School governors and social media

School governors and social media
by julia Bramble based on a shortened version of her blog article.

[I have been] thinking about the two roles I undertake, I was struck by the simplicity of the similarity between the two. Basically, being a school governor and being a social media manager have one theme that links them – the need to engage. In using social media for promoting a business, rule no. 1 is to engage with customers and potential customers – reach out to them and engage. And what do we increasingly need to do as school governors? Well – engage! We need to engage with the local community so that it supports the work of our school and we need to engage with parents and carers as they provide us with our customers – the pupils! As governors we need to ask questions, listen to the answers and be active in the conversations that ensue, just as we would on facebook and twitter. We need our parents/ carers on board as we know that children whose parents/ carers have an involvement with the school on the whole progress further than those with parents/ carers who don’t. And isn’t the same true in business? Are you not more likely to get repeated custom from a customer with whom you have online conversations, or at least share updates with, than from one you have no connection with? It’s probably indicative of how life in general is now but at least it makes it easier for me just to have one message – engage!

Learning Pool What is Social Media?

http://www.learningpool.com/blog/a-short-learning-pool-video-on-what-is-social-media/

Modern Governor What is twitter?

http://www.moderngovernor.com/what-is-twitter/