Calling all Storytellers: Amplify Your School's Voice with UGC ▶️📱

Cheers to a New Year

Welcome back, school marketers, communicators and community engagement gurus! We hope you all enjoyed some time off over the holidays (and maybe even a recent snow day) to rest and recharge. With open enrollment periods in full swing, the first month of 2024 has gone quickly! So hold on to your winter hats as we outline upcoming events for February — including the annual conference and CONNECT pre-conference workshop — plus so much more.

You’ll discover digital marketing resources for your storytelling endeavors — yes, short-form video and user-generated content (UGC) continue to trend in 2024 — and hear about Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), a subject we explored in our January workshop.

This Month’s Focus: Digital Storytelling

National School Choice Week: January 21-27
Happy School Choice week! Make a point to join the celebration, raise awareness, and take advantage of the opportunity to enhance community connection. These Digital Backpacks for parents, schools and organizations make it easy with activity ideas, resources, social tools, videos and more. Pick one or pick them all, and use hashtag #SchoolChoiceWeek to be recognized.

Empowering Voices: Colorado's Annual Charter School Advocacy Day 2024
Feb. 1 | The Art Hotel Denver & Colorado State Capitol Building
Students and leaders from around the state are prepping for the annual Charter School Advocacy Day on February 1, from 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM in downtown Denver. The League is thrilled to welcome over 200 charter students, teachers, and leaders from across the state for a unique opportunity to delve into advocacy and leadership. Participants will discover the legislative process, gain effective advocacy tips, stay updated on current education bills affecting charter schools, and engage directly with elected officials at the Capitol. See the agenda.

CONNECT Lunch & Learn:
The Power of Student-Led Digital Storytelling to Increase Connection & Retention
Feb. 8 | 12:00-12:55 PM | Virtual
Would you like help in telling your school’s story? Do you sometimes wish you could clone yourself and be in two places at once? This session, led by Class Intercom’s President, Dr. Jill Johnson, will empower you to do this by creating and sustaining a student-led digital storytelling team.

From recruitment to retainment, learn how to select, train, and inspire the students and adults in your school to take ownership of telling their school’s story. Learn practical ways to involve students in content creation and empower them to build bridges to the community through social media. Walk away with some great tips for motivating others to create content for someone other than themselves!

To register, login to the CONNECT Cohort Meeting’s page and access the Zoom registration via the Google Calendar link.

CONNECT Pre-Conference Workshop
Closing the Numbers Gap: Refining Strategies Between Open Enrollment Rounds
Feb. 26 | 12:00-4:00 PM | Marriott DTC or via Zoom
Enrollment and lottery season is upon us! Some windows have already opened, and others are right around the corner. Join us for this fifth session in our Leveraging Community Engagement to Drive Continuous Enrollment series: Closing the Numbers Gap: Refining Strategies Between Open Enrollment Rounds. We’ll set your school up for success, illustrating effective preparation for during- and post-open enrollment windows, as well as tips for responding to data and driving enrollment outcomes throughout the spring.

This four-hour, pre-conference working session is FREE to CONNECT members. Come for lunch beforehand, and then stay for happy hour and the Hall of Fame ceremony. Can’t make it in-person? Jump on our virtual session from 1:00-3:00 PM. Register today.

Colorado Charter Schools Annual Conference
Feb. 27- 28 | 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM | Marriott DTC
Join us for a two-day charter school event dedicated to re-visioning education. Prepare for an unforgettable experience that will transform your professional practice, including workshop sessions handpicked specifically for individuals responsible for marketing, communications, enrollment, and community engagement. Save 25% through the month of January with code 2024Strand25.

Looking Back

CONNECT Office Hours
Dec. 14 | Virtual
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us! Hosted by the League’s Marketing Support Team, these informal office hours are intended for you to bounce your ideas off the League’s marketing support team and one another, share insights, diverse perspectives, and foster cohort connections. Typically, the CONNECT Cohort offers two virtual, open office hours sessions in a school year.

CONNECT Lunch & Learn:
How to Turn Market Research Into a Marketing Campaign with the Power of AI
Jan. 11 | Virtual
An eye-opening session for many, this meeting, led by Truth Tree’s Principal and Founder, Trevor Waddington, quickly narrowed in on the shift in school search efforts thanks to AI. We touched on AI Rank Optimization or AIRO (think: the new SEO) and wrapped up the conversation with some marketing trends for 2024. You can access the meeting recording in our online community under the Discussions tab and a copy of the slide deck under the Documents tab in the same.

