Dear @SchneiderB,
I’ve decided to jump into social media in order to market my independent school but I can’t decide which sites to use and how many to use. Please help?
Signed, Independent School Employee whose main job function is not Social Media.
Where to start with Social Media
Does the above question sound familiar? Have you been asking that question or recently answered that question? Have you been ”listening” to social media sites but don’t know where to begin? Well I’m here to help and offer my opinion as to where you should start. Quite simply, your school should be on Facebook and Twitter.
First, if your school does not have a Facebook Fan Page I would begin the process of creating one now. Why the sense of urgency? According to Wikipedia, Facebook has 400,000,000 registered users. Shocking isn’t it. The world is there and your independent schools needs to be there as well. The goal of any social media campaign should be engagement; I have found it much easier to engage our constituents where they are “living” and spending their time. They are spending their time on Facebook and it is important for you to spend your time there as well.
Second, I would create an official school account on Twitter. What do I mean by “official”? I have seen some schools that have created Twitter accounts and assigned usernames that are connected in some way to people who work at school. While I absolutely feel that there is a place for this kind of personal social media marketing, I also feel it is important to have an institutional voice that represents your independent school in every tweet that is sent. There are also practical reasons to have an institutional/official Twitter account. The main reason that comes to mind is if a school account is tied to an individual what if that individual no longer works at your independent school and they “own” the account that your alumni, parents, students, employees, and prospective families are now following. Not a great situation. Read More…
