What’s the number one issue in managing social media for your school?

If you said time, you are not alone.

Time – there just isn’t enough of it.

And we may think we are Superman or Wonder Woman (like I did back when I was 4)…

But we’re not.

So what are my top 5 time-saving tricks?

1. Pick One Platform
   Stop trying to do it all. “Jack of all trades, master of none” is not a good thing. It is OK to select one platform and rock that for your school. If you have to choose one, pick Facebook. And if you feel like you have struck a plateau with your fans, check out this blog for my best secret: One Habit to Increase Facebook Fans.



2. Use Canva
   Social media is visual. Every post must have an image. Now with that being said, we don’t always have a photograph to use. So if you’re like me, and not very gifted when it comes to graphic design, please meet Canva.

   Check it out – and – you’re welcome!

   I’ve even got a bunch of graphics that are all ready to use for your school. Check out this blog post: Graphics Checklist: 40 Useful Image for Schools.



3. Schedule Posts
   Do you know that some of the best times to post are at 6 am in the morning and 7 pm at night? It’s true. We’ve managed over 30 different school district accounts.

   Well, I’m betting that you aren’t working at those time. So schedule the posts out to post at a later date. Facebook makes it easy to do it right inside the platform, and for Twitter and others you can use Hootsuite or Buffer.



4. Share Other Content
   You may be the one managing your school or district, but you aren’t the only storyteller. You can grab posts from others and share them on your page. I do this most efficiently through searching for the school hashtag, creating Twitter Lists, and using the Pages Feed on Facebook.

   Searching the hashtag is easy, especially on Twitter and Instagram. These images, videos or stories become great content for you to use on your school pages. You can even give a “thanks” to the contributor. They will be thrilled to see their content shared (but check the student “do not post” list first).

   Twitter lists are easy to set up. When you are on a person or organization that you want to follow, just hit the gear icon under the cover image. You can select “add/remove from lists” and put them on a list created for your school. As you build up people on this list, you will have a library of people who regularly tweet about your school. Hitting that retweet button has never been easier.

   And the Facebook pages feed is underutilized by many schools I talk to. If you have classroom pages, organizations or sports teams running Facebook accounts, you can follow them as your school account. Reviewing and sharing those posts is easy. You won’t get as good of organic reach with those shared posts, but it still helps get great information out to your school – and it’s easy!







5. Stay Connected
   Social media is always changing. As in daily updates to the platforms we know and love. So how do you keep up with it all and how it impacts your school? Well, you sign up for my weekly newsletter. It is THE place for tips, tricks, challenges, new apps, stories from other schools and upcoming events that will help your school tell its story with social media. Sign up now.

So, how else can you save time? Learn directly from others walking in your shoes!

There is a recorded webinar on this topic featuring my friend Brian Nicol – the one and only Communications & Development Coordinator from Howard-Suamico in Wisconsin. Talk about trying to get a lot done – he is a one-person school PR department for a district of over 6,000.

You’ll be able to grab the proven secrets behind making social media work for your school, even if you’re doing it all alone! Brian will break down the goals of their district’s approach, share 10 key tips to making it work, and more in this 60-minute webinar. This webinar can be accessed by members only. If you are interested in joining us, learn more here!