‘Tis the season for giving, so the team at #SocialSchool4EDU wanted to give YOU a gift! These twelve social media quick tips for the twelve days of Christmas will help you finesse your social media strategy and make time for stress-free holidays!
- Graphics– Have you heard of or tried the Canva or Wordswag apps? These two easy-to-use graphic design tools are great for creating at-your-fingertip graphics.
- Create Generic Ready-To-Go Graphics– Have professional graphics stored for you to access in less than a minute. Here is a gift of 40 graphics that you can use if you want! Some include, but are not limited to, Weather Update, Special Announcement, FYI, Save the Date, Sports Update, Important Information etc.
- Batching – Keep your social media on schedule by batching: dedicating a block of time to a dedicated task. Research shows that batching is the KEY to being efficient & effective.
- Stay Active – Post consistently by scheduling posts out! Utilize the scheduling tool on Facebook. Schedule posts for the holiday season before going on winter break!
- Celebrate – Focus on celebrating your students to tell a story. Don’t become a bulletin board of announcements and reminders. What makes a good post? Great photos with a detailed caption!
- Photos – Beautiful photos are by far the most popular type of social media content for excellent engagement. They get the most shares on Facebook. Strive to post content that forces your followers to stop in their tracks. There is a lot of “noise” on social media, so make it a goal to break through it. Check out these great examples:
- Voice – Cultivating a specific voice in your captions is crucial to engaging your audience and community! Grab the reader’s attention in your first sentence and hold it by using clever language. The photo below used this language as the first two lines:
Did you hear the news?
Our #NewAuburn winter programs are coming up – and you’re invited! - Emojis – Add tone, context, and clarity to your communication. Snowflakes, snowman, hearts in school colors, books or maybe a science microscope all add color to the caption. Make it reader-friendly and engaging!
- Tag, you’re it – Tagging other businesses, schools, or organizations will allow your post to be seen by the tagged person’s followers, gaining more exposure for your post. Simply use the @ symbol followed by the name of the group you are tagging. Facebook will display a list of related pages for you to choose from. It’s also easy to tag in Twitter and Instagram. Here is an example.
- Video – Make video a part of your content strategy. If you are currently not using a native video strategy, you should be. Uploading video natively increases views, engagement and reach! Another method of video we strongly suggest is Facebook Live, which is proven to drive engagement and connect with your followers. Showcase your local food drive, bell ringing, community outreach and so on. Your community will LOVE seeing such events streamed LIVE! Download this user-friendly guide to get started.
- Invitations – You are likely to get a lot of interaction from friends and family members on your Facebook page. Don’t forget to invite those people to like your Facebook page. This blog article will walk you through it!
- Instagram – Your posts should be all about great photos with students and staff (not announcements). You can also use Instagram Stories. Check out our blog and free download to learn more!
There you go! We hope these 12 tips will help you tell the amazing stories of your school. Also, don’t forget to seek help from others; our team is always here with free resources and our coaching program. Click here to learn more!
A guest post from Stephanie Sinz, our #SS4EDU Chief People Officer. A former elementary teacher who now collaborates with both her #SS4EDU colleagues and their partner school districts to celebrate the amazing things that happen in education. “Our shared commitment to spreading positive news about schools is an exciting and much-needed aspect of the educational process — let’s all celebrate the awesome!”
