darim online

The Jewish Day School Social Media Academy is an intensive program designed to help Jewish Day Schools advance their strategic use of social media in areas such as communication, marketing, community building, alumni relations and development.  

The full Academy runs throughout the 2012-13 academic year, and includes live events, online training via webinar, and private coaching and consulting for each school. We've selected a cohort of 20 schools to matriculate through an intensive training, coaching and project-based curriculum during the 2012-13 academic year. 

As a two-campus school serving 600 students and their families in the San Francisco Bay Area, we keep our community engaged and informed through a robust website, two packed weekly e-newsletters, class-specific updates and other publications. Yet, as our 50th anniversary approached last year, we wanted to quickly and effectively invite alumni and alumni families – along with the rest of our community – into the celebration (and conversation).

In the winter of 2011 Carmel Academy underwent a name change, as well as a rigorous and successful accreditation process. The name change, in particular, was a unique experience – one that required a great deal of forethought, leadership, careful planning and implementation. With a new branding campaign, a stellar accreditation report and the excitement that electrified our school community, we embraced this as an opportunity to also become part of the social media landscape. Coinciding with our new name and look, Carmel launched four social media platforms: a newly redesigned and robust

As a participant in the 2012-2013 Jewish Day School Social Media Academy, Solomon Schechter School of Queens (SSSQ) was able to jump onto the social media train with a tremendous amount of support and guidance. Being a beginner in the social media arena (we did not have any social media presence), we found the importance of creating a content calendar to be paramount in establishing, maintaining and expanding our momentum on Facebook, and a valuable quantitative way of measuring our success.

The Community Building Internship at jU Chicago is premised on the idea that small communities are, as sociologist Jonathan Woocher has written, “a consistent source of meaning, a focal point for relationships, and a powerful contributor to a sense of self-worth.” By empowering a cohort of students to create small communities organized around a theme, activity, or shared interest, we are able to create the kind of specialized Jewish opportunities that have the power to engage more Jewish students on a deeper, more meaningful level.

The social web is changing the way we live and work. Social networks are making dramatic changes to not only how people communicate and engage with each other, but also with companies, foundations, and other organizations. Facebook and Google+ are slowly replacing the corporate website. Twitter, SMS, and blogs are supplanting email as the go-to marketing channels.

Guest post by Laura Intfen, Member Services Coordinator at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, KS

All this talk about ‘developing a network’ and ‘organizational change for the connected age’ can feel both daunting and vague. But really, it’s just like starting a band! (And you’ve always wanted to be a rock star, right?) Here’s how it works in five easy steps.

Originally published on Jewish Connectivity