Episode Summary

The concept of an advocate comes from a basic marketing principal—that what others say about your school matters more than what you say. So to create advocates for your schools, you have to pay close attention to what people are saying about you. In (and even out) of your school communities, there are three key groups to consider: advocates, detractors, and neutrals. Advocates enthusiastically support the school, detractors vocally criticize it, and neutrals—the largest group—stay quiet about how they feel.

While school leaders often focus on converting detractors into advocates, they only represent a minority and they’re difficult to sway. Instead, leaders should focus on neutrals, the silent majority who just need some focused attention to become advocates.

So, how do you do it? In this episode we discuss how "manufactured and meaningful" moments can help you convert neutrals, with examples from the private sector and K-12 education. We’ll also share some suggestions for manufacturing meaningful moments of your own.

Episode Notes

In this episode we’ll discuss how to create advocates for your schools. First, you have to focus your attention toward people who can actually be converted. Second, you have to wow them with intention and thoughtfulness. 

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Episode Transcript

A Personal Transition
Recently, my family moved from Little Rock, Arkansas to the outskirts of Seattle, Washington. We made the cross country move to be closer to family, but the timing was less than perfect. It's winter, and the roadways across the Rockies are frequently iced over this time of year. I’m also pregnant and due literally any day now. What’s more, we decided to rent and, unlike buying a house, the lead time for finding a rental is pretty short. We didn’t secure a place until weeks before we left. 

So, as you can imagine, tensions have been high. 

What’s interesting is that the one thing I’ve found myself worrying most about the move hasn’t been any of the logistical elements, or even the idea of having a baby in a new environment. It’s been my 5 year old daughter’s transition to a new school. Maybe, it’s just something to focus on, but I’ve found myself worrying about how well she’ll do going from a small Montessori pre-K in Arkansas to a public school kindergarten in a major city. Every time I’ve pictured her—a small girl with a big backpack walking into some large, brutalist school building—I’ve felt a lump in my throat. 

Hi, I’m Brittany Keil, the Senior Manager of Research and Media for SchoolCEO. Today’s episode of the podcast  is about creating advocates for your schools and what so many school leaders get wrong about it. But I wanted to start with my own story. Because when it comes to school districts, the most important advocates you can have are often your parents and families. And so many of these parents start somewhere just like me, a little afraid, a little doubtful, and very unsure about how to make the best choice for the most important part of their lives, their children. For families just starting their enrollment journey, there’s a lot to learn, and a lot we want to get right. 

So, how did a brand-new-to-me Elementary School in Suburban Seattle tee me up to be their Advocate before I ever walked through their doors? By engineering a series of meaningful interactions that showed they care. But before we share some examples and our suggestions for teeing up your own advocates, let's talk about what an advocate is and what it isn't.

Understanding School Community Dynamics: Three Key Groups 

The concept of an advocate comes from a basic marketing principal—that what others say about your school matters more than what you say. And when we think about what people are saying about your schools, there are generally three groups of people: advocates, detractors and neutrals.

Advocates
You probably already know who your advocates are. These are the people who champion your school unconditionally—whether at the dinner table or in the comments section. While often parents, they may also be teachers, staff or community members who have fond memories of their experiences with your schools, regardless of how long it's been since they walked through your doors.

Detractors
The second group in your school community is your detractors. And you probably know who a lot of these folks are, too, because they tend to be very vocal about their disapproval. They don’t seem satisfied with anything and you may wonder why they stick around, if they do.  For most school leaders, this is the group that consumes a disproportionate amount of your problem-solving time (if that’s what you want to call it) and zaps your energy.

Neutrals
The third and final group are called your neutrals. This is typically your largest group and includes all of the folks that fall somewhere in the middle. They're mostly quiet and compliant, but difficult to get feedback from. It’s not that they’re unhappy, but rather that they’re busy, preoccupied, and probably fine with most aspects of your district. 

The Mistake Most Leaders Make
Naturally, every school leader dreams of having 100% advocates. But how do you achieve this? When asked, most administrators say they focus on converting detractors. After all, detractors are vocal, negative, and create the illusion of representing a large portion of your district.

However, we think targeting detractors is the wrong way to go for two key reasons:

First, despite their volume, detractors don't actually represent the majority of your community. 

Second, they've established an identity around opposing your district, making a public change of heart unlikely. I'm not suggesting it's impossible to win detractors over, but it shouldn't be where you concentrate most of your efforts.

The real opportunity lies with your quiet neutrals—all those people in the middle who, with just a little more attention, are primed to become advocates for your district.

So how do you get them there? At SchoolCEO, we use the phrase "manufactured and meaningful" to describe advocate-building moments. They may be completely planned and designed, but being intentional doesn't diminish their significance. 

Listen to my colleague, Ryan, explain our philosophy: 

(audio from SchoolCEO Advocates video)
Ryan McDonald:  If you wanna change your community's perception of your school district, you have to change the conversation surrounding your schools. Think of that conversation as a little plot of land. You wanna farm here, a blooming field full of positivity. But left to its own devices, your patch of land won't sprout much but dirt and weeds. These are your detractors. It's not that they're negative, it's that they're loud about being negative. What you need is to grow advocates. An advocate is someone who tells positive stories about your schools. While these may be people regularly volunteering in your schools or attending PTA meetings, they could just as easily be average community members sharing a great story about one of your schools over coffee. According to a study from Nielsen, ninety two percent of people trust the recommendations of loved ones above all other forms of marketing. That's why you wanna build advocates for your district and it starts by planting seeds. Seeds are personal intentional moments. It might be something as simple as weekly stops at school carpool lines to chat with parents and students. Or it could be something bigger, like home visits from teachers. The idea is to meet parents where they are and attempt to create meaningful personal connections.

Ryan McDonald:  The more individualized the moments are, the more impact they'll have. And the more impact they have, the more likely the story will be shared. Plant the moment, leave a positive impression. The story is then shared with others. That's how you grow advocates.
(end of audio)

The Private Sector Model
For an example of this, let’s turn to the business world. 

If you’re a pet owner who shops online, odds are you’ve heard of Chewy. Early in the online pet retailer’s life, Amazon dominated its target market, and the burgeoning startup couldn’t compete with Amazon perks like free shipping or two-day delivery. Unlike local pet shops, the online retailer couldn't build in-person relationships either. They needed to find a unique differentiator—and that differentiator was exceptional customer service. Listen to their former board member talk a little bit about their approach:

(audio from CNBC Interview with Larry Cheng)
Larry Cheng: They will send you flowers. They will send you pet portraits, they will give you 24/7/365 service. So if if it's 1AM in the morning and you need advice on how to feed your dog a certain type of product, you can call them and they will talk to you. And on any given day, the longest talk time between a Chewy customer service rep and a customer is over two hours. So they are trained and they are guided to just allow the customer with service, and that's something Amazon will never do.

CNBC Anchor: What would you take two hours on the phone describing to somebody?

Larry Cheng: If you have eight cats, maybe you need to talk about each of them for ten minutes.
(end of audio)

As you heard, Chewy first built its reputation for going above and beyond by sending free custom pet portraits to unsuspecting customers—a practice they’ve continued as their business has grown—and a manufactured but meaningful moment for recipients. For years, customers have also received handwritten cards on holidays or their pets’ birthdays. But perhaps the most incredible aspect of Chewy’s customer service is their dedication to living out their values—even when it’s not profitable. On their “About Us” page, they make a promise to their customers: “No one pet-parents alone.” That’s why they're willing to stay on the phone with someone for 2 hours. And during times when pet owners might feel most alone—after a loss, for example—Chewy really shines.

In 2022, customer Anna Brose tweeted about her experience trying to return an unopened bag of food after her dog passed away. The company gave her a full refund, suggested she donate the food to a local shelter and had flowers delivered to her door. And Brose isn’t the only one; the post’s replies are full of similar stories, which suggests Chewy’s response to Brose was not totally spontaneous. But it was incredibly meaningful to her. In that moment, Chewy converted someone who previously didn’t have a lot to say about the company—a quiet neutral—into an advocate for their brand. And while we’ve all witnessed the pile on effect that occurs when a commenter says something negative about your district, this example proves it works both ways. Positive comments attract more positive comments, too. 

The Education Model
What Chewy understands—and what school leaders should recognize by this point in the podcast—is that advocates are born from specific moments. Even a single interaction with your brand that exceeds expectations can either create or reinforce positive opinions about your district. But if the private sector can pull it off, so can school leaders. 

You probably already host events in your district that, with just a little engineering, can be turned into the kind of moment that converts a neutral family or student or even a staff member into a lifelong advocate for your school district. 

An example of this comes from a teacher named Kaitlyn Shoemaker who goes by The TikTok handle thatfirstgradeteacher. While she's been a TikTok education star for a while now, she got her start by showcasing innovative teaching methods in her classroom. She quickly gained a following and soon, her principal and her superintendent came by to applaud both her classroom work and her work reinforcing their district’s positive brand. Listen to Kaitlyn gush about their visit. 

(audio from Kaitlyn’s TikTok)
Kaitlyn Shoemaker: So I'm almost crying right now. He had a call and a text from my principal, and I was like, hey, I'm in a meeting right now, but like, you're more than welcome to come down or I can call you. He's like, oh, I'll come down to your room. He walks in with the superintendent. In case you didn't know, the superintendent is in charge of the entire district. So he walks in, and he's like, So are you the girl on TikTok? And I'm like And he was like, I loved your video yesterday. He said, It just goes to show what an incredible district that I work in.

Kaitlyn Shoemaker: He is literally in charge of every single school in our district, and he drove to my school to see me, to thank me for my video. Y'all, my district is unreal. I will be here forever.
(end of audio)

In this quick 41 second video, what we hear is Kaitlyn, an advocate for her school, become a full-blown advocate for her district, too. And as a result of her following, quite a few of her followers (who likely include parents of her students) probably became advocates too. 

How much work did this take on the superintendent's part? Probably not that much—just a couple of minutes of their time. But the moment they created quickly became deeply meaningful, not just to Kaitlyn, but to a broader audience of burgeoning advocates.

