Administrators and teachers are turning away from their websites and using social media, such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate important, day-to-day messages.

There are many Social Media Management Systems also known as SMMS, that can be used to send one message to a number of social networking sites automatically, said ICT educator Noelene Callaghan on EducationHQ.com.

Some of the most common social media outlets include Hootsuite, Buffer, SocialOomph, and Ubersocial, Callaghan said, and the most "effective way of communicating messages through numerous twitter accounts is via TweetDeck."

"These SMMS’s not only permit a broadcast of messages, but can provide users with analytical data of whom has visited the social medium, how many messages were shared, which times their users are more likely to be online as well as providing the user with the opportunity to schedule posts for each social networking site," Callaghan said.

Callaghan also offers readers tips on the best SMMS systems to use, but also suggests that "there is a need for new, clear technological systems to be put into place at schools to assist with the management of social networking sites."

TweetDeck, Callaghan said, "is a fantastic SMMS that allows you to control multiple Twitter accounts in one interface."

"This is particularly useful for K-12 schools which require separate accounts for different grades and for schools which have multiple accounts reaching students based on extracurricular accounts," she said. "TweetDeck gives its user the freedom to customize their display by showing or hiding various columns presenting all content including your home pages and search items. A limitation however is that it is only specific to Twitter and does not consider other social networking sites."

Callaghan said that thorough training of staff and having a "role projection plan to ensure that all of your social networking sites are correctly and efficiently managed over both short and long periods of time, is absolutely vital."

Doing this, Callaghan said, "will ensure that all of your sites are constantly being managed and that your students, parents and stakeholders are being attended too."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor