We have compiled social media tips for educational institutions and schools based on our experiences and the latest trends. As an educationa...
We have compiled social media tips for educational institutions and schools based on our experiences and the latest trends.
As an educational institution,
- Where to start?
- Which of the social media channels makes more sense to focus on?
- How to create a creative line and corporate world,
- What kind of content can you share?
- How should promotions be during the early registration periods?
- How should promotion budgets be determined and managed?
- Process of collecting and managing data via social media
1. Content Strategy Tips for the Education Sector and Educational Institutions
Social media strategy: Which channels of social media will you take part in and how often? What messages will you give? To whom will you give these messages and for what purpose? How much budget will you allocate? A planning process that emerges by answering questions such as.
1.a Determining the target audience
The basis of every educational institution's communication lies in 4 or 5 target audiences . These masses,
- Parents,
- Students,
- school staff,
- Sector
Parents are the first audience we all think of, and this audience is often thought to be the only important audience. In addition, people working on marketing communications need to create a clearer scheme by naming these basic target audiences with their sub-characteristics. Like “Parents 1: Middle school parents living around area X…”
Although parents are the most important audience for registration communication, that is, for the sustainability of the school, other audiences are just as important.
As the target audience, students can turn into representatives of your school who are content producers. Students' experiences, achievements, celebrations, trophies… each a source of content
Note: Let us also share the information here that you need to get consent from the parents for students to use photos and videos.
School personnel want to work with the most successful personnel in every branch of educational institutions. Making your educational institution a center of attraction also depends on being a good employer brand.
It is important for the sector to show where you stand among your competitors with indirect messages and to reinforce your positioning in marketing.
1.b Social Media in the Education Sector: Marketing Positioning
Every educational institution that manages its marketing process professionally must have a positioning strategy. One part of this strategy is social media.
What is your school's claim, its story that no one else has? Success, confidence, creative students, students with improved social skills, students who learn in touch with nature... and more.
Modern marketing recommends that you proceed by choosing one or more propositions that best describe you. All your message and content titles will be woven around a positioning phrase found here.
1st c. Your seasons and contact management
When are the most important seasons of the year for your educational institution? Preparing for this season to maintain communication a month in advance will be beneficial for you to get the best results.
Agency briefing process, contents, promotional campaigns, joint publication collaborations, media and all other work to be done must be planned according to this calendar.
You can start one month before the season as the pre-communication period by evaluating it in three parts: pre-communication, communication and final communication . The final communication process will be the planning period in which you will direct your strategy according to the registration density.
Let's come to the "who will handle social media affairs at school" part of the matter.
If you, as an educational institution, have really serious expectations from social media, let's be honest. This is definitely not the job of school computer teachers, guidance counselors or administrators who love to spend time on social media.
Because the user side and the marketing side of the social media world are completely different. It is a field that requires proficiency in many subjects such as marketing experience, media planning experience, creative experience, moderation experience, reporting experience.
You must either create a competent person or team that can manage this work in-house. Or you should manage the entire social media communication process of your educational institution with a social media agency .
Working internally or with an agency has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, if you are going to work with an agency, you should appoint only one representative at school to follow up the work with the agency.
1 d. On which social media channels will you open an account?
While searching for an answer to this question, let's remember the words of Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan.
The medium is the message itself.
In other words, the message of the word you say is actually where you say it. Therefore, it is important to define which social media channels your target audiences spend their time on, why and in what way .
Instagram , TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn , YouTube etc. Trying to be everywhere can tire you out. On the other hand, it may cause the power you allocate to be divided into the channels you need to focus on.
Opening an account on all channels makes sense to get naming rights. However, in order to use your resources correctly, it would be logical to proceed with the most necessary channels.
2. Educational Institutions content Tips
Naming the types of content planned to be shared in advance will make your work easier throughout the year. Some of these topics may include:
2.a Courses, course delivery methods
2.b Life-environment contents at school
2.c Content related to your values
2.d Inspiring posts
2.e Your Achievements
2.f Experiences
2.h Experiences of school staff
2.g Special days, commemorations and celebrations
However, it would be beneficial to produce your content with a correct hashtag strategy . The reason is to be able to appear before people on social media channels at less cost. Being able to take part in the discover screens.
