What is Twitter?
Twitter is a social networking site, based on a simple concept. All twitter.com does is ask: "What are you doing?"
The idea is that it offers a way for individuals to provide status updates of up to 140 characters in length. And, crucially, it delivers those updates across a variety of different media - either through the Twitter website, by embedding in your own website, over instant messaging or by SMS to your mobile phone.
Get Twitter on your site
It has a silly name, but we've found that a Twitter account, integrated into a school's website home page, is a fantastic method for building relationships with the school community.
We've setup a few school Twitter accounts now, and have been impressed by the results.
Setting up the account
We believe that the Twitter account should be set up in the name of the school's Headteacher, who should form a habit of posting a message a day. Knowing how many events go on in school, and with a limit of 140 characters per 'tweet' this shouldn't be too onerous. Some schools have found keeping blogs up to date to be too demanding - if this sounds familiar, then a Twitter feed would suit better.
We can setup the account for you, add an 'avatar' (profile photo) and optionally create a custom background design. We can show you how to post tweets (via the Twitter site, free software, or even a mobile phone). We can configure your website to automatically display your latest tweets, and format them to follow the style of your site, as we've done on our home page, which displays the latest tweets from our founders, Graham Miles and Andy Williams.
Disseminate information
A Twitter account is a great way of disseminating information to parents. More and more people now have Twitter on their mobile phones, or follow their Twitter friends online via their own software. For those that don't use Twitter, having the latest Tweet available on the school website home page is just as good - it keeps visitors coming back to the site as they know there will always be fresh news, whether or not the rest of the site is updated.
Reinforce relationships
Twitter is fantastic for reinforcing relationships. In a school environment, one of the most important relationships is between parents and the Headteacher, which is normally formal and remote. Parents want to know what's going on in the school, but they also want to know what the Head thinks about what's going on in the school. If the Head tweets about non-school activities, such as talking about a walking holiday in Ireland, it gives parents another chance to engage on a more personal level. It also allows students to see the Head as a more approachable figure.
Case Study
During discussions for their new website, the team at Eltham College, a prestigious day school for boys aged 7 to 18, suggested that they wanted to use the website to reach out to the community. We proposed Twitter without being sure if the school would buy into it. That was back in December 2008, the site went live in February 2008, since when Paul Henderson, the Head, has tweeted every school day, even when on an exchange trip to China. The tweets range from passing on congratulations to reminders about events going on in school. The tweets sit proudly on the home page; as they have been designed to blend into the site, they don't scream 'Twitter' so many users just view as the Head's 'thought for the day' which he updates from wherever he is. It's proved very useful for promoting not just school events, but also the school itself to the wider community. It shows that the school has its finger on the pulse, and makes the Head more approachable.
© Green Schools Online 2010