BLOGGING TIPS

Blogging

allows your local PTAs to have

a consistent stream of fresh, timely, new content

to tweet, share on Facebook, use in your e-

newsletter and so on. Blogs allow PTAs to tell

their stories and engage with their audiences on

a deeper lever than tweets or Facebook updates.

Source: SproutSocial (2012).

Writing Style

• Understand your audience. Make sure your

story is engaging and relevant.

• Use findings from research reports and

statistics to strengthen the post. Don’t forget

to check and cite your facts.

• Try using a famous quote, or relate your story

to a trending topic in the news.

• Hyperlink text to related articles and content

useful to the leader.

• Keep it short; avoid jargon and use bullets or

sub-headlines to breakdown content.

• Write the post in first person as the “blogger’s

voice.”

• Use images or videos to enhance your visual

story and give credit to the owner.

• Inform, inspire and interact! End your post with

a “call to action.”

• Monitor your comments at least 24-48 hours

after your latest post. You should allow

comments, but you have the right to remove

them as well.

BLOGGING TIPS

One Voice Blog Requirements

• Must be 400-700 words

• 1 to 4 hi-res images & captions (preferably

640x480 pixels)

• Engaging title—no more than eight words

• Short bio of the author at the end of the

post. If you are affiliated with a PTA, mention

your role and PTA school, district or region.

(1-2 brief sentences)

Did You Know?

A study from the Pew

Research Center revealed that

three-quarters of online parents

use Facebook, as do 70% of

non-parents.

FACEBOOK TIPS

Facebook Page or Group Page

National PTA recommends every unit create a

page because they are much easier to update and

reinforces our brand.

Unlike pages, groups do not allow you to add

applications for promotions or advertising. Groups

are often created for personal discussion rather

than representing your PTA’s brand as a whole.

Don’t have a Facebook for your PTA yet? Learn

how to create a page and be sure to assign at

least two admins for the platform.

Promote Posts

With Facebook’s new algorithm

, engagement on

your Facebook page may be low. If you have

budget to spare, try “boosting” your posts, or

create an ad campaign for special annual events or

tools that you want to promote.

Schedule Your Posts Strategically

Too many posts will cause people to hide or un-

like your Facebook page. Ideally you should not

post more than twice a day. However, your

Facebook’s Insights will show when your

audience is most active during the time of the day.

Use it to your advantage.

Be Fun and Informative

Need inspirational ideas for posts? Try these

different types of posts for your Facebook:

• PTA announcements

• Behind-the-scenes

• Question of the day

• Inspirational quotes

• Infographics

• Holidays/current events

• Discounts/freebies

• Blog posts & news articles

Facebook

is a great way to do social media

marketing for your PTA, especially parents. The

platform allows you to promote your PTA, connect with

people online and share what is important to your

members.

Post a Disclosure Statement

Set up rules of etiquette for your PTA’s Facebook page

so that everyone knows the rules and can help make it a

safe place for sharing information. Check out National

PTA’s Social Media Policy for a sample policy

disclosure.

Twitter

is a multi-usage platform that

organizations and businesses use to share

information about a product, brand or program.

Using only 140 characters, your tweets can include

a link to any web content (blog post, webpage, PDF

document, etc.) or a photograph or video.

Source: Social Media Examiner (2013).

Write Clearly + Concisely

Stop the grammar errors. Many Tweeters

automatically think it’s OK to recreate the

dictionary by shortening words with abbreviations.

Tweet with clarity, proper punctuation and be

succinct—you only have 140 characters!

Post Frequently

Twitter is fast-paced, which can cut the lifespan of a

tweet drastically. For some local units that may be

too overwhelming.

Twitter is most active from 9

a.m. to 3 p.m. in any given time zone so focus your

attention on tweeting during that time span and

tweet or retweet 2-8 times daily.

Be the Expert

Establish yourself as the expert in your industry and

post/retweet helpful content and resources that

are not your own. Tweet trending articles and share

popular blog posts from your favorite newspapers,

bloggers and partner organizations.

TWITTER TIPS

Always Include a Link

Tweets with links have an 86% higher retweet

rate. Your link should have a “call to action”

strategy. Take the user to your website. Ask the user

to register for a webinar and link a tweet to the

registration site.

Use Hashtags Strategically

Hashtags (#) allow Tweeters to discuss issues and

events on Twitter in real time. They also help to

organize tweets, spread information and find new

friends. Tweets should not have more than one or

two hashtags.

Quick Tips

• Shorten your links with Bit.ly or Ow.ly to

track statistics

• Preschedule content ahead of time using

HootSuite, Tweetdeck or Buffer

• Catch a user’s attention with an image in

your tweet. Photos should be at least

525 x 262 pixels wide.

INSTAGRAM TIPS

Instagram

is a fun and quirky way to share your life through a

series of pictures and short 15-second videos. Organizations use this

platform to share their stories in a visually appealing way to the world.

From behind-the-scenes photos, to beautifully designed infographics

and branded content—Instagram brings that experience to life!

Source: Instagram. (2015).

Study Your Target Audience

It’s important to know who your audience is and how active your

followers are on the platform. There is no Instagram algorithm like

Facebook, but post it when your audience is most active.

Check out Iconosquare to learn when your Instagram audience is most

active. You will be able to view a graph displaying the best times to post.

Ask Engaging Questions

Instead of writing a simple caption stating the obvious, switch it up a bit

and ask a question. The best way to have an active presence is to engage

with your Instagram community.

Hashtags Are Your Best Friend

Hashtags (#) are being used on all social media platforms to label

content on a specific topic. There actually is no real social media rule for

this, but study shows that captions with 11+ hashtags get the highest

interactions on their Instagram photos.