Becoming an Advocate for My District
Back to my cross-country move and my anxieties about finding the right school: While touring a rental home virtually, the homeowners casually mentioned it was zoned for one of the area's best elementary schools, second only to Brier Elementary.

As any parent would do, I immediately wanted to know more about this Brier Elementary. Many elementary schools we researched seemed similar, but that single comment elevated Brier to the top of our list. And it was all because one person—a homeowner whose youngest child is in their fifth decade—had heard about the school’s good reputation. So when a rental came up in its zone, we pursued it aggressively. 

After landing our rental, I enrolled my daughter in her new school. And that is when the manufactured but highly meaningful magic began.

It started with a call from the secretary. It was only a short welcome call to see if we needed help with any of the enrollment forms. She expressed the school’s excitement about welcoming my daughter and then, hearing we were new to the area, she offered to send me restaurant and hiking recommendations that would be appropriate for a kindergartener. It was the kind of thoughtful customer service you expect from a really nice hotel. I was impressed.

Once we finished the paperwork, we got our first call from the principal. She also wanted to welcome us and set some time for us to tour the school ahead of my daughter's start date. That’s two phone calls before my daughter even started school. As we heard earlier, Chewy understands the power of the human voice to personally connect with their customers—and apparently Brier Elementary does, too. 

A week later my daughter’s teacher asked if she could meet with us. She wanted to discuss what we consider my daughter’s strengths and address any concerns we might have about her transition. She even offered to connect us with other parents in the class, who would be able to give us a parents-eye view of what to expect from our first week.

The result was that weeks before our moving van was loaded and slipping its way across the Rockies, I had already started to trust my daughter’s new school. 

I suspect these steps are standard for their district—touchpoints they would create for any new family. And that’s the point. That's precisely why a random homeowner mentioned the school's quality. That's why our new neighbors with children reinforced Brier's excellent reputation. Was I an advocate now, too? Not yet, but that would happen soon.

Weeks later, Rosemary’s big day had finally arrived. It was the first day of school and while we had already met both my daughter’s teacher and the school principal, I was still nervous. Had I made the right decision? Was the school a good fit for us? How would I know?

As I dropped Rosemary off for her first day, I mentioned to the principal that my daughter had been dealing with a lot—the move, expecting a new sibling—and hoped her day would go well. The principal smiled at me and told me that helping kids go through a lot is her job. As I watched the principal take my daughter’s hand and personally walk her to her first day of class, I realized something: in that moment, I had just become an advocate. 

Create Your Own Advocates
So how do these examples apply to you, the school leader? Let’s talk about it. Chewy sends handwritten holiday cards to pet owners. I bet preschoolers and kindergarteners in your district make their own holiday cards to take home to their parents. But do you send cards to your parents? 

When someone experiences a loss, do you send flowers? This is someplace you can definitely get groups like your PTA involved to buy flowers or bake casseroles and send well wishes on behalf of your schools. And it’s one way those existing advocates can help create new ones by showing other stakeholders your district cares. 

Or how many of the superintendents listening to this podcast do classroom visits? If you don't, how many of you coach your principals to do them? While classroom visits are a great tool for administrators to keep tabs on what’s going on in their district, what if you used your classroom visits to express appreciation and build advocates like Kaitlyn Shoemaker’s superintendent did?

Brier Elementary manufactured several meaningful moments to put me at ease. For new families, offering exceptional customer service during the enrollment process means reaching out to welcome us and to see if we need help. How else can you impress new families, who likely have no opinion of you at all yet? The more touchpoints—phone calls and home visits, for example—the more opportunities for personal connection. And did you notice what my daughter’s new teacher did there by offering to introduce me to other parents? She created an opportunity for those parents to advocate for their school. Any school or district can definitely make introducing parents a regular part of the enrollment process. 

You can even create advocates outside of your immediate school community, too. Remember the homeowner who recommended Brier to me? What would it look like to show your alumni you appreciate them? Do you champion their successes? Do you make them feel like they still belong? If so, they’re a lot more likely to hold on to positive associations with your schools and maybe even tell a random tenant someday how much they enjoyed their time there. 

But turning neutrals into advocates is just the start. After that, you have to amplify your advocates. Explicitly ask them to spread the word. Ask your booster clubs to, well, give you a boost. Introduce your parent advocates to parents who are new to your school. If you have a teacher like Kaitlyn Shoemaker who is doing innovative work, show the world you appreciate them by posting a congratulatory video on your website. Get them involved in your district’s storytelling process by asking them to post a video themselves. If, like Kaitlyn, they’re already sharing their own stories on social media, don’t forget to like, share and comment on their posts. 

Finally, ignore the haters as much as you can. Because your time (and patience) is finite. 

The SchoolCEO podcast is brought to you by Apptegy. You can find a transcript for this episode and full issues of our magazine at SchoolCEO.com. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our newsletter and get bite sized tips on school marketing sent straight to your inbox. If you follow us on social media, we'll let you know when new episodes drop. 

Season 3 of the SchoolCEO podcast is produced by Tyler Vawser, Britney Keil, Tanner Cox, and Ryan McDonald, with Eileen Beard as contributing editor. Thank you for listening.