School communications Iain Luxford, Media & Marketing Manager, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

School communications

• First steps - what you need to do
• Review - communications audit
• Look ahead - communications strategy
• Using and managing social media
• Media handling

What we will cover:

Iain Luxford, Media & Marketing Manager, ESCC

6th November 2019

• 1. Which was the first social media site, launched 1999?
• 2. When was Facebook launched?
• 3. What percentage of retail brands use social media?
• 4. In East Sussex how many people use the internet routinely?
• 5. How many are regular users of Facebook?
• 6. What do people use most to access the internet: laptop, tablet or

phone?

• 7. How many readers does the Eastbourne Herald have?
• 8. Which is more popular BBC Sussex or Heart FM?
• 9. What percentage of people trust journalists to tell the truth?
• 10. Which was the only profession to score lower?
• 1. Friends Reunited
• 2. 2004 (now has 1.4billion members)
• 3. 91 per cent
• 4. 94 per cent
• 5. 69 per cent (was 42 per cent in 2014)
• 6. 66%, 74%, 82%
• 7. 48,755 print and 34,399 online readers
• 8. 262,000 v 358,000
• 9. 27% - same as estate agents

10.politicians

 What are we wanting to say? (Message)  To whom? (Audience)  What’s the best way of reaching them? (Channels)  What do we want them to do as a result? (Objectives)  How will we measure that? (Evaluation)

The simple secret to good comms

• Efficient admin
• Accountability
• Profile and reputation
• Ofsted
• Inform​ (and satisfy)
• Request action​
• Persuade​
• Ensure understanding​
• Reassure​
• Build a community

What you need to do

• Audit your existing comms and channels
• Establish a Communications Strategy
• Establish ownership and responsibility
• Involve your audience
• Have a content plan
• Review your skills
• Consider ESCC Comms support

Communications Audit

• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
• What channels are being used?
• How effective is the planning and delivery?
• Is ownership/responsibility clear?
• How is effectiveness being measured?
• Do you have the right skills?
• How have parents been involved?
• Are pupils involved?

• Set out your objectives
• Identify your audiences
• Be clear on messaging
• Identify your channels
• Establish clear ownership
• Anticipate and mitigate risks
• Consider Out-of-hours
• What happens in a crisis
• Be clear on budget
• Evaluation and Review
• External support

Communications protocol – ownership

• Who is responsible for communications?
• Who will plan content?
• Who will monitor social media?
• Who is the media’s point of contact?
• Do you know your local media?
• Do you know your local reporter?
• Do they know how to contact you?
• Who will give interviews?
• Who will approve quotes or statements?
• What happens Out-of-hours?

ESCC Communications Team

• One off adhoc media handling advice and support
• S2S Comms Helpdesk – routine advice re comms

including media and managing social media

• S2S Comms Helpdesk Plus – introductory training

workshop on media handling and/or social media

• S2S Complete Comms – detailed training courses on

media handling, social media, communications audit and recommendations

• Occasional training courses with SLES

Why use social media?

• Revolutionising how communities engage
• It’s where conversations are happening
• Time saving – reaching large number of

people

• Audience expectations
• Improving real conversational engagement
• Crisis communications
• Drive traffic to your website
• It can be controlled

• 94% of residents use the internet
• 69% use Facebook (42% in 2014)
• 36% use Twitter (13% in 2014)
• 71% use YouTube (31% in 2014)
• 32% use Instagram
• 24% use Snapchat
• 24% use Pinterest
• 20% use LinkedIn

East Sussex - 2017

Social media – consider…

• Using social media to improve engagement with parents
• Knowing how to set up and manage a Facebook page
• The difference between Facebook “pages” and “groups”
• Effective working with parents’ “groups” on Facebook
• The difference between Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,

Instagram

• Planning effective content
• Linking with your website
• Setting social media expectations
• Ownership and skills
• The law

Working with a parents’ group

• Accept – it is happening
• Accept – it will mostly be a positive thing
• Accept – negative is not new, just another channel
• Accept – moaners will always be moaners
• Accept – see it as an opportunity
• ENGAGE – KNOW THE ADMIN!
• Engage - ask to work together
• Engage - school rep in group to answer any questions
• Engage - challenge incorrect information
• Engage - ask for opportunity to clarify
• Engage – take difficult conversations off-line
• Engage - ask admin to be aware of the law and manage content
• Engage - ask admin to be aware of rules re photographs
• Take control - set up an official school page!

• Manage content
• Add or remove page roles
• Approve group membership
• Remove and block people
• Set group expectations and guidelines
• Approve or deny posts
• Delete comments and posts
• Ensure the law is applied

The role of the group admin:

The protection of the…

 Defamation Act – libelling someone.  Protection from Harassment Act – threatening or grossly offensive  Communications Act 2003 – making "menacing electronic communication"  Contempt of Court – anything part of a criminal process, identification of victims, offenders etc  Malicious Communications Act 1988 - making "grossly offensive" comments  Hate crime: racially and religiously aggravated, homophobic, biphobic and transphobic; and disability hate crime.(Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Criminal Justice Act 2003).  European Convention on Human Rights, and UK Human Rights Act – protect individual privacy  Cyber bullying, revenge porn, trolling and virtual mobbing are new phrases in

• ur media vocabulary, but they generally describe behaviour that is already

criminal.

“There is case law to the effect that an administrator can be held liable for defamatory content and that they have an obligation to remove content which is defamatory or discriminatory. The administrator of a private Facebook group would be well advised to keep a very close eye on the content published there.”

“Naming and shaming is particularly risky - it can infringe on someone’s right to privacy, can amount to harassment and can amount to defamation. It has become a favourite past time on social media and it is ill advised” “In law, moderators can be held liable for any statement that appears to be defamatory because forum members are deemed to be 'authors' within the meaning of the Defamation Act.”

Med Media ia Han Handling dling

32,105 print and 214,576

• nline readers

48,755 print and 34,399

• nline readers

22,888 print and 9,063

• nline readers

65,257 print and 28,045 online readers 67,279 readers 358,000 listeners 86,000 listeners 262,000 listeners

eastsussex.gov.uk

Reactive

• Explanation
• Clarification
• Responsibility
• Reassurance
• Rebuttal

Proactive

• Profile
• Reputation
• Parental choice
• Recruitment
• Pupil morale

Media handling…

REAL media issues

• Wrong medicine given to pupil
• Two pupils go missing
• Unpopular uniform change
• Behaviour out of control
• School trip trapped by terrorist

incident

• Teacher abducts pupil
• Bad Ofsted
• Staff member arrested
• Drugs found in the playground
• Threats made to shoot

schoolchildren

• Staff member has secret

moonlighting job

• School criticised for snow closure
• Headteacher’s posts on social media
• Pupil commits suicide
• Head teacher arrested

Essential media handling skills…

• Writing press releases to get media coverage
• Getting your messaging spot on
• Writing effective response statements
• Building a relationship with your local media
• Knowing what you can expect from a journalist
• Knowing when to give interviews
• Knowing what you can and can’t say
• Judging tone and language
• Giving media interviews
• Media monitoring
• Knowing what success looks like with media handling

Conclusions…

• Audit your comms
• Have a comms strategy
• Be clear on ownership
• Establish your channels
• Plan your content
• Remember your audiences
• Be clear and consistent with

messaging

• Develop the skills
• Know your media
• Know what success looks like

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