I recently published a
post about the value of Twitter to the pre-k community. I wanted to
follow up with a post about one of the great people out there in the
early childhood Twitterverse. Fran Simon is a social media marketing
guru with a passion for all things pre-k. She has become a hub for pre-k
communication around policy, practice, and the profession. If @FSSimon
retweets you, everyone knows what you have posted. I asked Fran to talk
with us about her passion for pre-k and the intersection between social
media and advocacy. Here is what she said:

1. I see that your
company ESbyFS (Engagement
Strategies by Fran Simon) is a social media marketing company, but most
of your twitter posts are about pre-k. Whats the connection between
early childhood and social media for you?

Even though my career
has evolved away from the day-to-day practice of early childhood
programs, it is still my passion. The intersection of early childhood
education, business, nonprofit administration, and technology is very
important to me.  Throughout my career, I discovered that because the
typical early childhood education administrator or non-profit leader is
so focused on delivering high-quality programs, and has minimal
business, leadership, or technology training, there is a bit of a gap in
applying best practice to program administration.  Due to several great
experiences working in outstanding organizations throughout my career, I
came to understand that good business practice is equally as important
as good classroom practice when it comes to delivering great early
childhood programs.  I believe it is my responsibility to pass that on
to other early childhood educators.

I know from experience that “marketing”
is a dirty word for most early childhood education administrators.
After all, our programs are great, so they should sell themselves,
right? We don’t see ourselves as people who sell anything. We are
educators! Wrong. We forget that we sell our programs when we recruit
staff, enroll families, and engage board members, community leaders,
constituents, funders, donors, and facilities managers. Administrators
with thriving programs and non-profit organization managers must know
how to engage, and in the 21st century, engagement means adding social
media to the communications tool box.

Our field is falling behind when it
comes to technology adoption. I see a lot of people working hard to find
out how to apply technology in the ECE classroom, but far fewer focused
on the implications of social media in the front office. I’ll leave the
classroom work to others. My focus is on helping program administrators
and early learning-related nonprofit organizations leverage social
media as an additional tool for marketing, outreach, fundraising,
advocacy, and activism.

2. What made you such a passionate
supporter of high quality pre-k and what do you think parents should
know about it?

I think there is an important place for the millions of
educators who advocate in their daily work by delivering great programs
and educating parents and others about their work.  I have enormous
respect for what advocacy practitioners do every day. For me, my inner
advocate was dying to get out and make a lot of noise, but that only
makes my passion more evident than the average teacher or director. My
passion is no more or no less important than the passion of the
preschool teacher who goes to sleep every night dreaming of what to do
the next day and rises with worries about the children in his/her class.
I just happen to make a lot more noise.

I’d like parents to
realize that pre-k isn’t just about getting children “ready” for
kindergarten. It’s about meeting children where they are developmentally
and helping them develop the passion and skills they need to be
lifelong learners. I’d also like all parents to know they have
the power to not only influence their children, but their children’s
teachers and schools,  their communities, states, and the nation. Their
power is often unrealized on all levels. I’d like to see that change.

3. What has changed
about technology in the past five years that you see affecting preschool
positively?

I see this through two lenses. From a classroom technology
perspective, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the iPhone and iPad
and the new interest in application development. However, for me, the
jury is still out. Developers have yet to produce meaningful and age
appropriate applications that can be used in the classroom to add value
to and not distract from  the important hands-on learning in which young
children need to engage. There’s promise there, but I am not very
optimistic that we will see good practice win out over profits.

Beyond the classroom
… we now have the tools to easily connect the disparate dots between
legislation, curriculum development, funding streams, and classroom
practice. We can learn more and do more faster and with more impact than
ever before. It is an unprecedented time in the evolution of
communication. Far too few early childhood educators have begun to
realize the impact social media can have on our ability to continue to
learn about and engage on behalf of children and families. All I can say
is: “Come on in! The water is fine!” What is certain to me is that we
can’t continue to do business as usual. We must use the tools that are
literally right at our fingertips or be left mute.

4. If you could change
anything about our national or state pre-k policy what would it be?

The aspect that
troubles me most is the lack of an integrated and cohesive national
policy for ALL funding streams  that brings together Head Start, pre-k,
and child care to deliver a real system of programming that meets the
needs of ALL children (birth through age eight) and ALL families.
Sometimes I believe the early care and education community is its own
worst enemy because we continue to allow our voices to be distorted by
the fragmented nature of the various organizations at play. I’d like to
see us come together. There have been many attempts to bring one voice
to the table for policy makers, but to date, there are always outliers
on every issue. It’s pretty frustrating to watch. I don’t know the
answer. I wish I did.

5. Are there engagement strategies that
pre-k advocates could be using to further the national debate on public
pre-k that you have found to be especially effective?

The only thing that is
more powerful than grassroots advocacy is adding online tools to the
mix. I think the 2008 election proved how successful organizations can
be at getting the message out when you combine good, old-fashioned
grassroots strategy with powerful online advocacy software, mobile
messaging, email, and social networking sites. In the past couple of
years since the campaign, these tools have only become stronger and more
effective, and the public has become more receptive. There are
incredible resources available to learn more about how to integrate all
of these tactics with traditional advocacy practices, but advocates have
to be open to the possibilities, and organizations need to build in the
time and resources needed to do them right. There are a number of
organizations in our space doing a great job with social media and
advocacy integration. My favorite example is The Children’s Defense
Fund, but I also admire the social-advocacy work of MomsRising, NAEYC,
NACCRRA, and of course, Pre-K Now. There are also many state and local
organizations doing a great job.