School Volunteer Recognition Made Easy with Social Media
Social media is powerful for so many purposes within your school, PTO, PTA and other parent groups. From basic day-to-day updates, to organized campaigns publicizing school events, to fundraising, to volunteer signups and membership recruiting -- Twitter, facebook, YouTube and blogs can make connections and school pride even stronger.
This is our fourth post in a series on building active school-parent communities using social media. We've shared great power tips for using facebook to engage parents and tips for using Twitter as a school-parent group.
Today we're going to be focusing on ways to use social media to Recognize Volunteers. Social media provides a perfect platform for thanking parent volunteers and highlighting their accomplishments and good work. A shout or mention to one is amplified and spread to the greater social network.
A little creativity and simple notes, photos and video go a long way to helping volunteers feel appreciated and enthusiastic about your school. And the best part is, it’s free!
5 Volunteer Recognition Ideas via Social Media
1. Write a personalized “Thank You” post on a volunteer’s facebook wall and celebrate volunteer's on your school/PTA facebook wall.
Encourage committee chairs and room moms to write personal thank you notes on a volunteer's wall to thank them for their participation.
Bonus: Log in as the PTA/School facebook user account and ‘like’ the comment.
If the chair isn't 'friends' with the volunteer and the volunteer 'likes' the school, the school account can write the thank you note.
Post group thank you messages and photos on your school/parent-group facebook wall:
2. Send an individualized “Thank You” tweet to a volunteer on Twitter.
Bonus: Link to a photo of the volunteer in action. {no kids' faces in the photo}
3. Shoot a quick video of you or your principal and teachers thanking a volunteer team and post it to YouTube and/or your PTA/School facebook wall. Tag all the (adult) volunteers who participated. With parents' permission, kids can even make a thank you video:
4. Take a photo of the volunteer team and share it with project impact statistics via facebook and Twittter. (e.g. how many back-to-school kits packaged, how many books sold at the Book Fair, how much money raised carnival, how many new members joined in the membership drive)
5. Find a song on YouTube and “dedicate” it to your awesome volunteers by posting the video on your PTA/School facebook page.
Power Tip: These ideas also work great for Teacher Appreciation and Recognition!
Special Thanks to Jessica Kirkwood, VP of Interactive Strategy, of the National Points of Light Institute for sharing these great ideas!
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And, for some great offline tips, check out VolunteerSpot's Volunteer Recognition ebook:
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