4 Tools for Sharing Your Story Beyond Social Media

How to ensure your story reaches all community members

With more and more schools moving towards digital marketing via social media, many schools are looking for ways to share their story on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google+ (among others). One important question to consider is "how will community members who are not (yet) using social media access the same content?" Just because a parent is not on Twitter does not mean that they lack interest in the exciting updates we are sharing on social media. With that, here are four tools to help you share your story by reaching those stakeholders who are not engaged through social media.

Tagboard

http://www.tagboard.com

Tagboard acts as a website that curates all the current posts associated with a specific hashtag. If your school has a hashtag (which it should!), you can direct traffic to this site as opposed to forcing community members to pay attention to a specific social media feed. Just like Storify (see below), Tagboard pulls posts from multiple sites (Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Vine, Facebook, and App.net).

Tagboard is automatically updated with the most recent posts for the selected hashtag. As opposed to sending out the link at the end of the week, parents can check the Tagboard throughout their day to see all posts as they are posted. You can even set up the tagboard page with your own cover image, avatar, and description - making it feel like your own website. To check out your school's hashtag, simply type it into tagboard.com, or go to tagboard.com/yourhashtag. Our school's is tagboard.com/trinityNOLA.

One of the best examples of an effective tagboard is PS10 in Brooklyn (http://www.tagboard.com/ps10bk). Led by +Chris Casal (who first introduced me to tagboard on his website), their tagboard includes posts from teachers all over the school, as well as others who use the hashtag #ps10bk. This provides a glimpse into classrooms from all the different grade-levels, plus visitors, parents, administrators, and other community members. The brand of PS10 shines clearly and genuinely through their tagboard.

Tint

https://www.tintup.com/

Tintup - or Tint - is a highly professional, made-for-the-big-screen version of Tagboard. NASDAQ used Tint to display social media posts for their hashtag... on their giant, winding billboard in Times Square, NYC. But schools can find Tint useful, as well. Tint pulls posts from all the major social media outlets using a hashtag (or specific account). You can add up to 2 streams of content for free; for schools, this would allow you to display the school Twitter feed along with the school hashtag as an effective way to share your story.

Tint works great as a display in multiple places - including on a localized TV monitor, embedded on a website or in an email, or viewed on a mobile device. As more schools put up TV displays in their admissions or welcome centers, Tint seems like an obvious choice to share your story and establish your brand for visitors. Additionally, the service could be used to share social media posts on a school's website, no longer limiting the website to carrying just the school's individual Twitter or Facebook feed.

Twitter Fontana

http://twitterfontana.com/

If the constant flow of social media feels overwhelming, Twitter Fontana could be a good way to slow down and focus on content. This service displays posts one at a time, on top of a blank window, allowing viewers to read each post individually. Viewers can even pause the stream, as well. There are a few slight personalization options, which include changing only the color scheme and the transition-effect for each post.

The simplicity of Twitter Fontana is what makes it worth your time, though. Share it via email or display it on a TV monitor to allow community members to engage with your story. The "full screen" option makes Twitter Fontana a great option for large displays. Keep in mind that Twitter Fontana, as the name implies, only includes posts from Twitter (by hashtag, Twitter handle, or general search).

Storify

https://storify.com/

Storify is a platform that collects social media into a singular feed that can be embedded in a website or email. You decide which posts are shown, what order they come in, and which platforms you use. It can pull posts from Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, and Flickr. You can even embed a URL to a separate page or promote a specific social media feed; the latter is a way to convert more community stakeholders to follow your feeds, especially when they see the great content they would be able to see in real time. Use Storify as a weekly newsletter to parents about what happened this week at school, or to share all the posts from a recent, exciting event.

Here's a recent example I created for our school at the end of an exciting week. It includes Tweets from our school account as well as teacher accounts, Instagram videos, pictures, and links.

The link to this Storify can easily be shared, as well, for easy access on the web.


These are just four tools to curate and share your social media content. What works best for your school will depend on the content you are displaying, the brand you are trying to convey, and the audience with which you are communicating. How are you using these tools currently? What other tools can schools use to be effective marketers of their brand? What am I missing?? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks!