Historically, schools were slow to embrace social media as part of their overall communications mix. Whether your school is new to Facebook or you were an early adopter of the platform, here’s ten steps to growing your school’s Facebook audience:
1. Firstly, create a Facebook strategy.
2. Identify some measurable goals. For schools, it could be to build brand awareness, generate enrolment leads, or engage more deeply with your school community.
3. Being recognisable on Facebook is important to getting found and liked. Ensure that your profile picture is something that your audience will associate with your brand. For schools, a school logo works well and this is what will appear as a thumbnail for all of your posts.
4. Regularly review your ‘About’ section to make sure it is displaying relevant information about your school. An address (with map), phone number, opening hours and website link provides searchable information.
5. Invite your existing contacts to like your page. Put the word out via your school newsletter, in person, or in an email to parents and an invitation to your personal Facebook friends to like the page. HubSpot suggests using the Page Manager section of your page under ‘Build Audience’ menu where you have the option to invite your personal Facebook friends to like the page. Individual staff members can also share the page with their Facebook friends.
6. Maintain regular posting, set up and use a content calendar.
7. In planning content that your audience will value and want to share, keep your buyer personas front of mind and plan the content around a ‘typical’ parent’s needs and interests.
8. Maintain a balance between fun images that offer those ‘glimpses’ into daily life at your school and images of your brand.
9. Don’t forget about multimedia posts – video and podcasts are key to social media success.
10. Engage with your followers, actively reply to their comments and thank them for their engagement.
Social media is a powerful tool … it amplifies your reach and helps to creates a more personal relationship with your prospects and community.
