social media
Social Media: Advocacy Tool and Great Responsibility Matt Lamb, WMEA State Chair, Social Media
Social media is now part of everyday life. For the music educator, it oper- ates as a great tool to inform and in- spire others about the power of music. Social media allows information to be
shared with your stakeholders in seconds. Digital profiles are also a great platform to spotlight all of the wonderful things that happen in our music programs.
Who is Your Audience?
Using the mantra of “inform and inspire,” the target audience for our school music program’s social media posts includes students, parents and community members. In our program, we use Facebook and Insta- gram. We additionally use communication apps like Remind or Band for trips, but I don’t consider those to be social media. We find that Facebook connects well with parents and community, while Instagram reaches our students. The fact that they are both from the same company makes coordinating posts easier.
Responsibility
Unfortunately, social media can also open the door to inappropriate behavior. Today’s music educators should be smart about set- ting up social media accounts for their music programs. Before undertaking adventures in social media, I would encourage you to
think about the following guidelines:
• Check your district’s policy on social media accounts. Additionally, you should have a discussion with your administration.
• Check on student media releases before posting pictures or informa- tion – even if it is very happy news. Some families choose to opt out of a media release, and we need to respect that.
• Keep to the philosophy of informing and inspiring when posting. Stake- holders love to hear great news. Music programs are an awesome avenue to build community and involvement.
• Determine who will have access to post on behalf of the program. It should not be a student, but some programs have adult boosters or staff members as co-administrators. Regardless, all matters will still re- flect your district and program. Use caution.
• Avoid two-way communication on social media, especially with stu- dents. Many platforms do not have adequate backup capabilities like your school email account does. Avoiding this will save future head- aches.
• Do not speak on behalf of the school or district in a post unless you are authorized to do so. In the event of a crisis, it is best to leave things to the administration.
“For the music educator, [social media] operates as a great tool to inform and inspire others about the power of music.”
• You will need to police comments on posts. The accounts are often prone to phishing attacks and trolls. Many platforms have the feature to turn off comments. This may be easier than removing comments. Unfortunately, there has been litiga- tion over the removal of social me- dia comments on public platforms.
More Information
If you would like to read more, the National Education Association has some great in- formation on social media use for teachers available at
https://www.nea.org/resource- library/educators-rights-social-media.
Moving Forward!
As you can see, the use of social media in the education world is a big responsibility. Social media is also an incredible tool to advocate and promote our music education programs. If we don’t toot our own horns, who will? Please feel free to reach out with any social media related questions.
Please like and follow the WMEA Face- book and Instagram pages and encourage all of your music education friends to do the same. We bring an advocacy tip every Friday as well as the occasional “dad joke.”
Matt Lamb teaches grades 5-12 band and 3–5 general music in Glenwood City.
Email:
matt.lamb@
gcsd.k12.wi.us
14
April 2024
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