Ours is a great problem to have: Awareness and adoption of Ed-Fi have both increased substantially in recent years. Because our technology has so many unique use cases, we’ve heard varying descriptions circulating in the wild about what Ed-Fi is, who our organization serves, and why we exist. There is no marketing tool more powerful than word of mouth, so it’s time to get our entire community singing the same tune about our work.
Over the last year, our communications team has conducted both qualitative and quantitative user research. We’ve devoted ample time to revamping Ed-Fi’s messaging to address points of confusion or concern. As a result, we’ve compiled a host of new resources—including a messaging platform—in hopes that they will equip you to spread the word about your work with Ed-Fi more accurately and effectively.
Enter: The Ed-Fi Community Kit
The Ed-Fi Community Kit webpage is now available for you to access through the Community365 portal. You will need an active Ed-Fi account to log in and use these materials. If you don’t already have one, you can request an account here. You will see the Community Kit prominently displayed within the portal:
The Community Kit page has links to download documents and easily access important articles and video content. Our team will continue to add printable materials and other marketing tools to this webpage as we create them.
Don’t Stop Telling Your Own Story
We do not want to turn our community into a mob of elevator-pitch-reciting robots. If you’ve already found an effective way to communicate about Ed-Fi, please keep doing what you’re doing. In fact, I’d love it if you’d shoot me an email and tell me what’s worked well for you so I can share it with the rest of the community. I do ask that you check out the resources in the Community Kit to fine-tune your Ed-Fi messaging and make sure you’re conveying accurate information.
The messaging platform and other resources linked in the Community Kit are meant to support you in moments when you’re not sure how to explain our complex work simply, or when you hear a misconception about Ed-Fi and have an opportunity to correct it. The hope is that our core message—the reason why Ed-Fi exists—will be consistent across districts, states, technology providers, and other stakeholders so that it can stick and spread. Then, around this core message should flow a constant swirl of stories showcasing your unique Ed-Fi use cases and wins.
Calling All Ed-Fi Spokespeople
If you find yourself communicating about Ed-Fi a lot, first of all—thank you! Second, we’d like to invite you to present about Ed-Fi to your network in a more formal way. If you’re interested, our team can provide you with a presentation deck and prep you to present on our behalf. We’re a small and mighty team, so we greatly appreciate our community’s help promoting Ed-Fi locally. Please email me if you’re interested in this!
What’s Missing? Let Us Know!
Based on the feedback we’ve heard from the community and the research we’ve conducted, we have a lot of new marketing materials in the works right now. We would love to hear from you if there’s something missing from the Community Kit that would help you introduce a new audience to Ed-Fi, make the business case for interoperability, address a frequently asked question, or anything at all. This suite of resources is for you, so please let us know how to make it better.
Thank you for helping us get to this point. We’re producing these official communications materials because we’ve grown big enough to need them—which is entirely thanks to you!
