Social Media
Educationally Speaking About Podcasts
BY WANDA COOK-ROBINSON/School Administrator, June 2021

WHEN YOU THINK of social media, you tend to think of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These platforms cater to different audiences, but they are similar in that they are used mainly for sharing information in a short text or photo format.

When our school district in Michigan looked at its social media accounts, we felt as if we had a good handle on the market. We had Facebook to engage with our parents and staff, Twitter to converse with politicians and education experts, Instagram to reach our students with captivating visuals, and LinkedIn to connect with the business community and promote our professional networking and job opportunities.

However, we thought something was missing. We needed a platform to really sound off about important education issues that couldn’t be covered in a 280-character tweet.

Listener Growth

Enter the idea to start a podcast. We discovered more than a third of Americans 12 and older consume podcasts regularly, according to The Infinite Dial 2020. With their increasing popularity, podcasts seemed like a versatile medium to work with and a useful addition to our district’s marketing efforts.

Our communications team researched the options for launching and sustaining a program and the necessary equipment. Then we began brainstorming topics. We named the podcast “Educationally Speaking.”

A year and a half later, we have 18 episodes that cover a wide variety of subjects and our listenership has grown from just eight initial listens for the first episode in October 2019 to an average of 150 per episode. We were featured recently by the National School Public Relations Association and the Michigan School Public Relations Association.

Our Rationale

Here are some reasons your school district should consider starting a podcast.

»Podcasts allow you and your experts to do a deep dive into important education topics. Especially now, during the pandemic, so many issues confront our students, parents and teachers that require more thorough attention. One recent podcast, “How To Talk to Your Child(ren) About Race, Racism and Anti-Racism,” is the perfect example of a topic that deserves the respect of a full conversation. You simply cannot express the importance of this subject in a tweet.

»Your audience hears the information straight from you. Other forms of media can be problematic as the message can become convoluted with other interpretations. When you share podcast conversations, you are delivering your message to your audience more effectively in a dialogue format. I don’t know a single superintendent who doesn’t crave that kind of messaging management.

»It establishes your district as a thought leader. Have a Facebook account? A Twitter or Instagram profile? So does everyone else. But not everyone has a podcast. Hosting a podcast differentiates your district from others.

»Producing a podcast is budget-friendly. It is cheaper to put together than you think. We are lucky to have a studio on-site in our central office, so we use tabletop microphones for the audio. Post production is done with an iMac using Final Cut Pro X editing software.

However, when the pandemic hit, we adjusted to different work accommodations. In came Zoom and computer audio. The podcast’s second season was completed via Zoom with the host, producer and guests recording from their respective homes — and it sounds great!

Expanded Reach

With the success of Educationally Speaking, we hope to continue our podcast for a long time to come. We recently syndicated with three local radio stations, two of which allow for in-depth student involvement.

Now we are pairing the podcast with learning opportunities for our local students. What could be better than that?
(Wanda Cook-Robinson’s podcast can be found at oakland.k12.mi.us/podcast.)
WANDA COOK-ROBINSON is superintendent of Oakland Schools Intermediate School District in Waterford, Mich. Twitter: @drcookrobinson