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Today, Google+ came out of its limited field trial and opened up for everyone. That’s big news, but it’s not the biggest news of the day out of Mountain View.

Google+ Hangouts just added a slew of new features that make it an even more powerful tool for schools. Google describes the new additions in its blog post about the update:

Hangouts has always included a basic set of in-room actions (like group chat and co-viewing of YouTube videos), but we want to make it easier to do a lot more. That’s why we’re previewing some extras, including:

• Screensharing: for when you want to show off your vacation photos, your high score, your lesson plan or whatever else is on your screen
• Sketchpad: for when you want to draw, doodle, or just scribble together
• Google Docs: for when you want to write, plan or present something with others
• Named Hangouts: for when you want to join or create a public hangout about a certain topic (like fashion or music or sports…)

In addition, Google will be rolling out Hangouts On Air which will provide the ability to broadcast Hangouts to a large number of people and record the session for later viewing. Depending on how it’s set up, this new feature could become a direct competitor with LiveStream and UStream.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Hangout’s potential in education. These new enhancements allow for many more opportunities for Hangouts to become an extension of the classroom. I can’t wait to see how educators use it.

Photo courtesy Google.

My first post, “Why One MLB Team is a Model for School Twitter Use,” is now up on the edSocialMedia website.

For most of the Tampa Bay Rays’ history, the team’s ownership epitomized how not to run a baseball franchise. While the results on the field speak for themselves (they were beyond bad), it was ownership’s inept public relations that turned many Tampa Bay residents against the Rays.

With a change in ownership in 2005, a focus was placed on the fan experience and friendlier marketing. Initiatives such as free parking at games if you had four or more people in your car, the ability to bring outside food in to Tropicana Field, and constant improvements to the domed stadium caused fan feelings towards the team to soften. (The team’s 2008 World Series appearance and subsequent successes have helped too.)*

Now, continuing their fan-friendly push, the Rays are embracing interacting with their fans through Twitter.

Like any team, the Rays setup shop on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. In fact, they have two Twitter accounts. It’s the second one, RaysRepublic, that really shows what an organization (i.e. schools) can do with Twitter.

I’m not a fan of Twitter or Facebook accounts that simply cross-post a website’s news feed. Social media should be just that: social. It should not be a glorified RSS feed of your school’s news stories. The Rays’ Facebook page and other Twitter account, RaysBaseball, mostly fall in to that mold.

On the other hand, RaysRepublic is unique because of its billing as, “The official unofficial Twitter of the Rays.” They even tell you that if you want Rays breaking news, you should follow the main Rays feed. The publishers of RaysRepublic (who I imagine as college interns in the marketing department) don’t just post scores and highlights; they provide behind-the-scenes info on the Rays, write humorous in-game Tweets, hold contests for Twitter followers who are at Tropicana Field, and, most importantly, interact with fans through @ replies.

I believe most schools’ Twitter accounts are more like RaysBaseball than RaysRepublic, and that’s too bad. We’re missing a great opportunity to provide readers with the moments that make our schools different from each other. Twitter (and Facebook for that matter) should be about sharing “slice-of-life” moments with followers, not which students were named National Merit Scholars this year; leave those types of posts to the school’s official news outlet: the website.

For example, at the start of last school year, Beaver Country Day School’s Twitter feed (which, I admit, looks an awful lot like RaysBaseball at times) posted:

http://twitpic.com/hptv5 – You know school is in full swing when backpacks line the foyer outside Bradley Hall during an US Meeting.

Within minutes a recent graduate replied with:

@BCDSchool Cripes I miss that.

That’s obviously not official school news. The post provides followers with a “behind-the-scenes” look at the school, and, for those who have experienced those moments, brings back memories.

That is what Twitter should be.

So, how about it? Are you willing to let your Twitter feed become the “official unofficial Twitter of [your school's name]?”

* Rays’ history from The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First by Jonah Keri

The killer feature of Google Art Project is not the ability to just “walk” through a gallery; it is that users can click on individual works of art to see them in high-resolution. You can then zoom in to the work and see detail that you wouldn’t be able see if you were actually in the museum.

Many museums have already posted some of their works on their own websites. But with Google’s technology, the art comes alive in your web broswer.

A side note: this project was conceived and designed by Google employees as part of their 20% program. Google allows its staff to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them, even if they are outside of their normal work assignments. What if we let students spend 20% of their time learning about and working on projects that they are passionate about?

Beaver Country Day School's Google Place page appears on Google's search results. (Click for larger image.)

