Why Social Networks Matter
In this opening session, WhippleHill President Travis Warren will discuss the growing and continuing popularity of Web 2.0 applications that have transformed the Internet into a social web. Users that once sought to pull down information are increasingly looking for a dialogue. They upload videos and photos; share their lives via blogs and microblogs; and exchange links to favored content. For independent schools, the opportunity to reach out to alumni, students and parents is profound. But the message is getting out regardless of whether it is driven by the school itself.
Presenter: Travis Warren

Reach Out with LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s professional social network has been quietly and steadily growing in the shadow of larger media sensations, such as Facebook. Learn how to set up a presence with an alumni group that will give your graduates a place to connect.
Presenter: Travis Warren, Steve Ritchie

Follow me! Twitter for New Users
The media recently has been atwitter over Twitter, the microblogging platform that allows users to network with 140-character text-based posts. Twitter has rocketed in popularity to become the third-largest social network, with more than 5 million users “tweeting” every day. Get your school started in this session, which will review account setup, etiquette and practical application.
Presenters: Julia Brennan, Melissa Lavallee

Facebook 101
Last summer, Facebook vaulted over MySpace to become the world’s largest social networking site and the place to be to reach constituents of all ages. This session will walk you through the basics of navigating and using the site, including signing up, setting up and finding friends.
Presenters: Jill Judd, Kim Hurlbutt

Blogging Basics
Blogging can open a new forum through which your school can communicate with its constituents and build trust. But how does one get started? This session will discuss the practical concerns of setting up a blog, who should be the author and how RSS feeds can keep your readers on top of your posts.
Presenter: Tucker Kimball, Peter Baron

Leveraging Wikipedia
Community authorship is the power behind the online, wiki-based encyclopedia Wikipedia – the seventh most trafficked site on the Internet. It is often the second entry that comes up when users google your school’s name, yet few schools spend adequate time on their Wikipedia entries. This session will show you how Wikipedia (and other wikis) work, as well as break down the anatomy of a school page, providing you with concrete steps your school can take.
Presenter: Neil Isakson, Curt Lewellyn

Creating a Facebook Public Profile
More than 175 million active users turn to Facebook for their social media fix. Learn how your school can get in on the craze by creating a Fan Page, or Public Profile Page, adding photos, videos and links to your site. Learn how to add RSS and other applications, as well as pushing out targeted updates and analyzing the results.
Presenter: Kim Hurlbutt, Jill Judd

Harnessing the Power of Social Media with Students
Can we harness the power of social media to provide students with a vehicle for exploring and creating original content? WA Mash (Worcester Academy Mashup) is an online magazine where the power of social media is captured to provide creative writing students with a platform for exploring ideas and fostering and contributing to the larger global conversation. By exploring the possibilities offered by the use of social media tools, we explore how one teacher is defining the New Humanities at the secondary school level. Built off the work of Richard E. Miller at Rutgers University, students blog in a timely fashion about a wide variety of cultural, political and economic issues. Most importantly, it is about creating original content and redefining the role of student and teacher. They compliment their work with audio, video, photos and micro-blogging by integrating social media tools like YouTube and Vimeo, Twitter and Flickr. Think Slate or Salon for high school. The conversation will explore the nature and role of the New Humanities in education. How do we define it? What does it look it? What role does it play? And how do we move forward with implementation?
Presenter: Antonio Viva

Podcasting for Beginners
Podcasting is a powerful publishing platform that allows you to create and catalogue downloadable audio and video files. It is highly portable, can address different learning styles and engage your constituents relatively inexpensively. This session will outline what you need to start creating podcasts and address how they might be used at your school.
Presenters: Peter Baron, Antonio Viva

Effective Digital Asset Management and Social Networks
In this session, we'll discuss how using the principles of sound photo management enables you to effectively process photos and Digital Assets. With a proper work strategy, you can leverage your photos for easy reuse. You will learn how to set up naming conventions, adjust your images efficiently, organize your images with cataloging software and use Adobe Bridge and Portfolio to streamline your image processing. We’ll also address how using the online photo management and sharing application Flickr enables viewers of your school’s photos to interact with them via comments and notes, or by making them a favorite. We’ll show how you can reuse your Flickr photo stream on your Facebook pages and profiles, on blogs, your school’s Web site and in other social media applications.
Presenters: Chris Arnini, Travis Warren

YouTube Primer
Although YouTube was created in February 2005, it has forever changed the landscape of video sharing and user-generated content. Find out how some schools are using the service to create interest, as well as possible pitfalls you may not have anticipated. Learn how to set up your own YouTube channel and the best practices to achieve maximum results.
Presenter: Curt Lewellyn, Melissa Lavallee

The Art of Transparency
Since 1999, Chuck Will has been blogging about life at Proctor Academy and generating authentic, valuable conversations. With “The Cluetrain Manifesto” as his bible, Will has long recognized the advantages of genuine conversation in the market. Hear how he has produced an average of three blog entries a week on every aspect of life at Proctor, as well as the lessons he has learned along the way.
Presenter: Chuck Will

Analyzing Your Results
Measuring of the direct returns of involvement in social networks and use of social media is tricky, but you can build a good picture by keeping an eye on some key indicators. Learn about some of the tools and techniques that are available to help you analyze the reach and impact of your social media efforts.
Presenter: Steve Ritchie

Protecting Your Personal Privacy in Facebook
There is a false sense of privacy on social networks but Facebook does have some powerful options to protect that information – if the user knows about them. Learn how to control who has access to your information and how you can help protect your personal profile, the content within it and the content connected to it.
Presenter: Melissa Lavallee, Julia Brennan