Using Social Networks to Engage Members and Recruit New Leaders

1. Using Social Networks to Engage Members and Recruit New Leaders Patrick Stansberry, Marshalltown Iowa Caucus of Young Educators Secretary/Treasurer patrick.stansberry@gmail.com Joshua Brown, Des Moines Iowa Caucus of Young Educators Chair joshua.brown@dmps.k12.ia.us

2. Social Networking.... • Helps you learn more about what members want. • Allows you to interact with members. You can hear and respond to their concerns in a quick manner. • Allows you to reach more of your members. This can lead to getting more people involved in your association. • Can engage members in being advocates for your association. • Everything you post is public, use common sense. You are representing your association.

3. Associations Using Facebook Des Moines Education Association Mason City Education Association Iowa State Education Association Read Across America Iowa School Funding Speak up for Education and Kids Caucus of Young Educators Iowa Peace and Justice Caucus ISEA Retired

4. Facebook Page v. Facebook Group

5. Best Practices: Facebook • Actively engage your audience • Send out messages and updates • Start discussions • Ask questions • Update content. • Use your organization’s logo as your picture. • Links • Include http:// at the beginning of all links so they are hyperlinks. Link to important and and interesting things. • 4. Grow your membership • Ask members or page fans to invite their friends to participate

6. Associations Using Blogs Brandywine Education Association - http://brandywineea-bradley.blogspot.com/ Columbus Education Association - http://blog.ceaohio.org/ Creighton Education Association - http://blog.creightonea.org/ Des Moines Education Association - http://blogdmea.blogspot.com/ Kent Education Association - http://kenteducationassociation.wordpress.com/ NEA Fine and Applied Arts Caucus - http://www.neafineartscaucus.blogspot.com/

7. Best Practices: Blogging Be Transparent: Identifying yourself and your organization. Keep it Timely: The news cycle online is even faster than in print and on television. If you want to be a part of it, you have to keep up. Short and Sweet: Your readers will want to keep informed with what is going on, but don’t have time to read a book. Enhance Your Blog: All bloggers want to get links to their site. Links are a form of currency. This is how you grow your readers. Use multimedia. Images and videos can enhance posts considerably. Respond to comments: If someone takes the time to comment on your post, you should return the favor by replying to their comment publicly.

8. Associations Using Twitter Des Moines Education Association Iowa State Education Association Marshalltown Education Association NCUEA NEA Caucus of Young Educators NEA Today Priority School Campaign Seattle Education Association

9. Best Practices: Twitter Tweet An update of 140 characters or less that goes out to all of your followers Followers Other Twitter users who follow you. You want to follow influential people. Re-Tweet A common way to give credit when forwarding someone else’s Tweet Hashtag An easy way to organize content on Twitter by adding a # in front of popular keywords

10. Twitter IF YOU DO JUST ONE THING ... Create a Twitter account and start following leaders in education and other associations around the country. This will help you keep up on what is going around in the field of education and help you have a network of people to bounce ideas off of.

11. Associations Using Wikis Des Moines Education Association - http://dmea.wikispaces.com/ NCUEA – http://ncuea.wikispaces.com/

12. Associations Using Groupsite Des Moines Education Association Iowa State Education Association NEA Caucus of Young Educators

13. Creation • Pick a site to begin working on • Facebook • Blogger • Twitter • Wiki • Groupsite