Taking a look online and you’ll soon notice that just about every school out there, both private and public, has an active and rather helpful social media account.
That in mind, it’s becoming increasingly more important for schools across the globe to engage in social media marketing to gain some much-needed exposure on the world and national stages.
In years past, it was common for schools to rely heavily on their uniforms, local billboards, newsletters and newspaper ads to get the word out there. However, with the global populace becoming increasingly distracted by our smartphones, the best place to find information about schools is on social media.
That said, let’s take a look below at social media marketing for schools and a few tips at how to make the best of your school’s social profiles.
Why Social Media is Vital
To kick off our article, we can’t skimp out on just how important social media is.
You may already know that almost 4 billion people check into social media and have an active profile and this means that you’ll be able to find just about every adult in the developed world accessing their social media platforms on a routine basis.
With this in mind, your school should always be where the people are — and that is on social media.
You’re going to be hitting a localised user base and finding prospective new students and their families with ease.
Social Media Can Showcase Selling Points
One key thing to keep in mind is that social media’s video and image rich feeds will allow your school to best show off unique selling points (or your USPs) without issue.
If there’s a swimming team that’s nationally renowned, a video or image of these students is going to work wonders for your school’s image and really hit home with the sport-focused parents.
On top of this, you’ll be able to rely on your socials to routinely show updated content related to world-class facilities on offer. Sure, this can be added to a website, though parents aren’t likely to take a frequent look at website for updates on amenities.
In social feeds, any post you make will land at the top of a parent’s smartphone and be seen immediately.
Social Media Fosters Engagement
As a Monarch Institute degree in social media marketing will have you know, social media is the stomping ground for parents and students to engage with one another and share stories and experiences from schools.
That noted, you’ll have a far easier time showing off your school’s experience with parents in that you’re relying on both image advertising and word of mouth to do the work for you.
You’ll be able to leave the chatter to the parents who have had great experiences with your school, and move on to gaining interviews and parent communications to have their children moved to your institution.
Developing a Community is Effortless
For the parents and schools who enjoy interacting and sharing information and organising events, the use of social media marketing is going to create an avenue that’s entirely effortless here.
You’ll be able to rely on products like Facebook Groups or Instagram pages to share updates on upcoming events and let both parents and students know what’s coming up in the months ahead.
You’re also able to use these social tools to gauge whether you are looking at a full turn out, or whether to move dates to allow more parents and students to attend an event, for example.
In all, social media is the ultimate tool for schools looking to create diverse and engaged online communities.
Getting Started with Social Media Marketing
When it comes to getting started with social media marketing for schools, you’re going to want to make use of platforms that are most appropriate for school students and parents to use.
This is typically either Facebook or Instagram for those looking to share events and media about updated facilities. These platforms are the ideal in that they’re some of the most widely used by both parents and students too.
In some cases, Facebook can give you the chance to replace updates on your school’s website by moving all media and newsletters to the platform.
For the schools interested in video sharing, YouTube will be the way to go here. These clips can also be integrated into either Facebook or your website too which will ensure you’re getting an easy means of sharing these clips.
This was a guest post by Lucy Mitchell