Beaver's Google Place Page

The real power of Google Places is seen when a business claims a Place page as its own. Once Google has verified ownership, a business can access their page and add their own information and photos. This can be a necessity if there is any incorrect information that has been pulled from other internet sources.

Step one in doing anything with your Google Places page is to claim it as your own. At the top of any page that has not been claimed is a link that says “Business Owner?” Clicking that will take you to a page where you can choose to edit your business listing. Before you can do that, Google will send a letter containing a PIN to the address it has on file for the business. You will need that number to confirm that you are a representative of the business. This ensures that only people associated with the business can edit the listing.

So, how can an independent school take advantage of all the features found on its Google Place page? Here are a couple of things you can do:

Make sure the information on your Google Places page is accurate.

We all know that everything you find on the internet is accurate, right? Of course not. Since much of the initial information on your Google Place page is pulled from external sources like Wikipedia, there may be some information you need to correct.

When you get to the edit page, Google provides all the basics: address, business (school) hours, phone numbers, email address, etc (even areas to upload photos and videos). At the very bottom of the page you will see an “Additional Information” section. Use this to add information such as your tuition, head of school’s name, athletics offered, etc.

One of the incorrect items we found on Beaver’s Google Place page was our tuition. Google pulled in our tuition as something like $3,000. They found this on a page about our nursery school. Well, our actual tuition is a lot higher than that. So we added a “Tuition” field under “Additional Information” and now the correct tuition amount is displayed on our Places page.

Use Posts to call attention to upcoming admission events.

Google allows business owners to add a Twitter-like post to their Places page. We use this to advertise upcoming admission events. We feel that most people viewing our Places page are searching for us because they are in the process on looking for an independent school.

These posts appear “above the fold” right under your school’s basic information.

Here is our current post:

Join us for Admission Information Day & Group Tours, October 14, 2010, 8:15 a.m. to 9:45 a.m., and Admission Info Evening, Oct. 28, 2010, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Your post will expire after 30 days, so be sure to update it often. There is no reason not to have some sort of announcement on your places page.

A Post on Beaver's Google Places Page (Click for larger image.)

Add a Tag to your page.

Google has introduced Google Tags. This new feature makes your listing stand out on Google’s search results page. Unlike Posts, Tags is not free. After a one month free trial, the cost is $25 per month.

When activated, you can choose which tag you want to display. The choices run the range from showing a coupon to a link to a restaurant’s reservation system. Most independent schools will probably choose the tag that point visitors to the school’s website.

So how are these displayed to the user? Say someone is doing a search for “private schools in Chestnut Hill MA”, they would see a list of schools next to a map pinpointing each school. In the screen shot below, notice the little yellow tag next to Beaver’s entry. It draws the user’s eye to our listing with a direct link to our website.

Tag as seen on search results page. (Click for larger image.)

Check your analytics.

Google provides an excellent set of analytics for your Google Places page via your Places Dashboard page. You will be able to see several statistics:

• Impressions: How many times users saw your Google Place listing in their search results.
• Actions: How many times users clicked on certain areas of your listing. These areas include:
  • Clicks for more info on Google Maps
  • Clicks for driving directions
  • Clicks directly to your website

You are also shown the most popular search terms used to find your page. For example, the top three search terms for Beaver are “Beaver Country Day School,” “private schools,” and “private high schools.”

Another really neat statistic is the top locations where driving directions to your school came from. For Beaver, Newton, Wellesley, and Boston are the top three.

If you have Google Tags activated, you can also see how many people clicked on your website from the tag.

Coupons

You can also create and display a coupon on your Places page. We haven’t used this yet, but if you have a school store maybe you could offer a discount on school spirit wear. That might appeal to alumni who are searching for their alma mater.

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Everything mentioned here only takes a few minutes to set up and is entirely free (with the exception of Tags). There really is no reason for a school not to claim its Google Places listing and create another way for perspective families to find out about your school.

My belief is that your school website is mainly for the more tradition type of school news — the news that everyone expects to see when they visit a school’s site: honors and awards, athletic achievements, etc. Social media, on the other hand, is great for “slice of life” posts that resonate with alumni and those who know your school well. Not many people are going to Like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter who are not involved with your school community in some way, so tailor those posts to them.

For example, early last year I posted the following Tweet to the school’s Twitter account:

http://twitpic.com/hptv5 – You know school is in full swing when backpacks line the foyer outside Bradley Hall during an US Meeting.

