#jdsacademy – Page 3 – Darim Online

Increasing our Reach: Better Posts, More Likes

May 17, 2013 by

Lander Grinspoon Academy is still fairly new to social media, having just joined Facebook in June 2011. When we were accepted to the JDS Social Media Academy we were both thrilled and overwhelmed. How could we, a small school with no dedicated marketing staff and with only 100 “likes” possibly rise to the huge challenges before us?

We knew that our first priority was going to be to increase the number of likes and to train our community to look for us on Facebook. Without these steps in place, no matter how well we would articulate the needs of the school, our spring fundraiser would be a tree falling in the forest with no one to hear.

After experimenting with lots of different types of posts we found that people want to share posts that say something about themselves: their children are highlighted; their values are reflected; they have a reason to be proud of the school and community. After Hurricane Sandy we had a series of posts asking for donations to be delivered to NYC. All were viewed by 100 and were shared widely. When we posted a picture of our team running in a 5K to support a local woman’s shelter we received 221 views (106 viral).

But we still only had 123 “likes,” which simply wasn’t enough even for a small school such as ours (89 students, 65 families). If we didn’t do something to increase the audience, our social fundraising campaign would be a total failure. People wouldn’t give if they weren’t seeing us online.

We began pushing people to FB in a couple of different ways. First, in our weekly email home to parents we kept up the drumbeat of asking parents to like us. As winter approached we let parents know that weather-related school closings and other timely information would be delivered via Facebook. More and more we made decisions about whether to transmit critical information via email or via Facebook, and often decided to put the information out first on Facebook and only later on email. We also began to tag local organizations in order to extend our reach. Tagging helped us to spread the word, and many people (including the Mayor) reposted our posts.

At our Hanukkah performance we announced that we wanted to get to 180 likes by the end of Hanukkah. We decided to connect the number of likes needed (44 more to reach 180) to the number of Hanukkah candles in a box. So, rather than the typical announcement asking everyone to silence their cell phones, we began the assembly by asking everyone to get their cell phones out and like us on Facebook, and later to share photos of the evening.

In one day we went from 136 to 190 likes, and by the end of December we were at 204. Most of our posts now were getting between 75 – 150 views (as opposed to the 30-50 before), with many shares. Again, the posts that had the most virality contained either pictures or artwork of the students, and/or showcased tikkun olam efforts such as Mission Mitzvah, our response to the Sandy Hook tragdey, etc. By January we had over 200 likes, had trained many of our community members to read and repost, and felt that we were ready to begin to plan our fundraiser.

Flash forward to spring. Our campaign, which rolled out right before Passover, raised over $28,000. We now have 235 likes. We also now have an active presence on Facebook and parents, alumni families and our larger community look for us there. They now expect to see video clips, photos and newsy updates about the school. Local synagogues and the community Jewish preschool ask us to repost some of their events, knowing that we reach a larger audience than they have. We know we have more to do, but are excited and energized to bring social media to the next level at Lander Grinspoon Academy.

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 2012-13 nationwide cohort of 20 schools was generously supported by The AVI CHAI Foundation. Each of the schools will be sharing insights from their experience through blog posts here this spring with the tag #jdsacademy

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

Getting Over the Content Hurdle

May 17, 2013 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

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 website, a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a blog.

Carmel’s initial success with these platforms – particularly with Facebook and our website– was mostly attributed to the newness of our brand and the excitement that went along with it. It soon became apparent that launching the platforms was the easy part. Keeping them updated, meaningful and relevant to our followers, as well as growing our social media audience, was the bigger challenge. With some experience under our belts — that included experimenting with Facebook and Twitter content — our administrative leadership took on a more strategic focus of providing the type of content that would push our introduction to social media to the next level.

