The Better Stories Newsletter

Good Evening Friends,

This newsletter is specifically for my public school leaders. If that's you, I'm glad you're here. If that's not you, feel free to hang around - I think you'll find these tips relevant to your field.

As students return to your building soon (and staff even sooner), you're likely to hear a phrase often repeated in public school circles,

Here are 2 tips to do just that before the buses roll up on opening day.

1. Communication is about creating relationships, not content. It's easy to think of communication as content finding its way through a one call, facebook post, or email blast to your parents/stakeholders. Why? Because you have a thousand items on your to-do list that rank higher on the triage list so you're tempted to throw together just the facts and hit send. But, with a little structure and a sprinkle of intention, you can make a connection with your community instead of simply speaking at them. TIP: Write your post/email/phone script like you would if you were talking to a friend. FORGET THE PROFESSIONAL CLINICAL APPROACH for pete's sake. We're talking to parents/guardians, not delivering a dissertation defense.
2. A good reputation (read: BRAND) built by good communication is done brick by brick. I have worked with clients across in the States and abroad who are looking for the perfect magical piece of content. If they can just have the perfect video produced, the most beautiful email copy, or clever strategic ad then all of their problems will be solved. This isn't how communication works. Consider how you build relationships with your staff/students - it's the small everyday interactions of asking about their weekend, holding the door open with a smile, or bringing them a coffee when they need a pick me up. TIP: Post something (nearly) everyday to show your community what your world looks like. Public criticism is a big fear - I get it, my communication firm handles Crisis Communications for clients. Don't let this fear stop you. Start small by making a post today on your school/district's social media page with a picture of one of your schools and then write a caption that describes how much you and your staff are looking forward to meeting the students on *insert first day of school*. The next day, you're going to take a picture from one of your PD days this Summer showing your staff learning in whatever setting they were in and give a 1-2 sentence description of what this PD did to help them build skills to be better educators for the students in their classes. The next day you're going to post a photo of one of your staff and write a brief staff member highlight, example: This is Natasha M. who serves on our Maintenance Team at Hawkeye Elementary School. She, along with the rest of the team, did an incredible job cleaning and waxing the floors throughout the building to make the first day of school fresh and clean for our Hawkeye Family! Do you see how this works? Don't overcomplicate it, simply tell your story through documenting what you're already doing.

That's it for this week. If we're going to do a better job telling the story of public education, let's get into the how of getting it done in a way that shows off the incredible people who make it happen everyday.

NEXT WEEK'S TOPIC:

We're going to cover how a school administrator can use their personal social media account(s) to tell their school's story including ideas for your first week's worth of posts. Subscribe now so you don't miss it.

Until then, let's practice telling better stories with the tips from this week's newsletter.

- Caleb

It's nice to meet you,

My name is Caleb and I lead GOOD NIGHT Communications.

We are on a mission to help good people do good in the world by building bridges of connection through storytelling.

From documentaries to podcasts, crisis communications to social media — we focus on clients who need their message to land when it counts the most.

If it feels impossible, you're in luck, we specialize in the hail mary.