I recently spoke with a dedicated mom and School Board member from Whitewater, WI. Kelly shared her philosophy of social media.
It’s like an invitation to the party. It invites parents, community members, and the world into a huge celebration of the great things happening inside the district. It’s not a forced message of marketing our school; it simply invites people in for a peek at what it is like for our students.
I LOVE this analogy! And I do love parties too. Especially the school kind where you get colorful cupcakes and Kool-Aid.
But what is the best way to reach the most people with this invite? After 10,000 social media posts for schools across Wisconsin and Minnesota, here is our best party-planning advice!
Where should schools be sharing this invite?
Facebook is still the number one platform to reach your community. You need to be there! If you can only pick one place to be, then Facebook is it.
If you want more, then add Twitter and Instagram. Twitter is easy. At only 140 characters, it forces you to be brief, to the point, and you can still share photos and videos. Instagram is also simple. It is all about photos, so you don’t need to get too descriptive with text. Throw in a few hashtags and you are fine!
How often should we post?
Every day. The goal on Facebook should be at least three times per day. It can be even more if you have good content.
The time of day matters with posting. I don’t recommend just posting during the school day. While some people are on social media almost 24/7 (hey, don’t judge me), others mainly check first thing in the morning and right before bedtime. Use scheduling features right inside of Facebook, or free tools such as Hootsuite to do this. Don’t know how to schedule? Check out this 85-second video on scheduling a Facebook post.
What should we be sharing?
Great photos, short videos, and calendar reminders are my short answer. I have thousands of ideas of what to share (yes, I’m working on a book), but the best bet right now is to follow a few schools that are doing social media right. I share 4-5 ideas each day on my Facebook page, so that would be a great spot to start!
