teainfo
• Education: education
• BBC Education: bbceducation
• Discovery Education: DEN
• Education Week: educationweek
• Elementary Teachers: elemteachers
• EdSocialMedia: edSocialMedia

What other education, technology, and social media Twitter users should schools know about? Are there any people in the technology and/or education field that you follow? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Be sure to include their Twitter name!

Connecting With People In Your Community

Okay. So, you’ve used Twitter Search and you’ve found someone saying something about you, your school, or your community. Now what do you do?

Well, you have two options.

The first option is to simply read their comment and move on. If they have something good to say, then this is easy to do. However, if they have something negative to say, this may be more difficult for some people to do (More on this in a minute).

Your second option is to respond in some way.

In many cases, ignoring the comment is the best way to go. If the comment is neutral (meaning that it isn’t really positive or negative), then ignoring the comment altogether is probably very smart.

However, if the comment is extremely positive (someone is saying something very nice about you or your school), then you may want to respond and thank them for their remarks. To do this, you just copy their user name and paste it into your Twitter account. Then put an “@” symbol in front of their name and type out your response.

For example: Let’s say you found a student on Twitter named “mattg” saying that “Union High School is the best high school in Salt Lake City!“

You might respond by saying, “@mattg We tend to think so! Union High School is a great place to be!“

On the other hand, you might run into someone saying something negative about you or your school.

In this case, your first response might be, “How do I get that comment off of Twitter?”

But you can’t! You can’t really get that remark removed, nor should you be concerned with taking the time to do so.

Your second response might be, “How am I going to punish this person for their comment?”

This too is the wrong response! Twitter Search should not be used to police your students, parents or teachers. Instead, it should be used as a powerful communication and marketing tool.

For example: Let’s say you found another student on Twitter named “lisamarie” who said, “Union High School ruined my life. It was horrible and I didn’t learn a thing!“

A comment like that is certainly not one you want to see about your school! But it’s out there now… and you now have to decide how to use that information. You can ignore it and move on… or you can respond.

In many cases, ignoring such a comment would probably be the smartest thing to do. But in a case such as this, you might want to respond in the following way:

“@lisamarie I’m sorry to hear about your experiences at Union. We’re doing our best to improve? What could we do differently?“

Responding in this way, you come out on top. lisamarie might respond with some negative comment, which you then simply ignore. Or, in most cases, she will respond and be grateful that you took the time to listen to her complaints. And she’ll likely give you some great feedback that you can use to make your school a better place. And in the end, her opinion about Union High might very well change.

The key here is to not strike up a big debate with the people leaving negative comments about you and your school. Respond to them once or twice, but don’t keep the conversation going – especially if the negative comments continue.

And if you don’t want your conversation to appear in your school’s Twitter stream, you can send the users you find on Twitter Search a direct message by placing a lowercase “d” in front of their username. This way, the user will get your message, but it won’t show up in your public stream where others can read it.

Example: “d lisamarie I’m sorry to hear about your experiences at Union. We’re doing our best to improve? What could we do differently?“

Have questions? Leave a comment below:

How To Find People Talking About You And Your School

If you watched the video in the first part of this module, you will have seen how I use Twitter Search to find people talking about the subjects my various businesses are centered around.

For my website at www.bicycletouringpro.com, I use Twitter Search to find people talking about “bicycle touring, bike tours, bicycle travel, stealth camping, world travel, eco-tourism” and more.

For the website at www.socialmediaschools.com, I use Twitter Search to find people discussing “education, social media schools, social media education, education and technology” and a number of other related terms.

In much the same way that I use Twitter Search to find people talking about subjects related to my various businesses, you should be using Twitter Search to find people in your community who are talking about you, your school, and other important community events and happenings.

For example: Let’s pretend for a moment that your name is Dr. Jim Moore and you are the Principal of Union High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

If you were to use Twitter Search to find people talking about you and/or your school/community, you would use Twitter Search and search for the following terms:

• Dr. Moore
• Dr. Jim Moore
• Doctor Moore
• Doctor Jim Moore
• Principal Moore
• Principal Jim Moore
• Union High School
• Union High School Utah
• Union High
• Salt Lake City Schools
• Sale Lake High Schools
• Salt Lake City Education
• Utah High Schools
• Utah Education

You get the point?

There are likely a number of other terms I could be searching for a well. But what I’m mainly trying to do here is to see if anyone in the Twitter world is talking about me, my school or my community.

Once you find someone talking about you, your school, or your community… the next step is determining how you want to respond – if you want to respond at all. And that’s what the next article is about. Click here to read it now.