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352806016192500161925000Report on Microsoft Partners in Learning Social media Statistics for October and November 2014SchoolNet SA has been tasked with managing the “Microsoft in Education – South Africa and Lesotho” Facebook page as well as the “@Microsoft EDU SA” Twitter handle. In addition to posting to the Microsoft social media, Microsoft Partners in Learning projects and offerings feature prominently on the SchoolNet SA social media, website and blog, and in the SchoolNet SA newsletter.This report outlines the social media activity that has taken place over the past two months and includes some suggestions for increasing the impact of the social media in the months ahead put forward by both SchoolNet SA staff (Fiona Beal and Megan Rademeyer) and Microsoft’s Ashleigh Fenwick and Angela Schaerer. 1. FACEBOOK (593 likes)As at 24 November 2014, the Partners in Learning Network (Africa) Facebook page had 593 likes. Below are some screen-grabs taken at various points over the past two months to show the number of people engaged, new likes and weekly reach.8 October 201415 October 2014 22 October 201429 October 20145 November 2014 12 November 201419 November 2014 In the coming year, we will need to analyse these statistics more closely to see what type of posts lead to a lot of likes and engagement in order to boost the number of teachers looking at this page. We have also talked about the deploying a number of strategies to increase the reach of the page including the following:Planning when Facebook content is posted – bearing in mind that Facebook will only allow one post every four hours to show up on a follower’s timeline. For example – it might be best to post at 10am (tea time) and again at 3pm (home time) as these are times when teachers may be looking at Facebook.Working out a good balance of posts – for example 70% locally relevant posts including South Africa and Lesotho events, project examples and lesson ideas; 20% general Microsoft educational content linking to the Microsoft Educator Network and 10% miscellaneous content for fun and variety. Once the content is posted according to a formula, the breakdown could then be tweaked based on which posts seem to generate the most interest. Increasing the number of locally relevant posts – both to ensure that the content is useful and interesting to South African and Lesotho teachers, but also to differentiate this Facebook page from the global Microsoft EDU page. Content can include examples of local teachers and MIEs learning activities, information about conferences and events such as TeachMeets where Microsoft tools for teachers will be showcased, and links to blogposts showcasing local teachers using Microsoft technology and sharing their experiences.Promoting the Microsoft in Education – South Africa and Lesotho page to the teacher networks of SchoolNet and Microsoft staff and asking teachers who we are working with, such as the Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts to also promote the page to their networks.Actively mentioning the Facebook page and Twitter handle at conferences and events where SchoolNet and Microsoft education staff present and encouraging teachers to like/ follow.Distributing branded promotional items / collateral/ printed materials that include the Microsoft Facebook and Twitter accounts on them.7143751651635Recently SchoolNet SA was requested to change the name of this Facebook page in line with guidance from Microsoft corp. The relevant documents to make this change were submitted and the “Partners in Learning Network (Africa)” page has now changed to “Microsoft in Education – South Africa and Lesotho”. Now that the new name is shown on the site we will increase our marketing efforts to make teachers aware of the “Microsoft in Education – South Africa and Lesotho” Facebook page. This can include putting a message on the SchoolNet SA Facebook page; including a link to it in the SchoolNet SA newsletter and encouraging both current and previous Microsoft innovative teachers to like the page and to share the page with teachers in their networks.2. TWITTER (246 followers)As can be seen from the above screen-grab, as at 24 November 2014, the @MicrosoftEduSA twitter handle had 246 followers and 1?214 tweets had been posted from this account. Whilst efforts have been made to tweet interesting and relevant tweets that largely point readers to the Microsoft Educators Network or other Microsoft content, it is disappointing that currently the handle has so few followers. Some of the same strategies that will be deployed to increase the Facebook reach will also be used to grow the Twitter following. In addition, efforts will be made to include the handles of some influential people in education within tweets to draw this twitter handle to their attention. Bearing in mind that many Twitter users reciprocate a following, an effort will be made to increase the number of handles that @MicrosoftEduSA follows in the hope that these people will then reciprocate by following @MicrosoftEduSA. In doing this, efforts will be made to follow people who tweet about locally relevant educational technology issues, and Microsoft tools in particular, such as the MIEs so that these tweets can also be easily retweeted from this handle.As with the Facebook account, the name of the twitter handle also had to change in line with Microsoft’s new naming conventions. The previous twitter handle was @PILNAfrica (as tweets mainly focused on the then named Partners in Learning Network) and now it is @MicrosoftEduSA. The new name highlights the regional focus and that tweets will focus on Microsoft’s educational offerings as opposed to the more general @MicrosoftSA twitter handle.In the coming months we will need to highlight the new twitter handle in presentations at events and conferences. Efforts