As K12Leaders works to strengthen the relationships between dedicated solution providers and the K12 educators they serve, this document builds on our standard terms-of-service to outline both some best practices and expectations for Commercial Partners on K12Leaders.com and all its affiliated entities. K12Leaders independence and intellectual integrity are of utmost importance to preserve the unique role we play as we serve our members. We’re proud to offer a space for educators, staff, and administrators to conduct meaningful conversations that strengthen K12 education. Commercial partners have an important voice and perspective to contribute to that conversation!
The goal of K12Leaders is to create a safe space for our members to connect, communicate, and foster strong relationships. Commercial partners are an important part of our community, and have the opportunity to improve their products, understand their customers, and represent their experience and commitment to education through our platform. This platform provides a unique space for customer feedback groups, focus groups, and insider opportunities for marketing research and intelligence. If your product improves as a result of interactions with our members, then all of K12 education benefits.
K12Leaders adheres to the principles of human dignity, non-discrimination, fair treatment, fair competition, good governance, ethical business practices, anti-corruption and the rule of law. Community participation and involvement is all predicated on our members and partners participating with these principles in mind.
Commercial Partner Membership
Our commercial partners include our Solution Providers, Solution Partners, and Solution Partners Plus, as well as consultants, associations, and non-profit organizations.
Best Practices and Guidelines for Success
Respect privacy- K12Leaders is a private community designed to create a “safe” space for all of us to have meaningful conversations about K12 education. Respecting our members safety and privacy is our highest priority.
Best practice:
- Reshare public blog posts from K12Leaders on other platforms to highlight members insights
- Offer to co-author blogs, or engage through our Edugigging community
- Build your community on K12Leaders and take advantage of our private and group messaging functionality
- Consider sponsoring a K12Leaders newsletter or private group
Please do not:
- Reshare conversations, screen captures, or any other private communication that takes place on K12Leaders or any affiliated networks on any other social media platform.
- Any attempt at “spidering” or “scraping” any K12Leaders’ data, including but not limited to contact information, addresses, email, or any other data is not allowed.
Appropriate and Effective Communications
Best practice-
- Making connections and following members who your company is interested in is completely acceptable and a great way to be aware of the challenges your customers or potential customers may be facing.
- If you’ve setup your user-group on K12Leaders, and have invited your existing customers into it, having those members act as advocates for your company is a much more effective way to engage. K12Leaders can provide guidance and coaching to help.
Please do not:
- Make unsolicited contact- Spamming members’ inboxes to make them aware of your product and sending them some sort of action item or potential appointment is discouraged.
Promotion of Products and Services
Best practices-
- Post product and company news in your Solution Provider or User Group.
- Invite your current users to participate in your Solution Partner Group and encourage them to engage other educators in solution discussions, or recruit new educators to join your community. We are happy to help recruit your users to join you on K12Leaders!
- Engage in thoughtful conversation in news feeds, discussion forums, and other groups on the platform. Share your relevant experiences as appropriate, or ask specific questions relevant to the topic. These are great opportunities to be recognized as a collaborator interested in better student outcomes, not just a “vendor.”
- Take advantage in our in-network ads and other communication tools
Please do not-
- “Cold post” about product or services in the general news feed- Please prioritize the experience of our educational members. This platform exists as a gathering space for everyone in the educational community. The priority of the platform is to create a space where educators and leaders can share challenges, successes, and their own story. Over promoting agendas or products may be reported.
Recruitment and Solicitation
Best Practices-
- Post open positions to the K12Leaders job-board. We promote many listings within K12Leaders and across other social media platforms.
- Feel free to respond directly if a member has stated they are currently seeking new opportunities
- Offer to help as a mentor with “practice” interviews of conversations… Many educators have only applied for jobs in K12. Switching careers can be hard. Commercial partners are encouraged to empower active job-seekers with supportive conversations.
- Join the Edugigging Group to find experts looking for gigs, advisory, or consulting work.
Please do not-
- Recruit members directly. We want to keep educational leaders in education, so please avoid direct recruitment of our members for full-time work unless they have specifically asked, are responding to a posted job, or are part of an Edugigging like group.
Spam
We have developed a platform full of ways to engage with educators effectively. Please take full advantage of the tools we’ve worked hard to create for you.
Best Practices-
- Avoid email unless explicitly invited by a member.
- Develop engaging content and conversations within your organization’s Groups.
- Encourage your members to evangelize on your behalf by sponsoring panels, whitepapers or other projects.
- Tell stories about
- Your customers’ success
- Your own internal research or insights
- 3rd party research
- News stories relevant to your organization or solution
- Reach out to a K12Leaders editor with questions about effective communication and/or gamification that may be interesting to the community
Please do not-
- Overpost (multiple posts around the same topic) within the general news-feed or other communities, or send multiple inbox messages to members without response.
Integrity dealing with members.
K12Leaders does not encourage, condone, or tolerate any form of corrupt, improper, or illegal activity on the platform. Commercial partners shall comply with all applicable laws, statutes, regulations, codes, et. al. relating to anti-bribery and anti-corruption. Commercial partners shall refrain from engaging in any form of bribery or corruption when dealing with private parties, public officials, and anyone affiliated with K12Leaders. Commercial partners shall not offer, provide, authorize, request, or receive any financial or other advantage (e.g. gifts or hospitality) with the intent or prospect of influencing or determining an educational member’s official duties.
Best Practices-
- Take advantage of the Edugigging group which is designed to connect organizations with members who are interested in commercial opportunities. We offer a number of ways to engage with our members appropriately.
- Respect the Conflict of Interest agreements that public employees are beholden to.
Disclosure of information
Solution providers shall accurately record information regarding their business activities and practices and shall disclose such information, without falsification or misrepresentation, to all appropriate parties as required by law.
Membership Status
As a solution partner, your ongoing membership is based on feedback from K12Leaders educational members. All K12Leaders have the opportunity to report posts, activities, and users for not respecting our terms of use and other community guidelines. That includes activity and communication they perceive as spam.
Should members repeatedly report violations of this commercial partner’s community code of conduct, that commercial partner’s membership may be suspended or revoked.
Reported violations of this code of conduct likely indicate a misunderstanding regarding K12Leaders’ mission to create collaborative peer-to-peer relationships between solution providers and educators. We will attempt to address that through the following actions, based entirely on K12Leaders discretion:
- Written/email communication and support advising of best practices
- Telephone or web-based consultation with solution provider
- Temporary suspension from the platform
- Permanent removal from the platform