A key challenge – like many schools — was resources. Photos, videos, content takes manpower. Our small communications office quickly realized it needed to tap our outlying resources. Our best source of culling engaging content was from the “people in the trenches” – our creative and hard-working faculty. We began by first asking our faculty to help provide us with the details of classroom activities, unique integrated learning experiences and special events that shape our students’ experiences throughout the year. Very quickly, we no longer needed to seek out information, but our faculty was readily providing it. We also identified several faculty members who enjoyed photography, and tapped them to help photograph events.

We started with our website and the transformation of our web-based newsletter. In September we re-launched our school newsletter with a new name (Kol Carmel), look and content. Our goal was to provide our families with engaging articles, features, photos and video across all grades and subjects. We very quickly saw our readership increase from less than 20 percent a week to over 50 percent each week.

Taking on this major undertaking required a great deal of organization, as well a time commitment. Monthly and weekly editorial calendars are necessary to plan each weekly edition. With the help of staff photographers and details for articles coming in from our faculty, we soon had plenty of content to choose from. This also gave us the opportunity to share content across platforms. Features and photos for Kol Carmel could easily be re-written as Facebook posts, placed as news on our website homepage, and turned into a tweet. Not all content is shared across the board. We do create content solely for Facebook, Twitter and the website. However, a majority of our content is shared and recycled – making it much easier to post meaningfully and consistently across platforms.

Jumping over the content hurdle has been encouraging for our social media growth. We have seen increased engagement from current families and alumni, a greater following, a marked increase in community interaction on our Facebook page, and a terrific buy-in from our faculty.

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

Rally for MJDS: A Case Study of Social Fundraising

May 16, 2013 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

Milwaukee Jewish Day School is a non-diversified school accepting Jews from across the board. We have an excellent education program deeply rooted in tradition and innovation. We have a large emphasis on digital media and technology such as iPads, smart-boards, computer Labs, and a green screen studio. With so many students and parents using technology photo’s and videos have never been so important.

We’ve always had an Annual Campaign, but for the first time as a result of the Social Media Academy we decided to try something different, and accept donations online.

Before launching our campaign on the Rally platform, we went to the PTO and found volunteers who would be willing to spread the word and expand our network.

First, we sent out a future leader survey at the beginning of the annual campaign. We asked students what they want to be when they grow up? How is MJDS helping you reach your goals for the future? Once we identified our Fan Fundraisers for the Rally Campaign, David Hercenberg, our Digital Media & Marketing Specialist, worked with each person to help them promote the Rally Campaign on their personal Facebook pages.

We encourage our students to reach for the stars and achieve their dreams, so we used the idea of featuring current students & alumni students to show that with an MJDS education you really can achieve your goals.

We customized our amount selection options & encouraged people to share the rally campaign with their friends and family. We posted custom photos and quotes the Future leaders survey to add a personal touch for every post. We also explained that every donation up to $10K would be doubled thanks to a match from The AVI CHAI Foundation!

Using an online social fundraising platform we were able reach our goal of $10K because we made it as simple as possible for people to donate. Facebook analytics proved that videos got people’s attention and inspired conversation, so we used photos and videos to our advantage. By utilizing our Fan Fundraisers' friends and family, we expanded our network and reach for the campaign. In addition to our Fan Fundraisers, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation reposted some of our posts to expand our network.

Although our alumni were not a huge part of the success of the Rally campaign, we did receive some donations from them. Since we opened the door to a new group of donors who might not have taken the time to donate through traditional ways we see this as a success. Rally costs us 4.5% to process donations Vs. Paypal which is approximately 2%. Although we plan on using Rally again in the future, for now we are accepting regular donations on Paypal to keep the Rally fresh and focused, and to save money on processing fees.

Overall compared to it’s competition Rally did a great job of being customizable, however it did have one major limitation. The ability to grant multiple levels of access is not available, meaning whomever controls the account has access to all the information. Ideally we would like to allow one person to control the content posting while the business department controls the flow of money on the backend. We hear that Rally is considering adding this feature to their platform.

