School social media presence - how do you handle yours?

[Novalee]

So we have a Twitter account, it was used historically but not been used by school for a number of years. I just took a look out of interest and we have about 600 followers so we really ought to be using it to get information to parents etc. It's a useful tool.

However, whilst having a search of our school username on Twitter, I see some students have written some silly things. Likewise with Facebook - we don't have a Facebook account, however there is a 'check-in' page with our School name - and some students have written silly things on there as well.

 

It seems a shame to close the accounts because of this, as we'd really like to start utilising them better. How do you manage things like this though? It must happen with all schools I imagine?

 

Thanks.

[Mako]

Our Head is not one for social media whatsoever. We don't use Twitter or FaceBook. Someone made a Google business page for the school, which I took over but it lies dormant and has a link back to the school website. There was also a FaceBook account in our name (who was in a 'complicated relationship' with another school) which I managed to get taken down after a complaint to FaceBook.

 

The Head likes to keep a blog on the school website, it means our website the primary and only source of information so we get lots of traffic and what he writes is actually read. Supposedly. Personally I have slowly warmed to the idea of having a social media presence, local competitor schools do it and seems to work quite well. However, until the Head goes that way, it's a no-no all around.

[IrritableTech]

There is a school of thought that I subscribe to that suggests flooding social media with positive updates about the school will quickly return bad comments to the bottom of the search page. Once you get more comfortable using social media you can use it to nip any negativity in the bud too. If you see a tweet from a parent for example with a gripe, simply say sorry that the feel like this and point them in the direction of someone who can deal with their complaint - much like bigger business.

 

Once a school is more active on social media, pupils tend to reduce negative comments, because they might be seen and they might get in trouble. The issue is if this encourages them to be more vocal on other media out of sight of the school.

 

It's always worth setting up a google alert to email you of any new search results mentioning the school.

[halbaradkenafin]

It seems a shame to close the accounts because of this, as we'd really like to start utilising them better. How do you manage things like this though? It must happen with all schools I imagine?

 

One of the admin staff handles the social media stuff, it seems to go well for us but I don't really look into it in case someone says "you know about this so it's now your problem".

[AJWhite1970]

We have a very heavy twitter presence (50+ official accounts) which is driven from the top by the HM (he has the main account and his subject account on his phone) and is in all the HOD's JD's and appraisals. I have an email account that gets all the email alerts from all the accounts (it has multiple aliases) so I can keep an eye on retweets, followers, posts referencing out twitter names etc. Works very well and little to no misuse from students (one or two imitation accounts but they were swiftly removed...)

 

We do have a good reason why so many accounts, PM me if interested

Andrew