91制片

SOCIAL MEDIA

Over the last five years, school districts have found themselves in the middle of social media firestorms. When faced with public criticism, do we engage or do we retreat?

It may be tempting to ignore the chatter. After all, who can keep up with social media? But here鈥檚 the truth: Closing off communication, ignoring concerns or avoiding tough conversations rarely builds trust. It creates more critics, distance and division.

Jim Lukaszewski, known as 鈥淎merica鈥檚 crisis guru,鈥� offers simple advice: Keep the lines of communication open, build relationships and seek common ground. In our small school community in Minnesota, we took this advice seriously, and we鈥檝e seen an 80 percent reduction in complaints about the district in online discussion groups.