Last week I shared Superintendency & Social Networking, a post that was also published in the AASA School Administrator Magazine. I also wrote two smaller pieces for this most recent edition; edited versions are below. I came back to two questions that I get asked frequently – how do you find the time and what tools should one be using.
Here are my thoughts:
Finding the Time for Social Media
The superintendency is already a completely consuming job, so how can you possibly find the time to invest in social media? These are my suggestions for those looking to add social media to their work routine.
Create manageable expectations. Whether it is a blog, Twitter or other tools, be realistic about the commitment you can make to participating in social media.
Choose a few tools and use them well. There are thousands of tools available. Select a few and develop a comfort level with them. Start with tools such as YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, all of which are heavily subscribed to by those around you.
Block out some time. As you get into a routine, schedule time each week to spend engaging in social media. It might be 15 minutes a few nights a week or some time on Sunday morning, but it needs to become part of your routine.
Decide what this will replace. As you start tweeting and blogging, decide what you won’t do and what this will replace. As you engage in social media, some of the more traditional outlets, such as reading newsletters, can be eliminated.
Embrace mobility. Be sure people know you want to be contacted, and then ensure you have access to all these tools on your mobile phone, whether it is phoning, texting, tweeting or Facebook use. You want to be mobile so you don’t have to be in the office to be at work.
Five Indispensable Tools
Blog: Consider this your home base for social media and the venue for sharing your ideas on leadership and education practices. My blog is where I share my thinking, and it serves as a great portfolio of the work that has engaged me.
Facebook: Often considered more of a personal communication tool, it remains an excellent way to connect to your community. It is still the No. 1 social media tool used by our families, so it functions as a great place to share photos from events and alert the community to upcoming events.
SlideShare: This is the place to post all of your PowerPoints so they are easily accessible to educators in your district and elsewhere. No longer do I distribute presentations by e-mail. Rather, I make them all accessible through SlideShare so others can use and share them.
Twitter: This is your avenue for connecting to your community 140 characters at a time. Twitter is a wonderful professional learning network, connecting me with colleagues from around the world.
YouTube: Short videos of your school visits or records of your speeches now can go online. The use of video is growing, and YouTube is a great place to create a repository of your work.
I know these are regular questions for many – I would love to hear other tools that people find as core, and also other strategies people use to find the time.
cultureofyes.ca 
One of the things I use is Bufferapp.com or tweetlater.com to space out my tweets from those 15 minute spurts I may find. Very useful to give time between tweets, so it is not all at once.
Thanks Jethro you have given me two new tools to explore – I haven’t previously heard of either of them.
One of the things that this post got me thinking about was how dependent I am on the distribution of information. How much time do I spend on social media vs. face-face connections vs. passive media (ie. radio)? In each of these situations I am satisfying a need to learn, connect, and in some cases advertise/teach. But which one is most effective? most enjoyable?
A medium many of us are still connected to is radio (and newspaper, television). When I spend time here, I do not actively seek out information; rather, I listen, read, watch and learn about what is being discussed. I don’t get to fine-tune my quest with clicks and search terms. Often these topics are delivered as a story, interview or conversation. I find this an enjoyable way to learn and to later digest/research or use in discussion with others. I think it would be interesting to get a group of people together to listen to a CBC Radio show and then discuss the topic. Sound a little geeky? perhaps a webinar or blog…
In answer to your questions, one time saving device I rely on is my iPhone (text, photos, email all in one).
I used to carve out the first 15 minutes at the beginning and end of each work day for emails, but as teacher librarian I am now connecting with dozens of staff and community members every week, and my inbox hovers around 100MB – so I create folders, and constantly purge unnecessary sent and trash mail.
A tool I use to store/share data is DropBox (work), and Instagram (family/friends)
Thanks for sharing your thinking Doni. Interesting to see you are one of those who has moved to the post-Facebook era with embracing Instagram as your personal sharing tool.
Google Docs. It’s my process/collaboration space. The tools you’ve listed are the product tools. Not very novel, but Google is the ultimate process tool.
Yes, very good addition. Although much of my work life is still quite dominated by Microsoft – I see myself using Google Docs more and more because of the ease of use and the collaboration abilities.