How to Increase Parent Followers on Social Media Sites

Let's say you've already set up a classroom Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook. Now you need to get the word out to your students and their parents. How do you do that? Here are some suggestions:

• Feature the students. From what I understand, CISD employees are allowed to post student photos on a classroom website, so long as the parent has signed the permission slip. My kids still get excited when they see me taking pictures of them because they know there's a good chance they could wind up on our class Instagram and be "famous!" 
• Let the kids post for you. I did this 2 years ago on Twitter {and need to do it again!}, and the kids were so excited to tweet that they excitedly ran home and told their parents.
• E-mail parents. Be direct and let parents know you just started a classroom social media account and would love for them to follow the updates.
• Put a reminder in your e-mail signature. You can do something as simple as writing "Follow me on Twitter! @MrsKaras," for example. You can link to your profile(s) if you want to get a bit fancier. And if you have multiple sites you'd like to share, you can add social media buttons to your e-mail signature:

This is currently at the bottom of my work e-mail signature

• Put links on your classroom website or blog. Everyone at CISD has an Edline page to customize, and most of us have blogs, too. Link to your social media sites in the sidebar so that they're always visible to visitors. 
• On a similar note: embed a stream of your latest updates on your website. I know you can embed Twitter and Instagram feeds onto a website, but I'm not sure about Facebook since I don't use it for the classroom. On Twitter, go to settings >> widgets >> "create new." You can generate a simple HTML code to put onto your site, which could look something like this:

Tweets by @ckarasedu
           

Instagram is mobile-based but you can view photos from the web now. I used SnapWidget to create my embed codes. You can see examples of my embedded Instagram feeds by visiting individual grade level pages on my classroom website.

The good thing about embedding feeds directly into your website is that visitors don't have to do any extra clicking or navigating to see your updates -- it all appears right there on your main website.

• Interact with others in the community. I think my professional Twitter account pretty much flew under the radar until I started interacting with other CISD accounts. Something as simple as favoriting, re-tweeting, or mentioning another user might help you gain followers.
• Put it in announcements. Simply telling the kids via announcements -- either school-wide or just at the beginning of class -- can do wonders.

Keep in mind that parents can see your updates by visiting your profile even if they don't officially "follow" or "like" it. I'm always surprised to find that I have a lot more readers than my "following" number shows.

Above all, the point of social media isn't to get "likes" or "followers" -- it's about connecting with others. Don't get too caught up in your numbers!

 

The Social Classroom

The Prezi below is an overview of the discussion in my mini-session about social media in the classroom on our district's "digital day of learning." Press the "play" button in the middle of the screen and use your arrow keys to navigate through the presentation. Click the square button in the bottom right corner of the Prezi to show the slides full-screen.

Facebook: Ideas for Use

Now that you've successfully set up a Facebook class page, it's time to start using it. 

Here are my ideas about how to use Facebook in the classroom:

1. Host discussions. Maybe instead of having students post comments to a blog, you could have them answer discussion questions found on your Facebook page. You could also consider hosting weekly discussions where students get to ask questions about materials -- homework? -- for an hour or so. Facebook makes it easy to reply to certain comments or to just post a general comment on someone's wall.
2. Post updates. This tip is vague because there are a ton of things you could post. Check out my article on ways to use Twitter in the classroom; a lot of those ideas could be used on Facebook, as well. 
3. Create events. Maybe you could create an event about a large, upcoming exam, or a project that's on the horizon. You could also do silly things to boost camaraderie between classmates -- like participating in "talk like Shakespeare day." 
4. Have students share book reviews in wall messages.
5. Use Facebook apps. Teaching economics? Find a game that makes kids set up their own business. Want a summary of something? Have kids log on to the bumper sticker app to find a sticker that summarizes a character of chapter of a [text]book. Want to conduct a poll? Use the poll app to get some answers. 
6. Keep up with current events. Find groups over world events and ask students to learn more, discuss, and/or get involved. 
7. Teaching government? Have students friend a politician and ask him/her questions. 
8. Post multimedia. Share videos of things related to your class's materials, podcasts you've made, pictures that go along with that day's assignment, etc. 
9. Have students post multimedia. Refer to the suggestion above, but make posting the students' responsibility. 
10. Create photo albums of special events or lessons in your classroom so that families can see what's happening in your class, even while they're at work. 
11. If you wanted to flip your classroom, you could post all of the assignments and due dates on your class Facebook page. If you needed the students to download something, you could post a link to the document in your Dropbox or other cloud storage. 

