Two more trends in school communications from my top 10 list – SCN Encourager
And unfortunately both are outside of my comfort zone!
Ouch!
I hope I didn’t pull a muscle.
(Er, the one between my ears, that is.)
Compiling my list of top 10 trends in school communications has been a humbling experience for me.
I had hoped it would be “affirming.”
But what do I get?
Humbling.
Dang it.
My list for all practical purposes has set out for me the 10 skills I’d better try to take to the next level.
Easy for Einstein to say!
That sure wasn’t the plan.
Thankfully, I’ve always been a big believer in lifelong learning.
Now all I’ve got to do is live long enough to become minimally competent in the skills I’ve listed.
So, with the clock ticking…
Here’s a tweetsmart review of Trends #1-6:
#1 Act FAST. Example: Think 10 minutes or less for launching your school crisis response.
#2 Be CONCISE. Don’t add to the growing pile of communications clutter.
#3 Begin the slow dance with CUSTOMER SERVICE. It’s the new marketing.
#4 Choose your own METRICS THAT MATTER. The others are secondary.
#5 Protecting your BRAND’S ONLINE REPUTATION will take a superhero.
What’s your cape size?
#6 People have high TRUST IN THEIR PEERS. Join in with humanity, not authority.
If you have a good tip or practice that helps you cope with any of this trends, don’t forget to email it in.
If all of my new learning doesn’t get in the way, I plan on writing about assorted tips and ideas next week.
Inviting you to send in your thoughts is my way of trying to get you to share the blame!
Okay, let’s hop over to Learnings #7 & #8:
The reference at the top to my “comfort zone” was totally serious.
And Learning #7 will cause you to similarly assess how comfortable you are on camera because —
#7 Live streaming video is here to stay and will only get bigger.
Twitter’s Periscope and its rival Meerkat are only two of the “live streaming” platforms we all should get more familiar with and build into our future school communications planning.
The marketing teams for many major brands are documenting their experimentations with these new tools so good lessons are out there for the taking.
Live streaming is on course to be just like that roaming mass of jello in the old-time movie classic “The Blob.”
You see it just grow.. and GROW… and GROW!
And if you’re too young to remember ‘The Blob”… sorry.
But count your blessings, kiddo.
No doubt you’re already much more comfortable on camera than some of us.
#8 Don’t stop with blended learning and flipped classrooms.
There’s so much more.
As valuable as these “newer” instructional strategies are, the progressive hand-in-hand walk with technology and teaching is still in the wobbly “toddler years” stage.
The competition that will challenge many of us in the educational arena soon will have a “Netflix” feel and look to it.
It’ll be highly personalized and interest driven.
And we’ll need to position our core services alongside an ever-growing marketplace of “ON DEMAND” educational providers.
Already these online enterprises are serving millions:
Give ’em a looksee. They’re sharp cookies.
But I think school communicators will match up fairly well in the face of this kind of competition.
After all, we’ve always been operating in an “on demand” world, don’tcha think?
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