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Leveraging Community Engagement to Drive Continuous Enrollment (Session 4)
Jan. 17 | Hybrid
Knowing enrollment is a responsibility that can and should be shared across teams at every school, this session, Drive to Results: Improving Enrollment Through Community Engagement and Recruitment Metrics, was the fourth in a series of six extended workshops facilitated by Bill Knous and Vanessa Barry. It emphasized the need for change management, creating a whole-team, community engagement practice that increases 1:1 touchpoints and drives results while leveraging extreme ownership and effective delegation. From a ‘what gets measured gets done’ framework, the session highlighted the importance of establishing tiered enrollment goals regardless of which data sources you elect to track.

News You Can Use

How Schools Can Use Video Marketing to Reach Millennial Parents and Alumni
Finalsite
Industry-wide data shows that millennials consume more videos than any other generation. Despite this fact, most schools have yet to adapt to their desire to consume. Although video marketing is a notable pain point of small-staffed and small-budgeted school marketing offices, it is absolutely essential for engaging and informing the millennial parent community. Read more.

The Neuroscience of Storytelling for Private Schools
InspirED School Marketers
For today's MarCom professionals, the vehicle of story is a real superpower that should not be underestimated in its capacity to bring people together. Check out the podcast by Dr. Carrie Grimes, Director M.Ed., Independent School Leadership, Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development.

Lights, Camera, Enrollment: The Power of Short Form Video for Independent Schools
Kalix Marketing Group | May 4, 2023
In today’s digital age, short-form videos have become an increasingly popular marketing tool for businesses to promote their products or services. Independent schools can also benefit from using short-form videos to attract prospective families and students – and should use short-form videos as a key part of their digital marketing toolbox. Read more.

10 Examples of Universities Captivating Students with YouTube Content
Terminalfour | July 31, 2023
Borrowing from our higher ed ‘cousins’, discover how some universities are finding new ways to engage audiences with interactive virtual tours, captivating educational content, alumni successes, and more. Read more.

Deck the Halls with Digital Content: Engaging your School Community as Content Creators
IMPACT Marketing International | December 12, 2023
At IMPACT, we know firsthand the benefits of community-generated content, also known as user-generated content (UGC), for your international school marketing plan. Not only does it amplify your school’s digital presence in an ever-increasing sea of competitors, but it can also be a fun and simple way to add momentum to your marketing and communications strategies while engaging your community of culture-matched families. Read more.

How will Google's Search Generative Experience impact PPC marketing?
Search Engine Land | January 18, 2024
From keyword research to ad copy creation to competitor research, here's how SGE could transform PPC marketing. Read more.

Shout Outs

Mountain Middle School Achieves 2023 Distinction Rating
Mountain Middle School | December 1, 2023
The school announced the State’s Top 2023 Accreditation Rating of Performance with Distinction, and Mrs. Tabola enjoys every moment of working with the 8th graders at Mountain Middle School. Given the warmth we feel through the screen from administration, we are not surprised they have received this honor. Congratulations, MMS. This is a well-deserved recognition of your ongoing dedication to high-quality education. Read the press release.

What happens when students are let loose at the stock show and a farm to learn by themselves?
CPR News | January 19, 2024
The STEAD School, conjuring up images of a homestead, was built on a 10-acre site of donated farmland bordering Commerce City, the master-planned housing development of Reunion, and more farmland to the east. Kelly Leid, the school’s co-founder, said STEAD sits near the center of the “agriculture innovation triangle,” which connects DIA to CSU in Fort Collins and the stock show site. Read more.

Have any tips or resources you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected].

The Stories We Tell: Get to Know the Group

Sara Sanders, Director of Communications, Windsor Charter Academy

Welcome Sara Sanders, CONNECT member, registered yoga instructor and 90’s gal at heart who prefers stylish comfort (think yoga pants and tennis shoes whenever she can!) over those more couture fashion trends.

Not always casual chic, she’s been known to dress up as Supreme Court Barbie and would rule in favor of living forever so she can get a chance to live in every country in the world - from London (done) to Japan (up next?), and maybe even the fictitious land of Narnia for a spell - where she can learn about different cultures, foods, and traditions. Speaking of food, she’d choose to eat salad for every meal for the rest of her life (now an infinitely long time!) if she had to - but that lasagna is calling and well, it’s lasagna!

Rarely forgetful (as she recalls), she’d pair well with a real life, but pocket-sized elephant that she could carry around all day just in case she ever was. We’re sure her celebrity crush and Dr. Doolittle himself, Robert Downey Jr., would be a welcome translator.

Never without her reading glasses (not even in a zombie apocalypse, or she’d probably be better paired with an owl), Sara would be likely to win the Miss World Title of Most Avid Reader. You can also catch this international business and economics major listening to podcasts, chilling with family or doing yoga - of course!

Connect with Bill in our online CONNECT Community or on LinkedIn.

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