Tips for posting on Facebook and Twitter Version: July 2015 DO: Choose a Twitter handle and Facebook page name that are easy to find. You want people to be able to find your accounts easily, so don’t name them anything cryptic. Make sure your school’s name is in the account name, and the school’s name is the profile name. Don’t use YOUR name for the profile name. DO: Remember that everything you post is public. If you don’t want every single person in the world to see it, don’t post it. Even if you delete a post, there’s a chance someone could have made a screenshot of it, so don’t assume if you delete something that it will never be seen again. DO: Post regularly. Two to three posts per week on Facebook and a tweet a day is a good place to start. Be sure the content on each is different, or at least posted at different times with different words. People don’t have a reason to follow both accounts if they look exactly the same. DO: Share content that is school-­‐related, educational, and relevant to your school community. Fun things, like free days at the zoo, are also great to post. DO: Be authentic. People want to feel like they’re communicating with a human being. Be funny. Be sensitive. Be serious when you need to. Always be conversational and avoid using “edu-­‐speak.” DO: Post photos. Lots of photos. Give parents a glimpse inside what their children experience every day. Post photos of things like school events, class trips (after the trip is completed), and candid shots inside classrooms. The more action in the photo, the better! Try to avoid posting a bunch of photos of the backs of people’s heads. If you do have photos from years past, you could do a “Throwback Thursday” series. DO: Make sure your students’ safety is a priority. Be sure all students in photos have signed media releases. DO: Celebrate victories. Post academic and athletic wins. Post congratulatory messages regarding student achievement. Celebrate and spotlight your students. DO: Tell people what they’ll find if they click on a link. On Facebook, use phases like “READ MORE !” “WATCH VIDEO !” “SCHOOL WEBSITE !.” DO: Use shortened links. It only takes a minute to set up a free account on bitly.com, and you’ll be able to see how many people clicked on those links. DO: Make sure whoever is managing your page actively monitors it. On Facebook, check to be sure that any comments by people who “like” the page are appropriate. If a comment contains profanity, delete it. If a comment contains a complaint or threat, immediately report it to the principal and, when necessary, HISD police. If you find a tweet that contains a threat against anyone at your school, or the school in general, get screen shots of it and report it to the principal and HISD police immediately. DO: Answer any reasonable questions posted as a comment, tweeted to your account, or received as a direct or private message. If you do not know the answer to the question, find someone who does! DO: Recognize and thank community and business partners. For example, if Target made a big donation to your school, post that and tag Target in your post. If the school has a Facebook account, use that to post a thank-­‐you message directly on Target’s Facebook account. Tagging the business may result in more people seeing your tweet, and that could translate to more followers. DO: Post when your audience is online. Many people check Facebook right when they wake up and while they’re watching prime-­‐time TV. Twitter is pretty active throughout most of the day. This is trial-­‐and-­‐error many times – keep track of what times you post and see what seems to be the most popular for you. DO: Schedule posts. You can schedule posts directly on Facebook. For Twitter, you’ll need to use something like TweetDeck or HootSuite to schedule your posts. If you want something to appear on your account at 7 p.m., schedule it earlier that day, or even days or weeks before. You don’t have to be on social media 24/7 to use it effectively. DO: Ask for help if you need it. If you’re overwhelmed and just don’t have time to manage all the accounts assigned to you, let your supervisor know. If you have general questions about social media, give the HISD Communications Department a call at 713-­‐556-­‐6066. We’re here to help you! Do NOT: Use your name as any part of the account name or user name. Those need to be in the school’s name. Do NOT: Share your students’ personal information. Do NOT: Post content that could be considered religious, political, or controversial. Do NOT: Use language that could be considered demeaning, obscene, threatening, discriminatory, or defamatory. Do NOT: Engage in an argument with anyone. If things begin to get heated, inform the school’s principal and take the conversation off social media. Do NOT: Post the same content on all of your channels at the same time. Mix it up. You can post the same photo on Twitter that you do on Facebook, but choose different times and use different words to describe it. There’s no reason for people to follow all of your channels if they look exactly the same.