TomHD Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 At the moment we would have to take them on the school camera, copy onto the network, then Tweet from the computer. I fear that this would be far too long winded for anyone to bother with long term. We do exactly this. And we take the view that many things done in schools are long winded due to policy and this is just another case of that. People seem to understand
mavhc Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Our school has twitter and has done for a number of years which is crucial to communicating with the parents. Staff have access to the twitter account and tweet when and however much they want to. We have so many positive comments/mentions about how good it is that parents get to see what their child is doing at school. Trust the staff they are professionals at the end of the day! Yes they could put something out there controversial or detrimental to your school, but can they not do that in other ways that are far more out of your control? Embrace it! It's where the parents and kids are! We have main account over 1500 followers and link it to our Facebook page so that the tweets form the content on the FB page. All staff have access to Twitter upon request and logged. Twitter/FB monitored by myself. E Safety policy indicating what staff are allowed to do/not do, the usual no full names with pics etc and now no pics of individual students. Social media accounts all signed up using an admin email account, should anyone try and change the password etc then we always have access. What does twitter/facebook offer that you can't do on your own website though? It's a micro blogging platform, just make your own blog on your own website.
AJWhite1970 Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 What does twitter/facebook offer that you can't do on your own website though? It's a micro blogging platform, just make your own blog on your own website. Nothing but for us it's convenience. I'd rather a teacher can quickly update their website by using twitter and an embedded widget on their curriculum webpage rather than expose them to the actual html code. If that was the case then a) they would tire of it quickly and never update the page and/or b) make a right horlicks of the update and potentially break the page
DrCheese Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 What does twitter/facebook offer that you can't do on your own website though? That's easy. Actual viewers. No one really bothers going to your website on a daily basis, so stuff just gets lost/ignored. It's a "Pull" method of getting visitors. Facebook/twitter people are on *all* the time so if they like your page/follow it then they see it. You also get far more engagement as people tag their friends/kids for their other family members to view it. 1
gpjt Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 That's easy. Actual viewers. No one really bothers going to your website on a daily basis, so stuff just gets lost/ignored. It's a "Pull" method of getting visitors. Facebook/twitter people are on *all* the time so if they like your page/follow it then they see it. You also get far more engagement as people tag their friends/kids for their other family members to view it. Exactly!
CAM Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 @CAM - Thanks for this, I may send the majority of this to the others that were at the meeting. @AJWhite1970 - All those accounts having the same contact email address doesn't cause any problems? I take it they sign in with the handle rather then the email address?! @jmak - This is what I fear for locking it down, it wouldn't be my burden but I wouldn't wish it on anyone unless it was their full time job. Feel free, might want to clean up the text a bit though as it's a bit informal.
PotNoodleTech Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 What does twitter/facebook offer that you can't do on your own website though? It's a micro blogging platform, just make your own blog on your own website. Because twitter / facebook is a push information system. People only notice things on your website when they happen to go on there once in a blue moon. On twitter / facebook if they are following you - they get a notification immediatly, every time you put something useful on there. That is MUCH more powerful.
mavhc Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Nothing but for us it's convenience. I'd rather a teacher can quickly update their website by using twitter and an embedded widget on their curriculum webpage rather than expose them to the actual html code. If that was the case then a) they would tire of it quickly and never update the page and/or b) make a right horlicks of the update and potentially break the page Need a better website then, mine's wordpress so it's as easy to make a new blog post as post to twitter. 1
mavhc Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Because twitter / facebook is a push information system. People only notice things on your website when they happen to go on there once in a blue moon. On twitter / facebook if they are following you - they get a notification immediatly, every time you put something useful on there. That is MUCH more powerful. Which is why you use onesignal so they can receive notifications when you make an update. Now you don't have to pay facebook to get your post out to everyone.
PotNoodleTech Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Which is why you use onesignal so they can receive notifications when you make an update. Now you don't have to pay facebook to get your post out to everyone. But why when twitter does all that from one, free interface? When I post a tweet it gets pushed to the devices of all our followers, AND it gets put on the main website news section automatically. Double news wammy! 1
rad Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 My advice is to make as many tweets as possible include a picture even if it is the school logo. For example, yesterday Parentpay was down, so I added a picture of the PP logo to engage viewers. Using the Twitter Analytics just text... ie, this is our newsletter (hyperlink to website) doesnt get as many views/clicks as a screen shot of said newsletter and the same text.
mavhc Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 But why when twitter does all that from one, free interface? When I post a tweet it gets pushed to the devices of all our followers, AND it gets put on the main website news section automatically. Double news wammy! Same for me, I post a blog post, it gets pushed to all our followers, and is on the website, and it's fully in my control, not next to ads, or hidden because twitter decided I'm not as interesting as something else. Only cost is running our website, which we're paying for anyway.
TechMonkey Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Don't forget if you use Azure you can set up SSO ans delegate use. So a member of staff sign in to Azure as their school account and it grants them access to Twitter. You can then audit Twitter if something nasty appears as a login will show who was authorised. Not sure how this would then work with the Twitter App though.
DrCheese Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 We have given staff devices to do this, cheap android tablets. (even though every member of staff has a school issued ipad) How well are you finding they're being used? At the mo it's just us that tweet/facebook etc but I'm considering getting in a few iPod touches & giving each department a twitter account that we can then use to republish content from. Potentially adding an iPhone into the mix for school trips as well (Because I can fully manage them and it keeps all photos on school owned devices)
northeast_technician Posted October 12, 2017 Posted October 12, 2017 At my school only myself and the Head have access to the account. We only ever say the class name rather than the students names and individual shots are avoided where possible. As to what we tweet about, it is normally reminders or achievements for either the school or groups of children. We also say thank you to anyone who donates to the school (we are a special school so it happens fairly often)
pooley Posted October 12, 2017 Posted October 12, 2017 How well are you finding they're being used? At the mo it's just us that tweet/facebook etc but I'm considering getting in a few iPod touches & giving each department a twitter account that we can then use to republish content from. Potentially adding an iPhone into the mix for school trips as well (Because I can fully manage them and it keeps all photos on school owned devices) They are used all the time, devices are the responsibility of the class teacher, I don't have much to do with then once I have installed and logged into twitter for them.
foofighterjim Posted October 12, 2017 Author Posted October 12, 2017 Thanks for the contributions so far. I have a follow up meeting early next week so please keep the advice coming in, it has all been very helpful!
JRowley Posted October 23, 2017 Posted October 23, 2017 The key to Twitter initially is not what you post, but how often you post. Consistency is the key, trying to get people to understand this is a pain. Aim for a minimum of 1 post per day which sounds easy but when you're just moving into social media, trying to get leadership to find things to tweet about can be hard. Also don't worry about engagement until you've got a reasonable number of followers, gaining followers should be your main focus.
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