Source: Sex crazed oysters transmit herpes, Zooillogix

“Are school districts ready for online engagement?” It’s a question inspired by a recent blog entry by Dave Fleet (you see, I’m catching up on my “Journalism” tagged RSS feeds). Dave writes about whether companies are ready for online engagement…which for me, translates into the question, are school districts ready for online engagement?

Here’s what Dave Fleet has to say:

Do they really want to hear what people don’t like about them? Are they really ready to respond… genuinely, without trying to ’spin’ their way through these situations? Do they really want to help, or do they just want to look like they do?

A part of me answers immediately – NO. But then, the question that really bugs me is, why don’t they want that kind of help? What can I do in my role to help them move beyond looking like they want to and helping them reach a deeper understanding?

Some ideas come to mind (tongue in cheek):

1. Do nothing and let them crash.
2. Speak frankly and let the chips fall where they may.
3. Ask questions that encourage them to reconsider how blogs facilitate online engagement with the community.

The question that’s bugging me is, will techniques for public relations folks work in schools? Can you take a communications strategy from business and apply it to education? Often, we start out with school districts wanting to better manage their image…they may see that the traditional media (e.g. television and newspaper) have focused on only the negative events (consider what happens when http://badbadteacher.com features one of your district’s staff…how do you handle the negative fall-out?).

It’s easy to say, “Hey, you need to change the underlying organization to better prevent these bad things from happening” which is another way of aligning your school district to how you want to engage others, but can you really align your school district? I mean, if a school district is having trouble aligning itself to curricular goals, how can it align itself to social media tools?

If your organizational culture is resistant to change, activities are rigidly controlled and everything goes through 1001 layers of approval, you’re going to find it very difficult to engage effectively online. If your blog posts will be written in bureaubabble by a committee, don’t bother.

Do you really want a conversation with people? I mean genuinely want to have a conversation; not just pay lip service to it. People can smell a fake from a long way away. If you do want this level of engagement then great. If you don’t, maybe you should just listen and learn.
Source: Social Media Outreach Won’t Work For Everyone | davefleet.com

I hear education organizations talking about how they need to “get blogs” to better facilitate conversations with communities but…to be honest, they are simply trying to manipulate how they are perceived. There appears to be very little desire to change the underlying structure or how they operate. Simply, they want a new facade that is hip and cool without the real work of conversation. Excuses? Plenty.

So, how do you solve this problem depending on where you are in the organization, or is this just a problem that has to be addressed by the district leadership (e.g. Superintendent)? One way is to disintermediate whomever has been in charge of PR and communications for the District. Empower educators, students, leaders to connect directly with their respective communities. Encourage them to embrace social media for powerful, positive conversations rather than just use them for publishing venues advertising the great things they are doing. The key is being transparent about what is happening…and it reminds me of a sign I saw on the wall of Earl Abel’s Restaurant in San Antonio.

It was a brave man who ate the first oyster.

Well, it’s a brave person who uses social media tools to transparently represent what is happening in K-12 school districts and organizations today.

Thoughts?

Subscribe to Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net

Be sure to visit the ShareMore! Wiki.