Facebook: Setting up a Page for Your Class

I don't have a classroom Facebook page, and I don't think I ever will. Although it has a lot of advantages, I strongly dislike Facebook in all senses -- mostly because of how it constantly changes privacy settings without letting users know. I don't think it should be Mark Zuckerberg's decision what I share on Facebook; I think it should be my decision. I also don't like how things that you delete on Facebook aren't ever really gone... but that's another post for another day. :) Anyway, I don't have a class Facebook page to share with you as an example. 

However, I won't judge you if you want to have a class Facebook page. :) I know a few people that have them, and it seems to work well for them. If you think you'd like to try it, read on. 

Other note: I am a huge proponent of keeping personal and professional lives separated. I do not recommend that any teacher "friend" students or parents from their personal Facebook page, and I would not post on a class Facebook page with my personal account. Just my two cents. :)

Benefits to a Class Facebook Page

• Most people already have Facebook accounts -- particularly adults. This makes it very easy for them to click the "like" button and receive your updates.
• If you already have a personal Facebook account, you can use that same account to create a class page. {That's one less username and password to remember.} Supposedly, your personal Facebook page and its information will never be seen on your fan page. 
• You can encourage parents and/or students to hold discussions on the Facebook wall. Easily reply to each post or add to the discussion yourself -- all posing as "the fan page." 
• Share whole albums of photos 
• Create events -- like holiday parties or field trips -- and "invite" all necessary people to attend. It's an easy way to share time/date/direction information and any last minute notices. 
• You can update the page from the web and from an app, although you'll want to download the special Facebook pages app to avoid mistakenly posting as your personal Facebook account. 

Setting Up Your Account

These instructions assume you already have a personal Facebook page. Setting up a fan page {what a class Facebook page is technically called} works basically the same way whether or not you have a personal Facebook account already, but a few of the options will be different.

Log in to your Facebook account. Look at the top, blue status bar and click the farther button that you can; it looks like an upside down pyramid. 

A drop-down menu will appear. Find this section in the menu:

Click "create page." You'll see a page that looks like this:

This is the part where you choose the category that your class page best fits under. Personally, I think it best fits under the 2nd category, "company, organization, or institution." That's what I clicked for the purposes of this tutorial.

When you click it, new options appear in that box:

In the first box, choose the drop-down option that says, "education."

In the text box right underneath that, type in the name of your page. For instance, mine might be something like, "Mrs. K's Class" or "OUES Science Lab." 

Follow the workflow on the pages that follow to finish setting it up:

Once you finish setting it up, your page almost looks like an empty personal Facebook profile page:

If you scroll down on that page, you'll see the option to invite people on your friend's list to "like" your page. 

At the top of the page, you'll see 3 tabs: page, activity, and settings. Click on "settings" to customize to your liking. Personally, I would do the following...

In the general section:

1. Disable the option for people to contact my page privately. Private contact means that people can message you so that only you and the other person can see it. When it comes to messages, I don't think privacy is a good thing in education! I'd disable it so students couldn't message me and potentially put both of us in an awkward situation. 
2. Moderate the page, at least at first. You'll have to approve of everything that's posted on the page, but that might be necessary when you are trying to get your students to understand how to post responsibly. 
3. Turn the profanity filter on.

