Schools: How You Should Be Using Social Media

Schools, welcome to the New Year! What if I told you that there have been some fantastic tools available to you for many years now, but you’re not using them to their full potential? We want to help you make the most of social media channels, and effectively use them as a communication platform to speak with your audience, and to market yourselves too!

Whether you like it or not, schools are in competition with each other more than ever; so where do you gain the edge? Do you have the best facilities? Or is your curriculum one of a kind? Perhaps your sports team has a fantastic coach? Whatever your unique selling point is, how do you communicate this to your potential students?

Social media provides you a platform to scream and shout about what makes you absolutely great, and also a way to get all of that in front of the people that want to see it the most. So why aren’t you using it better? This blog posts aims to provide you some tips and advice on what you should be using social media for, with an opportunity to work with us if you want to get even better!

Facebook:

Facebook has been used by the general public since 2006, it’s been constantly adapting to how people use the internet and consume media for over 11 years now. This social media website is still one of the best platforms to use if you want to get in front of an audience that want to stay connected with their friends, and communicate with people in their social circles. As a school, this is how you should use Facebook:

1) Post about all the important events coming up at school! This could be what you’re doing for World Book Day, or if a class is going swimming tomorrow then you can remind their parents and carers! 

2) Let the world know what’s happening in your school! Facebook is a place where we all want to see posts about friends and family, we want a nice easy time. Try sharing moments from your classroom; you’ll be allowing families to see what their children are up to! – Note; if you want to try this then make sure you have permission from parents and carers for the relevant students.

3) If you have sent letters home that haven’t been returned, you can remind parents via Facebook to send them back! Example:

Parents and carers of apple class, remember that we need permission slips returned by Friday in order for swimming lessons to take place on Monday.

4) You can market your school on Facebook. You want to reach people that may not have usually seen your posts, marketing yourself to your potential students and telling them why to come to your school. Facebook allows you to open yourself up to potential new students and their families through your social media posts, helping them decide which school to attend. 
To make sure this works, you’ll need to have other posts showing them what your school is like; your vision and values, as well as why you’re the right school for them!

Twitter:

Since July 2006 people have been summarising their lives in just 140 characters… until November 2017, you can now get amongst the noise with 280! That’s enough to type school 45 times, and even add #School too! Despite the character increase, Twitter is still very fast paced and is a very efficient way to get a message out to your audience. Here are some ways you could use Twitter to your advantage:

1) You can share more posts about individual classes or students, and what they’re spending their time learning.

2) Sharing articles and inspiring stories from your school for the community that you build on Twitter.

3) It’s a great way to engage with other schools, create relationships and even meet influencing people within the teaching community.

4) Market your school to a large group of people that want to know about the topics you are “tweeting” about. With a community that embrace hashtags and use them to see what people are sharing and what’s happening in their circles, you are able to get involved and meet the audience you wish to reach.

These are some really basic uses of the two largest social media sites worldwide. If you’re interested in learning more about social media, would like more ideas on how to use it, or learn why you should post in a certain way; then you can get in contact with us in the comments section, by email, by phone or even by social media and we will be more than happy to help!

If your school is doing it, then so should your teachers too! Here are 5 reasons why teachers should be on Twitter.