Using Social Media to Promote Your School
Social media accounts for schools can be powerful. They promote communication with stakeholders- parents, students, and community members. They showcase what makes the school unique while celebrating the strides made to become a positive, successful learning environment for children.
One major drawback for having social media accounts for schools is the time requirement to set it up and manage it successfully. Many administrators delegate this task to other teacher leaders in the building, like instructional coaches, curriculum coordinators, PD facilitators etc.
Whether you run your school’s social media platform or want to make a bigger impact by getting involved, this post will provide ideas for how to leverage social media to benefit your school.
Setting up a Social Media Platform for your School
Begin by gathering all necessary team members (principal, assistant principal, instructional coach, etc.) to create a social media plan.
- Write a social media goal:
- Why is a social media platform necessary to utilize?
- What do you want to accomplish through it’s use?
- Decide on a social media platform:
- Send out a parent survey asking which popular social media platform they use most often (ie. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked-In, etc.)
- Choose the most popular platform from the survey responses and delegate team members to manage these accounts
- Set up a social media profile:
- Create a social media handle on the platform (and share all log0in information with team members)
- Add a profile photo of the school mascot
- Add a photo header of the school building (or something else that represents the school)
- Fill in a paragraph for the bio explaining the mission of the school and the goal of the social media account
- Create protocol for social media management:
- Protect privacy of individuals featured in posts
- Remove harmful or inappropriate comments
- Draft canned responses to private messages
Managing a Social Media Platform for your School
- Create a social media posting calendar:
- Fill in main events on blank monthly calendars (holidays, day’s off, half-days, Parent-Teacher conferences, school events, staff and student birthdays, etc.)
- Choose a monthly theme and draft short, engaging posts to support that theme
- Leave empty spots for timely posts depending on what is happening in the community or around the school building
- Design a submission process for staff to shout out each other:
- Create a paper/pencil or online submission form
- Provide an example submission for reference
- Share the opportunity with teachers
- Review submissions and share out on the social media platform weekly
- Gather imagery
- Take action pictures of teachers teaching, students learning, and behind-the-scenes moments
- Save photos in a shared location with team members
- Use photos individually or put together a string of images in a video
- Continue to contribute images to the collection periodically so there are always plenty of options to choose from when creating a post
- Update team members monthly
- Share updates on how the social media platform is performing (engagements of likes, comments, and shares)
- Review upcoming monthly content calendar for feedback and to collect any additional ideas for what to share
A Quick Note
Social media is a tool used daily in our society. It makes sense to leverage it’s availability, popularity and features to highlight your school. However, a social media platform should benefit the school as well as the staff and students within it. If the platform or account is creating more headache than it’s worth, think of alternate ways to share the amazing things happening at your school with parents and community members. There is no right way to manage a social media platform. The ideas shared in this post are merely suggestions. Decide what this might look like for your school and have fun!
Want help setting up your school’s social media profile and mapping out your content calendar? Book a call with me here.
How has a social media platform helped your school?
About the author, Gretchen
I am a teacher trainer and coach. Working elbow to elbow with teachers and teacher leaders to ensure instructional proficiency and student achievement soar lights me up. We have a real need in our nation for strong educators to remain in the field. My blog, book, podcast, courses and instructional materials are geared towards empowering teachers (and those that lead them) to receive the support needed to grow and thrive today, tomorrow and always.