Social media marketing. As a school marketer, there’s no way you haven’t heard of it yet. Social media has changed the whole world and also the world of marketing. So why should your school be spending time marketing on social media?
Here are 13 benefits of social media marketing for your school.
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Showcase your school
Social media offers another marketing channel for you to create brand awareness, build relationships with potential families and drive inquiries.
Pro tip: pay attention to your social media profiles and cover banners. These will help build brand awareness and give people the right first impression of your school.
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Develop a loyal community
People enjoy being a part of a group of people who are actively involved in a lively community. An online community on a social media platform will help you establish an emotional connection between your school and prospective families, which is essential for long-term success.
Pro tip: Make sure you engage with your audience when they comment on your content. Make sure they feel there is a person behind your school image. When people feel they are talking to a real person and not a robot, they will feel like a valued member of your community.
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Improve customer service
Social media is a great source for gathering feedback. It gives prospective families a way to reach out to you to ask questions and express their needs and concerns. This will build trust and credibility in your school.
Pro tip: Make sure your social media manager spends time every day “listening” to what is being said. Consider using the tool Mention to help with social listening.
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Tell your school’s story
People love stories, and schools have many to tell. Effective storytelling can help you build relationships with potential families. Stories can be simple or complex depending on what you think will be most effective.
Pro tip: Not all stories have to be long and drawn-out. They can be short and simple, especially when illustrated with a photo or short video. As long as you tell a story, it can effectively help your school’s image.
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Increase digital exposure
Interacting on social networks can significantly increase your online presence. It’s also a great way for your incredible, unique content to be seen. Social media leads to massive exposure due to its easy access, especially on digital devices like tablets and smartphones, sharing capabilities and huge number of daily users.
Pro tip: Use an editorial calendar to plan your social media content ahead of time. Then, once your content is ready, you can schedule it on your favorite social media scheduler and sit back and let the platforms do their jobs. This will enable you to really expand your reach.
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Share school news and updates
Social media is one of easiest and best ways to keep your families updated with school events, seasonal content and trending topics. Parents like to be kept “in the know” so make sure they have the inside scoop on what’s happening in your school, community, and beyond!
Pro tip: Just make sure you publish information in a timely manner.
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Boost traffic and SEO rating
Social media can be a major inquiry generator, and it has the potential to bring traffic to your website. Social media networks also boost SEO, since search engines reflect your social media content.
Pro tip: Google and Bing display tweets in search results. This means people can see what others are saying about your content, building interest in and loyalty for your school. This feature will be more relevant for trending topics because newer tweets will pop up on the search engine results page.
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Increase inquiries and reach a new audience
Listening to your prospective families’ on social networks can help you respond to their specific needs. This will most likely cause an increase in inquiries but will also expand your potential family base.
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Gather data about your audience
Most social media platforms offer ways for you to gather insights related to your profile but also individual posts. It is a great way to learn more about your audience and their preferences.
Pro tip: Use Help features of social media platforms to locate Audience Insights and Recent Post Analytics. For example, in Facebook navigate to Page Insights on your School’s Business Page. From there, you can find demographic, performance and audience insights. Metrics for your school’s Page posts are available as soon as the post is published. In the Posts section of Insights, you can see the number of people reached, post clicks, reactions, comments, shares and video viewing behaviors.
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Gather data about your competitors
Almost everyone is on social media. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because you can monitor their social media to gather important insights about them and their marketing tactics. Keep a close eye on their social profiles and analyze what type of content they post – and which ones parents like the most!
Pro tip: If you want to get deeper insights into how you compare with your competitors, use tools like RivalIQ to see activity and engagement rates. Then, once you’ve completed your research, be sure to use your intel to improve your own marketing.
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Lower marketing costs
Compared to traditional marketing channels like printer advertising, social media marketing is affordable for any school. Remember, the channel itself is free. While you may need to assign social media community management to a team member because it can become time-consuming, it is well worth the investment.
Pro tip: Don’t write organic content that sounds like an ad. This will make your posts sound “spammy”. If you want to write transactional content (i.e. Click Here to Submit an Inquiry) you should pay for it. This is one of the reasons social media platforms restrict content that reads like an un-paid for ad. If you want to advertise on social media, by all means do. Just make sure you pay for it so it looks professional and you get good, targeted reach.
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You can use it to repurpose your content
Repurposing is good. It saves time and helps more people view your content. Let’s say you have a wonderful video about your school. You can repurpose the content into social media posts. This allows you to reach people who might never have seen the original video and gives your content an SEO boost.
Read more: 11 Clever Ways to Repurpose Content and Boost Your School’s Reach
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Retargeting ads can re-engage website visitors
Retargeting ads are a powerful marketing tool. They target people who have already visited your website and know about your school. This means you are investing your precious ad budget on warm leads rather than trying to generate interest from families who have never heard of your school.
Pro tip: There are many retargeting tools out there, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google Ads. Use them to promote your school. Just don’t annoy potential families by being too aggressive with retargeting.
Want more tips on how to use social media for school marketing? Here are a few articles that can help:
- How Social Media Can Improve Student Enrollment and Retention
- 13 Tools to Transform Your Social Media Marketing
- 6 Social Media Challenges Schools are Facing in 2022
- Top 10 Types of Social Media Posts to Boost Engagement
- 8 Tops Social Media Strategies for Schools
- Top 6 Social Media Platforms for Schools
- How to Promote Schools on Social Media for Free
- How to Start Social Media Marketing for Schools
- How Schools Use Social Media for Marketing
- 14 Ways to Actually Track Social Media ROI for Your School
- 11 Social Media Hacks Every School Should Try
- How to Deal with Negative Comments or Reviews on Social Media
- 5 Easy Steps for Conducting a Social Media Audit for School Marketers
- 13 Social Media Metrics That Matter to School Marketers
Are you using social media for your school marketing? How has it benefitted your school? Please share in the comments below…