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

Making it Kosher: Helping Our Day School Ambassadors to Embrace Social Media

May 16, 2013March 5, 2018 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

As the largest coed Jewish day school in Baltimore – and the area’s only community day school – we have made significant progress this year harnessing the power of social media to share key messages with our current and prospective families. We have increased our Page “likes” over 33 percent, and have created some great content, including a number of creative videos that have “gone viral”. We are posting regularly with engaging content, using a warm and friendly voice, and our page stats reflect the growth in our audience and their interest in our page.

All that being said, one of our greatest frustrations continues to be the number of our parents, trustees and other highly committed school ambassadors who continue to tell us they are “just not interested in being on Facebook.” When there is a Parent Association meeting, a Board of Trustees meeting, or even a school Marketing Committee meeting, there is inevitably a core group of our most committed parents that professes to have absolutely no interest in joining Facebook, much less becoming a regular.

One of our Parent Association presidents is a Princeton grad and has been among the most vigorous and constructive advocates for our school. She and her family are significant contributors and they would “do anything” for our day school. Anything except join Facebook.

Another parent has been an invaluable member of our Marketing Committee, providing key insights into the admission process, and happily serving as an advocate for our school in the larger community. She too is an Ivy League graduate, and is most willing and able to debate the many benefits of attending our school. But she has no interested in going online and sharing those sentiments on Facebook.

While I certainly respect any individual’s personal decision to not join Facebook, and while clearly there are some (particularly in the Orthodox community) who feel strongly about not participating in social media – whether for philosophical reasons or simply as a waste of their valuable time – there are steps that schools can take to explain to their day school community that Facebook is not only “kosher”, but that it has become a legitimate, cost effective, and powerful way for our schools to communicate and market themselves. Here are four ways to make the case that your school’s ambassadors will be more effective “cheerleaders” for your school if they choose to embrace social media.

1. Recruit a few social media “mavens” to serve as role models

Like any recruiting effort, getting your ambassadors on-board with social media requires rolling up your sleeves, brainstorming ideas, developing a plan, implementing it, and finally evaluating and fine-tuning your strategy. You probably want to have your social media plan well underway, with a school Facebook or Twitter page that has regular posts, valuable content, and that shows some level of interaction with your constituents (e.g. likes, comments and shares).

Once your page is up and running, having a cadre of ambassadors who are already actively on Facebook and are comfortable with social media is key. Identify these individuals at a Parent Association or other school meeting, reach out to them (speak to them, ask them to be your Facebook friend, or email and tell them about your school’s page). Before you know it they will be regularly interacting with your posts, and helping to expose your school’s page to their Facebook friends, through their news feed. They will also be serving as a most valuable social media role model for other members of your school community. Start with your “believers” – identify them, cultivate them, and they will help get the ball rolling.

2. Let them know that Facebook can be “kosher”

This year’s Jewish Day School Social Media Academy has helped participating schools develop strategies and best practices for using Facebook and other social media sites to bolster their school’s admission, marketing and fundraising efforts. But don’t under estimate the value of the Academy, and its AVI CHAI Foundation sponsorship, as a “hechsher” of sorts for the legitimate use of social media by Jewish day schools.

I make it a point whenever I speak to a group of parents, teachers or trustees, to mention that our school is participating in the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy, sponsored by the AVI CHAI Foundation, in which 20 schools, including this school and that school (drop a few names to impress them with the breadth of day schools that are participating). I explain that this is a year-long effort, that we attended conferences in New York and Washington, D.C., have a calendar of monthly webinars, coaching calls and other assignments. I add that this is part of a national effort to provide Jewish day schools with the 21^st century communication skills they need to effectively tell the story of how and why Jewish day schools are the most important investment a Jewish parent can make.

3. Show them how (just don’t tell)

I have found for many of our parents, that it is not enough to tell them to go on Facebook and like our page. You could (and should) just tell the students in your Middle or High School and they would know how to find your school’s page and “like” it. But many of our parents and teachers need to have their hands held and be shown how to navigate this new and unfamiliar terrain.

