In today’s world of social media buzzwords like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, texting, blogging, RSS, Web 2.0, and Wiki, it’s hard to sort it all out and easy to want to give up and try to ignore it for a couple more years. Well, that’s not going to work, because this stuff isn’t going away and if you’re not using social media in your Afterschool program, you are missing simple, low cost opportunities to improve communication with staff, students, and parents. Don’t worry if you don’t know how it all works. Most of the systems are easy to use and user friendly. If you still need help, or you just don’t have the time, appoint one or two social media savvy members of your staff to handle it. Ashley (pictured here) handles almost all of my text messaging as I am a total klutz at that.

Here are a few ways you can get started.

1. Email (can be free or paid)
Ok, this one might be obvious, and I’m sure you already have email, but are you using it as effectively as you could? Are you sending updates to your staff? Your staff is probably already in the email mindset since colleges are now regularly sending updates to their students about homework assignments and class cancellations via email. What about parents? You can have your parents sign-up on an interest list to receive notifications about upcoming events. It’s also a simple way to get in touch with parents who may not always be available by phone during your business hours. They can reply when it’s convenient for them. If you grow a very large email list, you may need to go to a paid email broadcasting service (like iContact, Constant Contact, or AWeber) but for starters, just use what you already have.

2. Text Messaging (paid unless included in your cell phone plan)
On this one, I’m mostly talking about communicating with your staff. I don’t totally understand the obsession with texting – can’t you just call? – but it’s really taken off. People are even publishing books of their text message conversations. One big advantage is that if you want to send a message to all of your staff, and you have all of their phone numbers entered into your cell phone, you can select them all and send everyone the same message at once instead of making 10 phone calls. It saves you time and they are more likely to read the message then they are to pick up the phone if you call.

3. Facebook (currently free)
Once you create an account, you can set up a “page”. Create a page for your afterschool program. Then post updates (notes, links, photos, video) on your page. Parents, students, and staff can all become “fans” of your page and when they do, they will see those updates in their Facebook timeline when they log in to their account. By creating a page on Facebook, you can connect with people involved with your program who are on Facebook and with other afterschool programs and national afterschool groups like Afterschool Alliance.

4. Blogging (can be free or paid)
Do you have information you would like to post or topics you could use some parent input on? Start a blog. You can write your own posts and then allow people to comment (just like the blog you’re reading now). Google offers a free service called Blogger where you can get started easily. Anyone can read your blog and they don’t have to subscribe or give you their email address. This is perfect for communicating with parents who just want to know what’s going on with the program. It also gives you the opportunity to create a positive image of your program and develop a relationship with parents who you may not see often.

The more you use social media, the easier it becomes. Even though it seems daunting at first, just try one new thing at a time and work at it for a while. Before you know it, other afterschool professionals will be turning to you for advice on setting up their blog.

Are you using social media to tell the world about your afterschool program? What are you doing or planning to do next? Share with us by leaving a comment below.