Initiative draws thousands of followers, retweets
Wheeling High School is the winner of High School District 214’s “Get Social” Twitter competition, logging more than 7,600 combined new followers and retweets of original content during the two-week contest.
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The District’s Vanguard School, Forest View Alternative School and Newcomer Center for newly arrived non-English-speaking students competed together and placed second with more than 5,100 combined new followers and retweeted original content, and Prospect High School finished third, with more than 3,100 combined new followers and retweets between March 31 and April 11.
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As the victor, Wheeling will receive 2,000 ice cream vouchers from Mount Prospect-based sponsor Capannari Ice Cream, and be able to work with Capannari to name an ice cream flavor in honor of the high school.
The trophy and vouchers will be awarded formally on Thursday, May 1.
“This contest was designed to help us promote our successes as a school and as a District, and we’re thrilled to be the winner,” said Erin DeLuga, the associate principal for instruction at Wheeling High School. “We made a conscious effort to document the innovative things going on in our classrooms and with our students, and we’re grateful to everyone who joined the effort.”
The contest awarded points to each of the official school accounts for new followers and retweets (shares) of original content. Cumulatively, the effort drew more than 1,200 new followers District-wide and nearly 17,000 retweets of videos, photos and updates from District 214’s six comprehensive high schools and three alternative programs. Additionally, the #214GetSocial tag was used by more than 275 tweeters, with an estimated reach of more than 277,000 users.
“Our schools had fun with this, while also helping us more widely share the tremendous stories happening in our District on a daily basis and showcasing the positive things happening overall in public education,” said Erin Brooks, District 214’s Assistant Director of Community Engagement and Outreach. “We set out to more broadly establish social media as an effective outreach channel and keep our communications relevant by meeting people where they are, and our schools absolutely helped us meet that goal by diligently posting engaging content.”
Schools got creative in the contest, with Prospect staging a group photo during a scheduled assembly – a picture that eventually netted nearly 550 tweets – and Wheeling requesting shout-outs from influential alumni. Many of the posts, however, simply highlighted the schools, including pictures of college acceptance letters, student experiments in chemistry classes and college fair visits and videos of fine and performing arts, athletics and iPads in use in classrooms.
Buffalo Grove High School placed fourth in the competition, with more than 1,100 points for new followers and retweets of original posted content; Elk Grove, Rolling Meadows and Hersey high schools rounded out the contest.
“We’re confident the compelling content will keep coming from our schools, and we’re hopeful our community will keep sharing the stories,” Brooks said. “We’re so grateful to Capannari for sweetening the deal as we launched this effort.”
The District maintains an official account at @District214. Schools can be found at @BG_Bison (Buffalo Grove), @ElkGrove_HS (Elk Grove), @HerseyHuskies (Hersey), @KnightsofPHS (Prospect), @RMHSMustangs (Rolling Meadows), @Wheeling_Cats (Wheeling), @FVFalcons (Forest View Alternative School), @214Newcomer (Newcomer Center) and @D214Vipers (Vanguard School).