This could be done by way of an onscreen projector, a PowerPoint presentation, an email message, an instructional video, or a printed handout. For several parent committees, we created a printed handout with screen captures of our Facebook page and explanations of where to click to like the page, like a post, comment, or share a post. If you are meeting with parents about an event that you have posted on Facebook, you need to explain to them how to “join” the event and how to invite their friends.

We also gave them a copy of Ken Gordon’s excellent article, How to Be a Social Media Mentsh (adds the stamp of approval (and encouragement) of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) as yet another social media “hechsher” for Jewish day schools), and the graphical representation of a social network that Lisa Colton shared with us at our opening meeting. This is not a one shot effort, but a message that needs to be repeated at every opportunity that you are meeting with parents and explaining all the valuable information that can be found on your school’s Facebook page.

Here is a sample of one of the handouts we created:

4.Include social media as part of your ambassador training

One of the initiatives that has come out of our school’s Marketing Committee this year is the need to create a formal Ambassador Training Program for our parents and other stakeholders, such as our faculty, board members, alumni and even High School students. We recognize the tremendous value of our many satisfied customers in conveying the key messages in support of our school through grass roots marketing. It goes without saying that social media needs to be a key component of any ambassador training effort that your school undertakes.

Whether you hire a consultant or coach to run workshops for your parents, or you develop your own ambassador boot camp, make sure that social media is addressed. Start by legitimizing it (show that it’s kosher), and then show parents how to use it by letting them get behind the wheel. The ideal approach would be a discussion and demonstration followed by a hands-on session in your school’s computer lab, with parents actually logging into Facebook (check with your network administrator to make sure Facebook is not blocked by your school’s firewall), and going on your school’s page to like it and view and interact with your content.

Once you get your parents to take a test drive, and once they see the benefits – in terms of increased participation in Facebook events and fundraisers and greater access to information (e.g. school closings and reminders) — you will be on your way to building a stronger community of social media ambassadors who will help support and grow your social media strategy.

Joan Fishbein Feldman is the Director of Communications of Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Baltimore, Maryland. Beth Tfiloh Dahan is the area’s largest coed Jewish day school, with students from PreSchool through Grade 12.

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy’s Social Media Journey

May 15, 2013 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy is grateful to be participating in the JDS Social Media Academy to advance the social media initiatives of our school. Hillel's Facebook page has been updated with a new image congruent with the current branding of the school. Extensive efforts are underway to reach out to our current parent body, generations of Hillel alumni, and the greater Hillel community of supporters to create a culture whereby use of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will become the new norm.

By using Facebook to publicize and promote upcoming events we have been able to generate increased traffic to our page. With the guidance of the Big Duck coaches and extensive evaluation of best practices in use of social media in a K-8 school, we are working towards finding a balance between keeping the site current while maintaining the integrity of our newly established social media protocols.

Postings photos of our students have generated much enthusiasm and positive feedback. Posts and comments are overwhelmingly requesting more photos at increased frequency of a wider cross section of our student body. As we increase the quantity of photos posted, we anticipate that Hillel's friends will increase exponentially. We have received many requests to post videos as well, and are currently in the process of creating our very own YouTube channel. It is our hope that prior to the start of the 2013-2014 school year, Hillel's YouTube channel will be fully functional.

The goals of our social media venues are multi-tiered:

It is an opportunity for Hillel's teachers to share the excitement in their classrooms with parents as well as other teachers for collaborative curricular development.
It also empowers our students to use current technology such as iPads to integrate traditional learning with the language of their contemporaries under the auspices of Hillel's administration.
It provides the school a place to highlight special events and share accomplishments and milestones with our parent body, alumni, and supporters.