will also be made to occasionally retweet a @MicrosoftEduSA post as @SchoolNetSA, as currently @SchoolNetSA has a larger audience of teachers. We will also encourage the MIEs to tweet using this handle and to occasionally retweet a relevant post to their followers as a number of MIEs are very active on social media with lots of teachers following them.3. BLOGPOSTS () A number of posts about Microsoft events, tools and competitions have been added to the SchoolNet SA blog and this will continue in 2015 when schools (and SchoolNet) have reopened. Below are hyperlinks to the blog posts shared between 26 September and 20 November and the number of views each post had received as at 24 November 2014. DateMicrosoft-related Post headingsViews20 NovemberOffice 365 #14: Invite a guest expert into your classroom using Office 365’s Lync video conferencing application2619 NovemberOffice 365 #13: Share your calendar with colleagues using Office 3651117 November*The Nokia Mobile Maths programme for Grade 10-12 Maths students a success story. Register today!4417 NovemberRead the profiles and see the learning activities uploaded by South Africa & Lesotho’s 16 Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts class of 20144410 November*Nokia Mobile Maths – this is a must for all Grade 10-12 students who are studying Maths3810 NovemberMicrosoft Innovative Educator Experts and Showcase Schools announced in South Africa and Lesotho1496 NovemberOffice 365 #12: How to send an email message using 443 November*Nokia Mobile Maths competition for Gr 10-12 starts TODAY (3rd-9th November!) Lumia phones and free data up for grabs!14431 OctoberDesigning Lessons with Microsoft OfficeMix14927 OctoberGreat Learning Activities shared on Microsoft Educator Network by South African teachers…take a look!15524 OctoberMicrosoft and MTN bring you a Maths Challenge this month…an exciting competition!14123 OctoberOneNote Class Notebook Creator launched!9021 OctoberMicrosoft Innovative Educator Expert entries in South Africa are extended to 24 October5115 October Just a reminder - Microsoft Innovative Expert Educator applications must be in on 24 October...5914 October*Nokia Mobile Maths competition 3rd-9th November! Lumia phones and free data up for grabs!656 October*Will your Grade 10 – 12 Maths students be using the free Nokia Mobile Maths programme to revise their Maths during these school holidays?5126 September*Nokia’s Mobile Maths platform can be accessed from your Smartphone51*You will notice that a number of blog posts about the “Nokia Mobile Maths programme” were included on the SchoolNet SA blog in the past two months. This was part of work we were commissioned to do by Nokia which involved SchoolNet SA being tasked with raising awareness of this programme. Amongst the deliverables for this project were regular twitter posts and a blog post per week. We are aware that the Nokia Mobile Maths programme has been renamed Microsoft Maths and will use this name for future postings. Unfortunately, the blog posts will not be as regular as they have been unless Microsoft is able to continue to fund this in the same way as Nokia did.A general note on the content of the SchoolNet SA blog and social mediaSchoolNet does not accept money for advertising on our blog, newsletter or social media. That said, project funding does contribute towards the staff member’s salary who is responsible for the SchoolNet SA social media and sometimes we are asked to promote a particular tool or event as part of a project and one way of doing this is to add posts to the SchoolNet SA blog and social media. In other cases, adding posts to the SchoolNet SA social media is not a specific deliverable of a project but it is something we do because we are excited about the project and SchoolNet SA’s involvement and wish to share this with our audience. Generally, we are more likely to include posts about tools, projects and companies we are working with because we know about what they are offering and the value of this to South African teachers but we do also include posts about other offerings for teachers from other companies because this fulfils our mandate of showing teachers a range of options for using technology for education across devices and platforms. It should be noted that SchoolNet SA is a not-for-profit NGO that aims to empower teachers to use technology effectively for educational purposes. SchoolNet is not a marketing company – rather it is an organisation that prides itself on finding great ways of using technology to create better learning experiences and to then share these with teachers. Lots of teachers enjoy the SchoolNet blog because it covers tools and events from a range of sources and mainly focuses on accessing and using free content for practical educational applications. Because the blog covers a range of tools from different companies it is also trusted by teachers as a “neutral” source of information – not the marketing materials of a specific company.Whilst we are paid to contribute posts to the Microsoft social media we are also happy to share Microsoft tools and technology across the SchoolNet SA social media. We do this both because we think the Microsoft tools and technology are useful (and largely free) to teachers and because we are usually talking about Microsoft Partners in Learning projects that SchoolNet SA has played some role in. The same is true for other companies that we do work for including Google, Intel and Vodacom Foundation and we will also include posts on their offerings on our social media. Moving forward, we would welcome appropriate guest blogs posts from Microsoft staff or Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts that fit in with the overall theme and purpose of the SchoolNet blog which is showcasing how technology can be used to enhance education. We will also continue to add our own posts