In the app section:

1. Enable video, events, and notes. 

That's it! Give your Facebook URL to students and parents either in class, via e-mail, on your other social networking sites, or on your class website. They can easily "like" your fan page through their personal Facebook accounts, and you can begin utilizing it for educational purposes. {Keep in mind, though, that you can only change your page's URL once, so choose wisely!}

Things to Consider:

1. If you'd rather your students not see your personal profile in any way, always opt to comment and post on your page as [name of page], even when using Facebook as [your name]. This means that if you comment on anything on your page, the comment will display as being from "[Name of Your Page]," instead of from your personal Facebook page. To do this, click "edit info" and "settings." Click the first box on the page and click "save changes."
2. Download the free Facebook Pages Manager app for iOS devices; it lets you manage your page on the go without having to worry about it accidentally connecting to your personal information. 

Hope that helps!

The Hashtag

As far as I know, the hashtag was born on Twitter several years ago. As hashtagging became more popular, other social networking sites -- such as Facebook and Instagram -- implemented them into their websites, too. {You can read more about the history of the hashtag by clicking here.} Now, they are almost universal in the world of social networking.

Via

The hashtag is represented by the pound symbol (#). Users on social networking sites insert the hashtag into a post before a popular word or topic. Once posted, anyone who searches for that particular topic will see that post {unless the poster has a private account}.

The idea behind the hashtag is that you can find posts by like-minded people and connect with them. It becomes a sort-of search term, if you will. Once you create a hashtag {remember, by putting the pound sign in front of a word or phrase}, it becomes a link. Click on the link to see a list of all the other updates that have that hashtag in them.

For instance, one hashtag I like a lot on Twitter is #edtech. If I post something about educational technology on my Twitter feed, I might include the hashtag "#edtech." Right now, that leads me to a page that looks like this {although this page is always changing!}:

Notice the gray search bar at the top of the page? I typed in "#edtech" and pressed "enter." All of a sudden, I got to see a whole feed of Twitter posts that have that same hashtag in them. This is how I've found some amazing people to follow on Twitter! 

There is no real rhyme or reason for hashtags; you can make anything into a hashtag because they are completely user-generated. Sometimes people use hashtags in front of key words in their post, they use a certain tag that is used by a large group of people, or they'll even make a tongue-in-check phrase into a hashtag.

So where do you start?

Since this is an educational blog, let's focus only on educational hashtags. Below are websites that feature lists of popular educational hashtags:

• 300+ Educational Twitter Hashtags Being Used Right Now
• Educational Hashtags
• The Unofficial Index to Educational Hashtags
• Popular Education Hashtags on Twitter
• The 2012 A-Z List of Educational Hashtags

What else?

Because hashtags are user-generated, some users have taken them to the extreme. While there are no official rules of hashtagging, you definitely want to follow a couple guidelines to avoid looking silly:

1. If the hashtag does not relate to the post, don't use it. 
2. Don't hashtag every {or every other!} word.
3. Feel free to use more than one hashtag for a post, but keep rule #1 in mind. That said, there is no reason to add an entire paragraph full of hashtags. {This mostly happens on Instagram.}

This article, titled, "#HashtagEtiquette: 8 People Who Are Doing It Wrong" featured on Mashable explains a few unwritten rules about using hashtags. Abide by these 8 guidelines and you'll already be ahead of some people! ;)

Stumped as to how you can use hashtags?

• Visit this post for a review on Twitter chats, which completely rely on hashtags to allow people from around the world to talk about the same topic at the same time. 
• Read my post about ways teachers can use Twitter.
• Scroll toward the bottom of this article from TweetChat for 21 ways to use a hashtag. 

Finally, I'll leave you with a bit of humor about hashtags. The following video was featured on The Tonight Show a year or two ago. This video features Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake making fun of people who use the word "hashtag" in real life -- another "don't"! ;)

>> Don't forget to follow me on Twitter: @ckarasedu <<

Below are other articles I've written over Twitter:

• An overview/short 'n sweet guide
• Definitions of Twitter and its Vocabulary
• The basics: setting up an account, navigating the website, and tweeting
• Twitter Accounts to Follow
• Twitter chats {a fantastic yet "unofficial" way to be "professional developed"}
• Suggestions for Use
• Personal Success Stories from Using Twitter in the Classroom