Quick Tip: Save a note on your phone with a list of relevant hashtags

that you can easily copy and paste at once with your caption.

Post Content that Sets Your Platform Apart

Try to not post the same content repeatedly across all platforms.

National PTA’s Instagram secret: we post PTA spotlights and behind-the-

scene happenings at our office headquarters.

Free Photo Editing Apps

Instagram’s filters can get pretty

boring. Yes, we said it. Believe it or

not, Instagram was created off the

idea that it can be transformed

into a professional-looking photo

right from your smartphone. Use

these additional apps to jazz up

your photos:

• VSCOCAM

• Snapseed

• Squareready

Free Instagram Scheduling Apps

• HootSuite

• Latergramme

• ScheduGram

is a platform that allows users to

organize and share images, called “pins,” to a

themed board. Boards can range from any topic

from food recipes to wallpaper patterns to even

books for teenagers. Did you know Pinterest is

one

of the Internet’s top search engines in the ranks

with Google and Facebook?

PTAs can use this platform as an extension of their

community to pin interests, tools and other visuals

to support their message.

Source: Mashable (2013).

Your Profile

On your Pinterest profile, make sure you fill out the

information as it is geared towards your PTA.

•

Upload your local unit’s official PTA logo

for your avatar.

• Make sure your username and

headline

name are similar to each other.

• Your profile’s description

serves as your

PTA’s bio.

You only have 160 characters

so make it fun and quirky!

• Always add the location of

your PTA local

unit. Even if you’re a state PTA, include

the city where your offices are located.

• Include a link

of your PTA’s website.

Don’t have

one? Add your school’s

website or Facebook page.

Pin Your Content More than Once

In addition to pinning every day, if you’re looking to

increase impressions and followers, then pin your

pins over and over again. This means if you pin

something on Monday, pin it again two weeks later.

But make sure you are pinning things in between!

PINTEREST TIPS

Upload Original Content with a Tall, Vertical

Picture

If you want your pins to be repinned and noticed,

then you need to think twice about the look of

your images.

Fact:

Pins that are vertical flow better with the

Pinterest experience than horizontal ones,

making it more visible and popular to pin than

other sized images.

See our Social Media Graphics

Tips for more info.

Choose

Board Covers with a Consistent Visual

Theme

Pinterest in itself is organized. Create a consisted

look & feel so your Pinterest profile has a strong

brand.

See National PTA’s Pinterest profile for example:

Now, let’s look at another branded

Pinterest page,

but see how the covers are presented differently.

The key is to keep it clean, consistent and cohesive.

YouTube

is the social website that lets people upload online videos

and participate in free video sharing, commenting, liking, and reposting.

YouTube allows registered users to upload videos and share video clips online

and share with others.

Source: Mansfield, Heather (2011) A How to Guide for NonProfits: Social Media for Social Good.

Create Your Story

The main goal of YouTube is to tell a story with video, music & pictures. You

can share this content with your PTA members, parents,

teachers, school

administrators and your community.

YOUTUBE TIPS

Make Your Videos Searchable

Be sure to tag your videos so they are searchable by PTA

members, parents, teachers and anyone searching on

YouTube.

Enable Comments

Social media is about engaging and creating a

conversation, so be sure to enable comments on your

videos.

Create Playlists

YouTube playlists are very effective tool that video

content creators should take advantage of. This feature

helps you organize videos in themed playlists and

categories. Have a webisode series? News clips?

Recorded webinars? You can create playlists for them all!

Always Have a Description

The description you give your channel should be short

and simple. No one wants to read on YouTube—they

want to see a story.

is a professional networking site

designed to connect with professionals in your career

industry, classmates, colleagues and other contacts in

the business community.

LinkedIn groups are an effective way for like-minded

professionals in the PTA community to engage, share

expert content and find information about the topics

they are interested in.

About Groups

• Anyone can create a LinkedIn group by clicking

the “Interests” tab in their main navigation, then

“Groups” subpage.

• If you create the group, you’re automatically the

group owner unless you’ve transferred

ownership of the group to someone else.

• As a group owner, you have the authority and

control to assign admin roles to be a manager

or moderator. See details about admin roles.

• As a group owner or manager, you have several

options for approving members for your group:

o Send an invite

o Pre-approve by individual email address

o Manually approve requests

o Member to member invites

LINKEDIN TIPS

How to Moderate

• As a group owner or manager, you have the

right to control the conversations in your

community.

• Your group’s admins can delete conversations

and/or comments. Users who comment also

have the right to delete their own comments,

but not anybody else.

• When the conversation or comment is removed,

it is no longer visible to anyone.

• You create the rules. Here are general rules to

follow:

o Members of this group may not always

agree but are expected to treat each

other in a professional manner with

kindness and respect.

Do not use defamatory, abusive, profane

or threatening language.

Do not post advertisement or promotion

of products or services such as internal

documents and/or fliers.

No personal attacks on anyone inside or

outside the group

o No spamming, which includes sending

multiple unsolicited messages to group

members.

Facebook

Facebook Post: 800 x 800 pixels

Facebook Ad: 1200 x 627 pixels

Facebook Cover: 851 x 315 pixels

SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHICS TIPS

Twitter

Twitter Post: 1024 x 512 pixels

Twitter Cover: 1500 x 500 pixels

Pinterest Graphic: 735 x 1102 pixels

Instagram

Instagram Post: 800 x 800 pixels

YouTube

YouTube Channel Header: 2560 x1440 pixels

YouTube Video Thumbnail: 1280 x 720 pixels

Need to jazz up your visual branding? Create custom

photos for various social media platforms,

print collateral and more using Canva.

It’s easy-to-use and fun! Be your own

DIY graphic designer! Visit Canva.com for more info.