3. Social Media for Educational Institutions: Early Registration Promotion Tips
When we think about social media advertising dynamics, the time to attract attention is very short. You have many arguments to explain. Your story, your values, your achievements, etc.
How Should Advertisements Be?
Instead of explaining all of these in a single creative, you can make different creative applications under a single theme .
Within the same campaign, you can produce 5-6 creative alternatives that will share your total budget . In this way, you not only explain your arguments; At the same time, you will have information about which of your suggestions parents are more interested in. This means that your ad set with the most affordable cost per result has the message that attracts the most attention.
Competitor Evaluation
Another suggestion is to observe what your competitors are doing. How to see your competitors' Facebook-Instagram ads, in this article.
Advertising objectives and management
The purpose of your advertisements is to attract the attention of prospective parents and to enable them to leave their information to reach you and ask you questions. Therefore, each advertisement you create defines your marketing processes.
After obtaining this contact information, the next step is sales activities . After receiving this information, it will be necessary to evaluate the communication process in the best possible way, that is, to manage the communication tracking well.
What are the Advertising Models You Can Use During the Early Registration Period?
1- Instagram Quick Form Ads
Quick form, or Facebook leads form, is a form used to obtain information from the users you reach . The form you redirect to at the end of your ads will not direct visitors to your website. It directs you to a faster and more practical form that you created on Facebook.
The completed forms accumulate in your Facebook business account and you can open and check them. Or you can connect it to your CRM program.
Prospective parents who encounter your ads may be more likely to fill out this form than other options. They may have seen an ad for a phone call during a non-business hour. Or your form on your website may seem too tiring. That's why quick forms are a useful option.
2- Ads directing to Instagram-Facebook messages
When creating your advertising campaign, you can create your sets after selecting traffic and messages in the advertising objectives section. Thus, prospective parents who see your ad will see the "Send message" button under your ad and will encounter the automatic messages you have prepared.
Detailed information about creating ads on Instagram is in this article.
3-Ads that direct to your website and form
It is used to redirect to a page containing a form that you will create on your website. When creating an ad campaign, you need to select traffic and then website traffic in the objectives section.
The advantage of this advertising model is that your data comes directly to your website. In other words, Facebook does not know your current data, only you know it. In fact, it is not a disadvantage that will clearly harm you, but it has this aspect.
The downside is the user experience. If your website is not user-friendly enough, bounce rates will be very high. You may risk collecting only one or two forms out of tens of thousands of web visits.
4-Ads that direct to phone calls
The advantage of promotions made through phone calls is that real people who want clear information can be contacted in the most concrete way. However, not being able to return calls during evening and night hours and on weekends is also a handicap.
Each of these advertising models is a different experience for each educational institution. It is not a situation where one can say "This is the best"; It would be useful to measure the results for each.
4. Social Media Engagement Tips for Educational Institutions
Burning out in content production and feeling like there is nothing left to tell is a situation experienced by brands. But there are thousands of stories and content to tell in schools. You can read our article on tips for increasing engagement on Instagram here .
on Instagram stories
- question answers,
- pop quizzes,
- Polls and other tactile tags are materials that will make your interaction stand out.
At the same time, these areas are also good areas to take your school beyond the school boundaries and bring it to the screens. Book recommendations, quizzes containing quizzes, and tips from information learned in class are all subjects of interaction.
Asking questions to your followers in your post content can contribute to increasing the number of comments received. On the other hand, saving is also a very important type of interaction. The save feature on Instagram was introduced to create an archive gallery that users can look back on later.
So, it is a good source of engagement if your content contains information worth saving and looking back on later. For example, “how to do it?” ” contents. Or content worth looking at again when the time comes, such as book recommendations or movie recommendations .
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