Within minutes a recent graduate replied with:

@BCDSchool Cripes I miss that.

Clearly the original post is not something that would necessarily make it to a news story on the website, but it’s something that alumni remember and reminds them (if only for a moment) of their time at the school.

We realize that, as much as we would want them to, alumni aren’t going to be regular visitors to the website. Thus, focusing our social media posts on them and our community, keeps them engaged with the school without forcing them to go to the website. And, if there is unique content on all of our online outlets, maybe they will take the time to visit each one occasionally.

But what about posting links to the news stories you post on the website? Overkill. The occasional link to a unique story is fine. But no one wants to see every news story you write show up on their Facebook wall. If they do, they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Over populating your social media feeds is the quickest way to be un-liked or un-followed.

The main goal of any social media plan is to keep your community engaged. So what if they’re not going to your website? If they follow you on Facebook or Twitter your message is getting to them and they are staying connected with the school.

Social media icons by http://www.digitalsurgeons.com/blog/design/social-media-icon-set/.

Everyone wants to focus on the the glitter of the new message or website. (This new logo really defines who we are as a school. What should we include in the elevator pitch? The Facebook “Like” button has to be on every page of the website.) However, for better or worse, current families have identified with the school based, of course, on their child’s education, but also on the school’s brand. This includes everything that a marketing committee might want to change: the website, viewbook, logo, colors, and tagline.

Making drastic changes to these items (sometimes even including the school name) may alienate members of the community to the point where they feel they don’t really know the school anymore. A school’s brand might not be (and shouldn’t be) the deciding factor when re-enrollment contracts come around, but anything that creates a sense that the school has changed or that it’s not quite what a parent thought it was can’t help in the decision-making process.

Now, I’m not saying a school should not update its brand. It’s important to look at a school’s marketing position and determine how it can do a better job of attracting new students. What I am advocating is that those tasked with overseeing a school’s brand take into account the current family perspective. Include current parents on the marketing committee and make them an integral part of the re-branding process.

Simply put, make sure the way you plan on recruiting new families does not leave behind the ones you already have.

Photo from http://www.sxc.hu/photo/678948

I thought I’d share a little about what I have been working on in my new (well, 8-months old now) position in the communications office at Beaver Country Day School, an independent 6-12 school in Chestnut Hill, MA. One of the projects I am most proud of is the BCDS mashUp. Inspired by Worchester Academy’s WA Mash, the BCDS mashUp is a way to showcase student work. Our students produce such wonderful work — both online and offline — that it needed to be displayed in a place where people other than those in our own building could see it.

One of my motivations for this was to get students’ names in an online space other than Facebook or mySpace. The hope is that as college admission offices search for these students, a result or two will link to an example of their work at Beaver. Just like creating a paper-based portfolio of work, I believe it is important that students also build up their online presence to feature material that they would want future colleges or employers to know about.

Another project that is just getting off the ground is the Beaver Alumni Community. Powered by Ning, we are providing this site as a place just for alumni. We have a Facebook fan page which has become quite popular. However, since anyone may become fans, we have students, parents, alums, and friends all in the same space. We thought it would be beneficial for alumni to have a space that is populated by alumni only. Once membership is approved, alumni can join their class or regional group, upload photos or video, create events that other alumni may be interested in, and start discussions.

I am also grateful that I have not lost all interactions with students. Currently, I am working with the performing arts department on the upper school’s winter production. We are trying something new this winter. Instead of a play, we are producing a three-episode video series leading up to a live, on-stage finale. My background in video production is coming in handy for this. You can read more about the show and follow the series on the mashUp.

Hopefully this will be successful and it will lead to more video productions at Beaver. I would love to one day teach a video production class.

Here are a couple of other things that are going on:

• My colleague Jan Devereux and I will be presenting about the mashUp at the edSocialMedia Summit at Beaver on February 16.
• Our Whipple Hill website has been winning many awards, most recently a Silver award in the CASE District I competition.

Over the next few weeks, I will be tying up loose ends at Sycamore Creek and handing over my technology duties to others. I am proud of what we have accomplished in such a short time. It’s hard to believe that it has only been nine months since we opened the doors to a brand new school. Opening a school has been one of the best experiences of my professional life, and I am grateful to everyone who gave me that opportunity. I will miss you all.

• Wake County Public School System’s Morning Announcements Blog
• WRAL’s Project Education Blog
• WCPSS’s Internal Newsletter
• Upcoming presentation at NCTIES.