A Season to Celebrate Diversity!

One of the greatest successes within Delta Kappa Gamma is the organization’s diversity. This is an organization that thrives on diversity within its members in a multitude of forms. We all come from different continents, different religions, and different nationalities. We have new, experienced, and retired educators all working together to for the success of education all around the globe. We thrive on sharing our ideas, collaborating with new friends, and supporting our old friends as they embark on new adventures.

As we move into a season of celebration, find the beauty of diversity within your DKG chapter. Focus on how this diversity can help impact education globally. Encourage diversity. Embrace diversity. Celebrate Diversity. Let us all be a part of what this amazing organization embodies. We are truly a global organization of leading women educators! 

Leveraging Social Media: Facebook

Are you wondering how Facebook can be useful for your DKG chapter or state organization? This particular form of social media can be a space for linking your members and sharing important information. But remember that, unlike personal Facebook pages, a chapter or state organization page needs to be more “official” in terms of posting appropriate and correct information.

Click here to a link with directions for setting up a page for your chapter. Although based in Britain, it covers everything you need to know to get started.

Basic things you should do:

• Your posts should be valuable, useful and entertaining to members.
• Posts should be about your group.
• Tell powerful stories about awards, activities, achievements, and projects to retain interest.
• Be obsessive about replying to comments. (Be sure to set up notifications.)
• Remember content is king.
• Post smile-worthy content.
• Be inspiring.
• Be a source of information.
• Post images!
• Mix up the content types (photos, dialogue, and later video)
• Post at different times of the day.
• Post “Calls to Action”.
• Use Facebook events.
• Use compelling headlines.
• Invite members to comment.

More Advanced things to try:

• Try using Facebook Live . When you are comfortable, post these more often.
• Use Insights Posts report to guide you. This will increase engagement.
• Recycle popular posts.
• Publish linked posts with multiple images to create a carousel.
• Create videos, graphics, and posts that stand out and make people want to share.
• Videos, videos, videos…this will increase visibility and engagement.
• Experiment with Facebook ads. They are reasonably priced!

Beyond Facebook

• Embed Facebook posts on your website or blog.
• Re-post on Pinterest with a link back to your Facebook page.
• Post the URL to a specific Facebook post on Twitter or in your newsletter.
• Integrate your Facebook icon/link into your website, newsletters, emails, and printed material.

Ready to try a Facebook page? Do you already have a Facebook page? If so, how do you use it?

Facebook graphic is a CC0 from Pixabay.  https://pixabay.com/

Are You In Yet?

Although you don’t have to set up a member profile to gain access to the international website’s member only documents you are missing out on some great features! Visit the My Account area under the MyDKG tab for a  personalized member experience at www.dkg.org. 

By logging into your member account area you have easy access to:

• Receipts for regional conferences/international conventions you have/will be attending 
• Donations you have made to the Society
• Transaction records for orders you have made with the DKG Store
• Your member profile with capability to edit your personal contact information in the international database, "opt in" to the Member Directory (allowing other members to connect with you) and choose your communication preferences (such as choosing to receive emails or text messages from DKG) 
• The DKG Communities for an interactive experience

In the My Account area, state and chapter leaders have a dashboard set up specifically for them granting them access to their state or chapter members’ information. Currently presidents and treasurers have access with more officers gaining access soon.

The DKG Communities is a member only social network where members can discuss common issues whether they are related to DKG, educational issues or common interests. More information on the Communities and how to access them can be found in the September/October 2016 issue of Get Connected (Communications & Publicity Committee Page).

In the Communication Preferences, members have the option of being included in a Member Directory. Recently, the committee tried to email several members from other states and the emails were returned undeliverable. By using the Member Directory, we were able to access their current email addresses because they had agreed to be included in the directory.

Set up your Member Profile now by going to the MyDKG tab at www.dkg.org. Members who wish to connect with you can get to know you through the details you share in your DKG Profile. Remember to include your favorite photo! You will need to sign into the website with your membership number and the initial password which your chapter president can give you.

We look forward to connecting with you soon!

Leveraging Social Media: Blogs

Generally, chapters and state organizations rely on volunteers to develop and maintain social media. For this reason, it is wise to focus on no more than three social media tools. Get experience and then expand the use of the social media platform from there. And many believe that a blog is a good starting point.

Why a Blog?

• Your blog will enable you to deepen relationships with your members. They will find fresh, relevant content that is useful to them and have a place where they can feel heard as they respond with comments.

• Blogs are easy to use and maintain.

• Blogs get more search engine results than traditional, static websites.

• Blogs are less expensive to host and manage than traditional websites.

• Blogs provide a more “human voice.”

• Blogger (Google) is a free way to construct your blog; however, having a WordPress.Org blog (the gold standard) includes access to tons of free (yes, free) software ( i.e. ways to increase traffic, community features, auto sign-up, etc.) for your blog.

• You’ll be able to learn more about social media by just jumping in and starting a blog.

A Few Tips for Your Blog

• Titles are King - people see your title first and anticipate reading your blog. Titles are always the largest factor when search engines are indexing. Keep them short.

• Each blog post should have one category and many tags.

• Trim the fat - People don’t like to scroll...and scroll... and scroll.

• Add subheadings

• Add an image near the top; images help visitors stick around longer.

• Incorporate clickable links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
  
  
  
  
  

Are you ready to take a step into Social Media?Are you ready to start a blog? Could a chapter blog help connect your members and keep all members informed of issues and events?

PROPOSE TO ME – Welcome to the Constitution Committee’s Blog!

Have you wondered what tasks the DKG Constitution Committee addresses beyond soliciting proposed amendments? Do you want to learn more about our governing documents and how they relate to your state organization bylaws and chapter rules?  Are you interested in learning about the newly revised process to review state organization bylaws? If any of these topics spark your interest, this is the blog for you.

Members of the DKG International Constitution Committee will address those topics and more to help you better understand the Constitution & International Standing Rules (ISR) and the process for proposing amendments to both. Even though the deadline for proposed amendments is October 1, 2017, careful thought dictates starting the process NOW.  

The Constitution Committee’s blog will also highlight key Articles/Sections of our governing documents and issues/questions that you share with us. Look for new blogs to be posted by the 2^nd Tuesday of each month.

We welcome your comments and look forward to hearing from you as we all prepare for the constitutional international convention in Austin, July 16-20, 2018.  Join us as we embrace “moving forward ever” through the documents that govern our Society.