where we come across examples of teachers using Microsoft technology in engaging ways or as part of other work we have been commissioned by Microsoft to do (such as promoting the Microsoft Educator Network or the Teaching with Technology course). Care will be taken to balance the number of posts referring to our various partners both so as not to favour any partners and to ensure that overall the SchoolNet SA blog stays true to its purpose which is to be a useful source of technology in education information across platforms.4. SCHOOLNET NEWSLETTERWe aim to send out a SchoolNet SA newsletter once a month to the approximately 4?000 teachers on our database. Each edition of the SchoolNet SA newsletter that has gone out in 2014 has had at least one Microsoft related article in it relating to a project or event that SchoolNet has played some role in. Below is the Microsoft related article that appeared in the October 2014 SchoolNet SA newsletter.Whilst we have a large data-base of teachers, the number of opens and click throughs is only a small percentage of that overall database. For example the October 2014 newsletter went to 3?837 email addresses, but only 526 people opened it, and there were only 102 clicks on the hyperlinks within it. Nonetheless we feel that a newsletter is still worth producing for those who do read it and to draw people’s attention to the website articles and blog posts that have been added over the previous month. The newsletter also ensures that on at least a monthly basis we add new content to the SchoolNet blog and website as whilst the newsletter may point readers to these articles, many more readers find and read the articles without accessing them via the newsletter.In some cases we send out an email that only covers one topic, for example this mail encouraging teachers to sign up to be Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts. This email generated 116 clicks to the different pages mentioned, and all of the MIEs who eventually applied are part of the SchoolNet SA database. Whilst from time to time we do send out special mails talking about one topic only to our full database we try to do this sparingly to avoid “spamming” our database or leading to people opting out of receiving our mails. 590550104076500Please note that the contact details we use for our emails have been gathered in a way that is consistent with Microsoft’s privacy policy (i.e. teachers have included their details on an attendance register that makes them aware that they will be added to our database). We also use the Constant Contact service to send bulk emails and newsletters as this allows recipients to unsubscribe from the mailing list at any time.5. SCHOOLNET WEBSITEMicrosoft events and activities often feature on the SchoolNet SA home page (.za) when referring to an event, training session or news that SchoolNet has played some role in. These articles provide a link to the appropriate Microsoft site such as the Microsoft Educator Network which teachers may not have been aware of.Currently the South African versions of the Partners in Learning teacher training materials are housed on the SchoolNet SA website (see: .za/PILP). We are happy to have these materials hosted on our website as we often use the online version in training sessions or to show potential funders the materials. SchoolNet SA played a role in developing and/or localising a number of the Microsoft Partners in Learning courses, and we use these materials regularly in training sessions so we feel that they are a useful component of the SchoolNet SA website. IDEAS GOING FORWARDFiona Beal, who manages the SchoolNet SA blog, social media and webinar programme as well as the content on the Microsoft social media has the following suggestions for increasing the local Microsoft content in the coming months – both on the Microsoft and SchoolNet SA social media and blog.Scanning current teacher blogs for possible guest posts where Microsoft products have been used. E.g. Deidre Bothma at?Elkanah House has a number of Microsoft lessons on her blog but unfortunately she lists them as one long page. i.e.??. She has given permission for us to use those we like as guest posts on our blog.?Asking MiEs to turn some of their current content into blogposts that we can use on the SNSA blog and Microsoft social media. Summaries could be included as Twitter and Facebook posts. Asking the 16 MIEs to write guest blog posts once a month about using a Microsoft product in their classroom. They could be given a template to assist with this. Fiona can include regular posts on the Microsoft lessons she has completed with Grade 1-9 learners in her role as a part time technology teacher at The Rock Academy.MiEs could present short webinars – perhaps 3 in a half an hour on a Microsoft tool they have used in the classroom.Following up with TeachMeet presenters who have presented on Microsoft products who could be asked to write guest posts. It would be great if Microsoft were able to sponsor some TeachMeets in the new year focusing on lessons using Microsoft products. This would provide a useful showcase of lessons that could then be highlighted on the social media.ConclusionSchoolNet SA will continue to produce content for the Microsoft Facebook and Twitter accounts and will aim to boost both the following and the number of posts including local content in the current year. In the second half of the 2015 FY we hope to receive additional funding to produce locally relevant content from the Microsoft Middle East and Africa budget which will enable us to increase what we are currently doing. We welcome and are thankful for the on-going discussions and suggestions from the Microsoft staff as to how the social media offering can be improved. Megan Rademeyer and Fiona Beal - SchoolNetNovember 2014 ................
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