Tips for building a social media marketing strategy for schools

Social media is increasingly important in our lives as a consumer or a business. This integral role also includes the field of education. Schools can leverage the power of social media and digital marketing to engage with students, parents, and prospects while building their brand image. This article will explore what social media marketing entails for schools, the benefits it offers and provide valuable tips for creating an effective social media strategy.

With social media use increasing year over year, both businesses and consumers are turning to these channels to engage and communicate. With this growth, companies over multiple vectors need to finetune their social media marketing strategies to build their audiences and improve engagement with clients and prospects. This includes the education sector, as schools and learning centres must communicate effectively with current and potential students, parents and a wider community. 

However, how important is social media marketing for schools, what benefits does it provide, and what are the best practices education centres should incorporate to fully leverage these tools? This article will explore these questions. 

What is social media marketing for schools? 

Social media marketing for schools refers to the use of social media platforms to promote and market a school or educational institution’s brand. It also serves to engage with a target audience, attract prospective students, and achieve specific social media marketing goals. 

These activities can be carried out in different ways, such as:

• Creating and sharing content on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
• Interacting with followers on a social media channel
• Utilising different features in social media platforms to increase visibility and reach

What are the benefits of social media marketing for schools?

Implementing an optimised social media marketing strategy can bring several advantages to schools. Here are some key benefits:

• Enhanced brand visibility: Social media platforms can help schools showcase their strengths, achievements and unique offerings to a broad audience. If schools consistently share valuable content, these institutions can increase their brand awareness and visibility and find a new channel to attract more attention to their centre.. 
• Improved communication: Social media platforms offer schools a direct channel to communicate with parents, students and alumni. These platforms can help educational facilities engage in constructive conversations and receive valuable feedback. At the same time, social media channels provide a platform to share updates, announcements and events. 
• Optimised enrollment campaigns: Social media platforms can target, attract and engage prospective students by sharing information about scholarships and programs along with testimonials from current and past alumni. 
• Strengthened sense of community: By engaging in conversations with parents, staff, and students and also building followers, social media can help schools foster a sense of community and involvement. This engagement can encourage sharing stories, experiences and achievements that can increase student satisfaction and involvement and encourage referrals.

5 tips for building an effective social marketing strategy for schools

Schools can effectively leverage the potential of a strong social presence by deploying various strategies when crafting their social media marketing plan. Some of the best marketing strategies for schools include:

1. Define your goals and your audience

As with traditional marketing, a well-elaborated social media and digital marketing strategy require an outline of objectives and an understanding of the demographics of your target audience. Whether it is to improve engagement, increase enrollment or boost brand awareness, identifying goals can help guide your content marketing strategy. 

Once your goals have been identified, it can be a good idea to define different personas and profiles based on your typical prospective students. This can help you craft social media posts relevant to your target audience. 

2. Choose the social media platform that best fits your requirements

Select social platforms that align with your audience. With so many different social media channels available, schools may be tempted to be active on every new social network that comes into vogue. However, it can be challenging to manage multiple platforms simultaneously, and each social platform can target different audiences. You may find it easier to locate a teacher or parent in a Facebook group, but younger students, for example, are more likely to be found on Instagram and TikTok.

Different channels can also offer variation when drafting a social media post. Schools can choose from various content types to convey their messages, including stories, sharing articles, images or video content. Instagram targets young and older generations and can be a safe bet to start posting social media content for a wider audience. LinkedIn can be a good choice for a school marketing and social media campaign focused on attracting professionals. 

Consequently, always consider the types of content that would best relay your key messages and build your presence. 

3. Engage and be consistent and active on your social channel

When developing a social media presence, it is important to create a consistent brand. This means ensuring that your written and visual materials contain the same brand image. Schools can use graphic design tools to help them create on-brand marketing content. 

Your branded content should be informative, interesting and relevant to your audience. This can include highlighting student achievement, education resources, campus life or new events on the agenda. If you manage to participate in influencer marketing with popular content creators who are current students, past alumni or local community members, all the better. 

Another tip for optimising your schools and higher education marketing strategy is to be active and comment or share other people’s posts. Your social media account should not go through long spells of inactivity if you want to build a community and connect with new people. This consistency can also be achieved by establishing a social media management and posting schedule. 

4. Establish your social media posting schedule by using software

Once you have determined what type of content you want to publish, you will need to plan how regularly you will share your posts. This requires understanding how many posts you want to share with your followers every week and which channels you’ll be sharing posts with. It can also be a good idea to cross-reference your school’s social media calendar with your admissions and events calendar to prepare for increased activity during specific dates and enrollment timelines. 

With this schedule in mind, ensuring that each post goes out on time and in each channel can be difficult. Some social media marketing tools can allow you to schedule posts in advance, helping you automate this process. 

5. Monitor your activity

As with any project, it is vital to monitor the performance of your social media campaign regularly. Schools can utilise social media analytics to measure key metrics such as reach, engagement or click-through rates. In combination with tools like google analytics, data analysis can help understand what content resonates best with a school’s audience and enable informed decisions for future campaigns. 

Social media marketing strategies can make a difference in schools 

An effective social media strategy for schools can benefit these centres by increasing their presence on platforms where their targeted prospects are often found. This can also improve communication and interactions with students, parents and the community. The tips in this article can help schools develop education marketing strategies. 

However, it is important to understand the need to identify target audiences and preferred channels and to be consistent in updating content and exploring new features to remain active and strengthen a school’s presence online.