Facebook Linkedin Youtube Envelope

Tag: Social-Media

Attendance Awareness Communications

How to Use Social Media to Improve District Communications (Finalsite.com, 2018) tells us that “Social media has quickly earned itself at the top of the list for necessary communication tools … to improve their school-to-home communications.” The attendance improvement best practices and strategies they share for each social network are valuable for those districts just getting started and existing district users alike. These recommendations include which types of social media are better at reaching which audiences. 

Beaumont USD, CA logo

About Beaumont USD

Beaumont Unified School District (BUSD) does a great job in their use of social media, and their activities reflect real-time examples of these recommendations. Beaumont USD is situated in the San Gorgonio Pass, in Riverside County, California within a growing city of nearly 45,000 residents. BUSD operates seven elementary, two middle, and two high schools and serves 10,829 K-12 students and their families.

Beaumont USD shared its district strategies, including the successful social media outreach at the RaaWee Every Day Matters Summit, on November 15, 2019. View the entire event at Applying the “Mind in Boat” Teamwork & Focus to Attendance Improvement at Beaumont USD – Every Day Matters Summit 11.15.2019.

Beaumont USD uses Social Media for Successful Outreach

BUSD has applied a comprehensive communication social media strategy to improve the attendance at their schools. Through these tools, they share the great things happening at Beaumont USD on a daily basis. And it serves as cornerstone media in their attendance awareness campaigns. 
The social media tools narrate student success stories, employee recognitions and achievements, parent resources, school programs, services, and various opportunities, school board policies, and conventions; these are subjects of great interest that it shares with its community.
 
District and Community News are communicated through a variety means that include the BUSD website and social media accounts.
Attendance Day Challenge
The District social media accounts include both district-wide Facebook – BeaumontUSD – and Twitter – @Beaumont_SD – accounts. They also make use of Parent Square and Peach Jar which are their School-Home communication platforms. 
 
Although BUSD does not use Instagram, Snapchat or other accounts, these are also great opportunities to reach specific groups within the community. Check out best practice detail as previously referenced in How to Use Social Media to Improve District Communications (Finalsite.com, 2018) for additional ideas on audience-specific outreach.

They found that both Facebook and Twitter serve them well, but in different ways. They have more parents on their Facebook account and they find that the parents share the flyers and other information amongst one another. Twitter is great because the staff and school sites share their progress, awards, trophies, etc. Everyone appreciates visible recognition.

SES Classrooms
Weekly Bulletin Starlight Elementary

Consistent Meaningful Attendance Content is Key

The District creates an annual calendar with the contributions of parents, teachers, classified workers and administrators who serve on a calendar committee and use organized community meetings to solicit and incorporate user feedback. 
The posted content comes from flyers and other print materials that are provided to the BUSD Communications Officer for posting in both English and Spanish. Don’t forget the importance of addressing community diversity when reaching out using these newer media.
And a final best practice from the Beaumont USD team is the consistency in their social media use. They are committed to and consistent in keeping these accounts are up-to-date and the place to look for information. This keeps everyone involved and communications successful.
BUSD

For more information on Beaumont Unified  School District and all they are doing to reach and maintain their Attendance Goals for each student district-wide, check out our Every Day Matter Summit presentation by Christina Martinez at BUSD.