Many people would describe me as a connector. I love meeting new people but especially I love meeting awesome people in education. This year, I helped form a small group of women who have started their own business in the education space. They’re consultants, agency owners, and startup founders. It was through this group that Cate Tolnai and Jen Gibson of BUOY Consultants asked me to be a guest on their podcast, BUOYCast. I’ve known Cate Tolnai for now over a decade (Sheesh! That makes me sound old!) from her time as an inspiring tech specialist and coordinator in various districts. As you’ll hear in the episode, Cate just oozes all things awesome and her partner, Jen Gibson, is just as fun. The time flew by but I do remember chatting about some potential educator career paths outside of the classroom, how to communicate effectively on social media, and I also talked a little about our free download: EdTech Marketer’s 2021 Planner. Here are some of the highlights of the conversation. Enjoy!
Reimagining Her Professional Journey
Elana began by sharing about her time working at Edutopia, which she described as “the best job I ever had and potentially will ever have.” But after eight years, Elana decided she wanted to leave to get her MBA, start her own consultancy, and take on the challenge of working with multiple clients marketing many different products to many different people.
Knowing that she learns best through experience, Elana decided to start her business while in school. To make what she was learning in school stick, she applied what she was learning to what she was doing with some of her initial clients. If she was learning about how to do a competitive analysis, for example, she wanted to actually do that for a real education brand.
“It’s so ambiguous in real life. It’s nothing close to what you read in a textbook.” Elana said. “I wanted to find a way to apply it so it made more sense to me in real-world situations.”
At Edutopia, Elana gained a lot of insight from teachers. By growing her business to support a variety of education brands, she learned more about engaging with administrators, parents, and a wide variety of education-professionals. Through these experiences, Elana stays focused on helping mission-driven education brands make an impact with their audience.
Lead with Value
“It’s incredibly hard to cut through the noise right now. Whether we’re talking about the election, the pandemic, social justice issues, or natural disasters, there are a lot of important topics on everyone’s minds. In the education space, administrators are thinking about school safety, while parents and teachers continue to be in triage mode. It can be difficult to connect with people authentically.”
Elana shared that when there is so much going on, it’s more important than ever to lead with value. But how do you create a relationship based on value? First, Elana described what not to do. If you’re a software provider on Twitter, don’t just tweet out every aspect of your software product.
“It becomes a glorified RSS feed,” said Elana. “It’s like going to a cocktail party and not only just talking about yourself, but also asking everyone for money or to do something for you. You haven’t even asked people how they are.”
It’s relatively common for brands to approach social media like this, but luckily more and more brands have been getting hip to curation, where they find great resources to share that don’t directly promote their products. Elana stressed that brands need to elevate topics that they care about. If you care about substitute teachers, for example, you should not only be elevating the voices of substitute teachers, but you should also be a thought leader. As Elana said, “We want brands to contribute to the dialogue and share their unique vantage point. Elevating other voices is about brands saying ‘I’m not the only voice.’”
When brands focus on value, they share less on their product and more on the why behind why they started their business. Their social media presence becomes more focused on the issues that they are passionate about. Your product is important, but it “matters less because you're building trust with your audience.”
Live Social Marketing
At the end of the day, people want to connect with people. Ideally, you’re providing value through your social media channels. Doing live broadcasts can also be an effective way to connect with your audience.
Sometimes live social media marketing can feel overwhelming. To give live broadcasts structure, consider starting with a Q&A. EdTech companies often do webinars, but there are relatively easy ways to add a Q&A component. Presenters can get on live for a Q&A before/after the webinar or have an additional panelist come on for a live.
Elana shared about how we have a client that uses a tool to do live broadcasts simultaneously on four platforms-- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Then they turn these broadcasts into podcasts and blog posts, making one live into several different pieces of content on several different channels. This is a great way to get more bang for your buck. But when you start doing live social media marketing, you don’t have to start with all platforms. Start small, then add to your approach over time.
“Always think about your audience first,” said Elana. “What challenges are they having right now? What are their mindsets? How can I create timely and valuable content for them?”
Plan for What You Can
Throughout the conversation, Elana stressed focusing content creation on three words: value, timely, and consistent. To help with planning, Leoni Consulting Group created a marketing planner for 2021.
“Everything will change all the time, but there are certain things we can plan around, like Teacher Appreciation Week. Conferences will happen, but they’re moving around. We need to think about what we do know,” Elana explained. “If I’m a coding company, I can think about coding conferences. Maybe there’s a famous coder’s birthday you can focus on for a blog or podcast.”
The planner was designed to support a cohesive marketing approach, knowing that social media and communications are not one campaign. In addition to giving you key dates and topics to plan around, Elana designed the planner to walk you through a process to fit your brand and your budget. There are different options for different sized campaigns.
Use the planner to engage with your audience, but always remember to focus on value.
“It’s not about how big your audience is. It’s about how many of your audience you’re reaching and how many of your audience are engaging with you,” reminded Elana.