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Communication & Social Marketing Center Training Calendar

January 2012

Webinar: Jumpstart Your 2012: Introducing the New Celebration Kit
Cohort: All fiscal year (FY) Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grantees
Led by: Communication & Social Marketing Center
Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 2:00 p.m. EST
Length: Up to 60 minutes
Audience: Project directors

A new year can mean renewed energy and enthusiasm, and the Communication & Social Marketing (CSM) Center wants to help you ring in 2012 on a winning note for your SS/HS initiative.

In early January, each SS/HS grantee will receive a refreshed and enhanced Celebration Kit—a toolkit containing practical and easy-to-use tools, templates, resources, and strategies to help you make the transition from promoting your local initiative to sustaining—and even expanding—it. The kit features revised sections on communication planning, partnership development, communication of evaluation data, successful event planning, and media outreach, as well as a new section on educating policymakers. And every section of the Celebration Kit is meant to help you trumpet your initiative’s successes to the world and energize your sustainability efforts.

Our accompanying Webinar on January 18 will provide an overview of the Celebration Kit’s contents and show you how to quickly access the tools you need through both the hard copy and online versions of the new toolkit. The Webinar will also offer a sneak peek at the updated Communication Coach Online and Web trainings for 2012—all of which will help build the practical skills we know you want to develop in the areas of social media, video, and data communication.

All grantees are encouraged to register for this introductory Webinar. Let’s make 2012 a year in which we celebrate the successes of SS/HS with each other, with our communities—and with the wider world!

February/March 2012

Webinar: Extend Your Reach: Use Facebook and Text Campaigns To Engage Audiences
Cohort: All FY SS/HS grantees
Led by: Communication & Social Marketing Center
Date: Part I—Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 2:00 p.m. EST
Part II—Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 2:00 p.m. EDT
Length: Part I—Up to 90 minutes
Part II—Up to 90 minutes
Audience: Project directors

We all know that Facebook and text messaging are communication and marketing “buzz” words right now. Many of our SS/HS sites may be familiar with these tools, but they may not be maximizing them to reach different audiences. It’s time to take our communication efforts to the next level and engage our audiences through the digital platforms that they know and use.

Recent data show that 83 percent of American adults own cell phones and that three quarters of them send and receive text messages. Young adults are the most avid texters. Facebook has enabled adult users to spend time using social networking to share and receive information; as a result, it’s no longer a place limited to children and teens. How can we not only create a great Facebook page but also populate it with strong messages and make it a space for engagement and sharing? And how can we tap into texting to reach teens with our messages?

Part I on February 15 will provide the tools, resources, and best practices needed to develop effective Facebook pages and texting campaigns. Participants will be encouraged to try these tools for themselves and, in Part II on March 14, have an opportunity to share their efforts in either developing a solid Facebook page or planning a text-messaging campaign.

Grantees are encouraged to register for both Webinars to make the most of this learning opportunity.

April/May 2012

Webinar: Beyond the Numbers: Tell Your Story With Infographics and Social Math
Cohort: All FY SS/HS grantees
Led by: Communication & Social Marketing Center
Date: Part I—Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 2:00 p.m. EDT
Part II—Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 2:00 p.m. EDT
Length: Part I—Up to 90 minutes
Part II—Up to 90 minutes
Audience: Project directors

It’s not hard to argue that data are important. We rely on numbers to validate our SS/HS successes and demonstrate ongoing need. Yet, when it comes to communicating with our audiences for sustainability, numbers alone rarely do the trick. Research indicates that people make decisions based on both logic (facts) and emotion (stories). So how can we uncover the stories inherent in our data and convey them in ways that create a compelling case for sustaining our best programmatic efforts? How can we ensure that audiences will “get” our data, especially when many audiences for sustainability are uncomfortable with traditional charts and graphs?

Part I of this Webinar series, on April 11, will provide instruction on how to uncover the stories within the data, to use social math, and to create infographics to help communicate programmatic results to an array of sustainability audiences. In Part II on May 16, participants will share their experiences creating sustainability communication using these techniques and present their results to the group for sharing best practices.

Grantees are encouraged to register for both Webinars to make the most of this learning opportunity.

June/July 2012

Webinar: The Power of Video: Create and Share Your Own SS/HS Productions
Cohort: All FY SS/HS grantees
Led by: Communication & Social Marketing Center
Date: Part I—Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 2:00 p.m. EDT
Part II—Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 2:00 p.m. EDT
Length: Part I—Up to 90 minutes
Part II—Up to 90 minutes
Audience: Project directors

Video has become a popular and powerful way to share SS/HS stories; Internet-based Web sites, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Animoto, make it easy for anyone to create, edit, and share a video in just a few clicks. But how do you make sure that your production is more than just a brochure in motion—that it engages your audiences and gets across your messages?

In Part I on June 13, participants will learn what goes into creating an effective SS/HS video and will get an overview of several online video tools. Participants will receive tips on how best to reach various audiences with video and how to use concise, simple messaging to make an impression. In Part II on July 18, participants will have an opportunity to share their experiences creating and sharing their own SS/HS videos using the tips and tools from Part I of the series. The group will discuss best practices and view several grantee-created video examples.

Grantees are encouraged to register for both Webinars to make the most of this learning opportunity.