Longview School District Facebook and Twitter: Going to the People

By Hannah Morgan

Calling all parents, grandparents, students, and interested community members: Longview School District has a Twitter.

 “We want to connect with and be available to the people,” Sandy Catt, the LSD manager of communications, said, “Since the people are on Facebook and Twitter, that’s where we want to be too. We decided this on October 9th, and a few days later it happened.”

LSD updates its Twitter feed through its Facebook page, which currently has 279 fans. Since administrators are new to these technologies, personally and professionally, they use the tech people at ESD [Educational School District] to update and run the Facebook page.

“Usually I email the ESD, and they update it [Facebook],” Catt said.

The Twitter works like this: by typing into the website server, in this case Facebook, a message of 140 characters or less and clicking the update button, all the people who have added LSD as a “friend” get the updated message on their Twitter server. Those who look up LSD on Facebook can fan the page and also receive those updates on their Facebook wall.

 “We try to provide helpful information, like late arrival reminders and schedule updates,” Suzanne Cusick, Superintendent of LSD said, “We also try to share information about our schools that we are proud of, like Mainstage Theatre productions and the Columbia Heights Elementary student who raised money for Haiti relief.”

LSD tries to provide updates about four times a week, and rely on schools to provide information and good news to send out.

 “There’s so much electronically to do, that logging in and staying current is always a struggle,” Cusick said of the LSD Facebook page and her personal Facebook page.

Having a Facebook page is a two way street.

“We have had several of our posts ‘liked,’” Catt said, “Having this technological tool allows us to not only reach people we don’t normally reach, but it provides an easy venue for which people can give us feedback too, about how were doing or what they would like to see. We appreciate all supportive input and constructive criticism.”

The respective Facebook and Twitter pages can be found by going to facebook.com and twitter.com and searching “Longview School District.”