Hillel now has several faculty members tweeting. Through our new efforts using Twitter we've been able to share live updates from students' adventures from all over the world. Looking forward, we are considering using Twitter for real time updates during Hillel's sporting events and field trips. Hillel has benefited tremendously from our involvement in the Sharefest experiences, coaching calls, and ongoing support from experts, AVI CHAI, and the other schools involved with this program. Although the official program will soon end, we believe there is great benefit in continuing this partnership as we advance into the 21st century.

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

Power of Pictures: Lessons from the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy

May 9, 2013 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

We knew before joining the Academy that Facebook could be a great way to reach our parent body, but we just weren’t getting the response we knew was possible! Our first step after joining the Academy was to switch our Facebook profile to a page so that we could garner more likes from our parents and the broader community. Then we started thinking about what content would create the most buzz…

It was obvious after a few weeks that posting pictures was a primary way to go – everyone loves to look at pictures of their kids! But in addition to drawing more traffic to our page from parents who want to see pictures of kids, pictures that capture kids also gave us the opportunity to showcase the program and events going on in school. We were able to choose the pictures that showed our beautiful campus in the background, or a Zionistic program, or an academic achievement or some other message we wanted to be projecting to our current and prospective parents. With catchy titles and questions to go along with the pictures, we were able to illicit responses from our Facebook friends. And by including current students in the pictures, we gave parents a reason to visit our Facebook page, and even more beneficial for us, we gave them a reason to share our posts on their personal pages. Allowing us to be seen by their Facebook friends as well meant that the messages we were transmitting about our school were able to reach a wider audience, and could entice prospective parents that we didn’t know were even out there.

Pictures also helped us reconnect to our alumni (we switched our alumni profile to a page as well shortly after joining the Academy). Once a week, on “Way Back Wednesday,” we posted archival pictures that alumni got excited about – and they not only reconnected with Westchester Day School, but also with classmates with whom they may have lost touch over the years. The feelings of nostalgia – “Can you believe how young we were?!” – put positive thoughts about Westchester Day School in the front of their minds. We also were able to re-post Westchester Day School pictures on our Alumni page. We learned that alumni were excited to see pictures of current-year performances and events that have been going on annually for years, and could comment on how well they remember their own “insert performance here.” It also allowed them a chance to see how much things in the school have changed and evolved since their time as a student.

Allison Lyons is the Director of Admissions at Westchester Day School. Allison enjoys working on a beautiful 26 acre campus on the Long Island Sound.

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

Carefully Curating Content

May 9, 2013 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

As a parent volunteer who is not at Shulamith School for Girls of Brooklyn every day, being admin of the school’s Facebook page is a fun challenge. Initially I shared interesting online articles, and links from Facebook Pages that I already followed, on topics I thought would interest other parents like me. After we were accepted to the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy, our Facebook Likes and interactions increased tremendously as I learned to curate, not just find, the content to share. We created a POST Plan that helped us figure out our target audience, and then used Facebook Insights to figure out which posts were most popular. We then created a schedule to post about those topics.

Shulamith School for Girls of Brooklyn originally created a Facebook Page in 2012 to share photos of the recent school dinner. Posts were few and far between before we joined the Academy. As we learned from the Academy coach, webinars, and Sharefests, I began posting more regularly and began paying attention to Facebook Insights. (For more on using Insights to figure out which posts work best, see the fantastic article by another Academy participant, here: http://bit.ly/10GzUyu.)

Now I search for and save the images and articles that appeal to our parent body, our alumni and donors, and potential Shulamith families who want to see what our school is all about. So, in addition to posting photos of school events that our principal emails or shares via DropBox, I schedule carefully curated content 3 days a week. On Monday, our followers know to expect a Middot Monday post about encouraging positive character traits in our children. Tuesday Tips and Teachable Thursday posts are about parenting and education tips that families can use at home. Additionally, on Wednesday I welcome everyone who Liked the Page since the previous Wednesday.

I search for interesting articles all over the web. Three times a week I spend about half an hour visiting websites and Facebook Pages to look for new material for our Page. I started following educational tweets on Twitter, even though our school is not on Twitter yet. I curate stories from sites like Edutopia, HuffPost Parents, The New York Times, Aish.com, OU.org, and even the IDF Facebook Page (because our school is uniquely Zionist in Brooklyn). When I find something that will interest our parents and other followers, I save the links to bit.ly so I can track which links were actually clicked after I share them on Facebook. Keeping track of Insights and bit.ly clicks helps me look for more of what our followers want to see. For instance, articles on teaching children about finances were viewed more than articles about the impact of the lack of sleep.

Like the other Academy participants, I also found that posts with photos or videos of our students were viewed, commented on, and shared more often. A Welcome Wednesday post can reach 75 to 100 of our followers. Adding a photo of six girls in the hallway boosts that to over 200 views. Vintage class photos from the 1960s-80s each received hundreds of views, and alumni reconnected on our Page.

Thanks to the JDS Social Media Academy, our Likes increased from 49 to almost 200. We’ve reconnected with alumni and watched new friendships form in Facebook Comments. When I go to school for parent-teacher night and other events, parents come up to me to thank me for sharing such interesting articles. They say they look forward to checking Shulamith’s Facebook posts every day. Carefully curating content pays off!

Tova Ovits is a freelance editor with a daughter graduating from Shulamith School for Girls of Brooklyn. She volunteered to be Shulamith’s Team Leader for the JDS Social Media Academy for the 2012-13 school year.

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

Using Social Media Measurement to Get Up and Running

May 3, 2013 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

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.

Using an Excel template from Beth Kanter’s article “Getting Insight from Facebook Insight Requires Sense Making Skills”, we track each item posted and analyze its success. With this method we found that:

Posting 2-3 times per week on school activities/events keeps our audience engaged.
There was no significant difference in posting in the morning or the afternoon with respect to activity on the post.
Postings that feature videos or photographs are most popular. By measuring the reach and engagement of different types of postings we were able to determine those that are well received. In fact, our 8^th grade students narrated their trip to Israel using video clips we posted on our Facebook page. These were among the most popular postings and also showed engagement amongst our community.
Planning and keeping track of each posting allows SSSQ to incorporate holidays, school events, or other initiatives from the school calendar into the postings calendar to create a consistent message across all communications venues (Website, Facebook, E-mail).
We gather statistics (likes, reach, shares) on each posting from Insights on the last day of each month and analyze the results – tracking what worked / didn’t work so that we can improve on subsequent posts.
To ensure that SSSQ conveys a consistent message, all proposed postings and a review of the previous months postings are discussed with the headmaster, executive director and technology coordinator on a monthly basis.

SSSQ is new to the social media arena, but has gained a loyal following in a few short months by being organized, intentional and reflective. In the near future, we will expand to other media avenues (Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest) and employ the same methodology to track posting and ensure that our message is being “received”.

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

A Meta Learning Curve: Social Media to Promote a Blending Learning Day School

May 3, 2013March 5, 2018 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

I figured between having a Facebook account and teenage daughters, I would be ahead of the game in this process. Yet even with my familiarity with social media tools, participating in the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy really put me into the shoes of our students.

Our school was at a unique disadvantage in the marketing process – we have little administration, a small parent body and no alumni. While being described as a technology-driven school put us into a broad category of educational institutions, our goals differed from other establishments under the “technology” umbrella. Our primary objective was to educate the community on our mission and philosophy; to avoid being considered “a school with computers”. Blended learning means different things to different people, and our work with the JDS Social Media Academy gave us the necessary tools and strategies to spread our message and correct the misconceptions about our school.

Our Facebook Page has developed into a dynamic instrument; a living, breathing creature that communicates our vision. The Jewish community at large has been fascinated with our school from its inception; pre-conceived notions flew around Shabbat tables, and opinions followed suit. Truth be told, there was no way to distribute the real information because there was not yet any evidence. September 2012 came and went, and Yeshivat He’Atid is thriving as a Jewish Day School operating with a blended learning model. Through the mentorship of the JDS Social Media Academy, we have learned to target our social media audiences and showcase our evidence.

On September 16, 2012 – a few weeks into our inaugural school year – we posted a “Happy New Year” message on our Facebook page. For a brand new school of 116 students, the viewing statistic was encouraging.

Following training in strategic social media use, here is a screenshot of our Yom Ha’atzmaut Facebook post:

Close to 2000 people saw this post, the overwhelming majority being viral! Using Facebook and other social media tools systematically and strategically has unveiled what we are all about. Perhaps most notably, it has allowed us access to a broad, very curious audience, and let us mitigate the pre-conceived notions through a forthcoming and non-threatening avenue.

Having the tools, using the tools, and using the tools properly are three very different things. It is easy to put a computer in a classroom. It is even easy to turn it on. The challenge is to effectively and efficiently provide a targeted, personalized experience. While our teachers and students have immersed themselves in our brand of blended learning and met this challenge head on, I have incorporated this same philosophy on the business end. I had the tools. I used the tools. With the unwavering support of the JDS Social Media Academy, I now use the tools effectively and efficiently, providing a targeted, personalized experience. And we have the data to prove it, both in the classroom and out.

The 2013-14 cohort is currently in formation. If your school or community is interested in more information, please contact Lisa Colton.

CJDS Bar Mitzvah: Not just a social eventA social media event!

April 10, 2013March 5, 2018 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

The 20 schools in the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy have been working on social media and social fundraising projects this year. This post is part of a series of posts by the participating schools as they share their work, design and learnings.

The Charlotte Jewish Day School is now in our 13^th year as a community day school and we are going to celebrate in a very 21^st century way.

As members of this year’s social media academy given by Darim Online, See3 Communications and Big Duck, we have been given a great opportunity. The AVI CHAI Foundation has offered us a matching grant for money raised through social media, dollar for dollar, up to $10,000! So we decided to have a “Virtual Bar Mitzvah”.

We hope that the Bar Mitzvah will prove to re-engage our alumni and their families, and to raise some necessary funds.

Our first CJDS graduates are now young adults in their twenties, settled in other communities across the country. These early graduates and their families are being recognized as “Leap of Faith” families, as their commitment to Jewish Day School education truly laid the foundation for the community school and for the hundreds of children that followed. The class of 2000 was the first graduating class, and some of the students are now in Business School, working at Fortune 500 companies, and working in the medical field. Our graduates are reconnecting with CJDS and sharing their journey’s and stories of success.

The first part of the celebration was the introduction of “Flashback Fridays” on Facebook. Each Friday, we post class pictures from early grades at CJDS on the Charlotte Jewish Day School Facebook page. Former students and their families flock to the Facebook page each Friday to see if they can identify the students and reminisce about the school days on the hill in the trailers.

The second part of the celebration will be the fundraising component. We will be using the online fundraising platform, Crowdrise, to raise money. The “front” page of the website will have a bar mitzvah invitation inviting “guests” to check out the rest of the site. It will show team members, the group they are representing, and their goals. We will use old pictures and videos to create an attractive and engaging environment and to convey the story and generate an emotional connection. We will strive to have 16 teams, each representing a graduating class or specific group of CJDS stakeholders who may or may not be past parents or grandparents, such as community members, trustees to the Board of Directors, and teachers and staff. We have identified team captains for each of the 16 teams. The team captains will outreach to other parents, grandparents, relatives, graduates and friends through email and social media. They can recruit others to form teams as well.

We are looking forward to seeing how our stakeholders rise (or should we say Crowdrise) to the challenge. We would love you to check us out (and if you are so inspired, donate!)—http://www.crowdrise.com/CharlotteJewishDaySchool. Our campaign will be open from April 4 –May 30, 2013.