Have you ever found yourself in a creative rut while making social media posts on your school pages?

I mean – how exciting is yet ANOTHER post about reading in the classroom…

We get it. The team at #SocialSchool4EDU celebrates more than 80 school districts across the country. With many of our pages, we post more than three times per day on Facebook, so it’s not uncommon to run out of ideas to make a picture sound exciting!

Yet, driving social media engagement through simple acts of learning is your job. You can’t just post photos. You need to work towards driving likes, comments, and shares!

At our annual retreat, two of our amazing leaders at #SocialSchool4EDU shared a great breakout session on creative writing. Check out their simple strategies and tools!

• Assume that every story submission you receive will need finessing. We receive photos and short stories from staff members at the schools we partner with. It’s not enough to just post what they provide! We always modify it.
• Look at other districts if you need inspiration or are in a rut. We share many examples later in this blog, but you can also follow #SocialSchool4EDU on Instagram for some ideas!
• Open or close your post with a question! This will engage your audience and spur them to action.
• Use a short phrase or headline at the beginning, then dig into the facts.
• Is there a quote you can use in the post description?
• Be concise. Include facts, but focus on celebrating!
• Top 10 Ways to Start a Post – a creative blog showcasing ten different ways to start out a post to make it more engaging.



• Screenshot ideas when you’re scrolling on social media!
• Following other school pages is great – but make sure when there is a post that catches your eye, you save it! Screenshot it and save it in a folder on your phone.
• You can also get great inspiration from business and non-profit social media pages. Screenshot those ideas, too!
• Use Pinterest to search for great quotes. Simply type in a keyword (like “smile”) along with the word “quote.” You’ll find great options!
• Unicode fonts can spice things up, but don’t overuse them. Here is a simple link to get there: www.socialschool4edu.com/fonts
• Emojis help drive engagement. Here is a helpful blog showcasing more than a dozen examples.
• Using hashtags can draw more eyes to your posts!
• Try using bullets to make your posts more readable. You can copy and paste bullet options from this website.
• You also need to focus on the layout of your posts. Check out this short video for a simple rule.

To showcase a few examples of the creativity of our team at #SocialSChool4EDU, check out these “before and after” submissions.

1. We received an email with a few nice pictures of students helping unload boxes. The email said: “Students in the yearbook class chose to come to the library to help with moving boxes (the library has to be boxed up for renovations this summer). Their help was very much appreciated.”

   The “after” post:
   “Many hands make light work!”
   Students in the Chi-Hi yearbook class helped pack boxes in the library, which will undergo summer renovations. Thank you! #MightyCardinals

   

2. We received an email no description – just “Homecoming Day 1 – USA Day” in the subject line. It included three cute photos.

   The “after” post:
   “Stars and stripes forever! ??❤️? High school students went all out for their first homecoming dress-up theme today… “USA Day”. Hooray for Homecoming 2019! #CSDGoBeavers”

   

3. We received an email with a large group of kids dressed up for career day. The email read “Hello again! Can you please post this on Facebook? Barron Area Montessori School Children’s House dressed up for career day for homecoming!”

   This might be the most creative example we have!

   The “after” post:
   “I spy… a doctor?‍⚕️…a firefighter?‍?…a police officer?‍♂️… a construction worker?‍♂️…an explorer?…a football player?…The Golden Bears of the Barron Area Montessori School Children’s House have ??? dreams and it showed as they dressed up for Career Day today!
   #WeBackTheBears”

   

4. We received an email with a subject line that said: “Whatever it takes.” The photo showed the speech-language pathologist working with a student on the floor.

   The “after” post:
   “Our #NewAuburn teachers do whatever it takes to serve our students!
   We’ve had a great start to our school year – and teachers and support staff – we see you. Thank you for your dedication to our kids! ??”

   

Quick tip: If you’re searching for an example on a specific topic on another school’s Facebook page, try this! From your computer, go to “posts” and then use the “search” function. Any posts with that keyword will appear. Here is a super short video to show you exactly what I mean!

I hope these examples are helpful! Our team also discussed some of the best creative words and phrases that we use. They include:

• Check this out!
• Who do you recognize?
• #TBT Allstars
• Throwing it back to the late 90s
• Caught “read” handed
• Help us caption this photo!
• Extra, extra, read all about it!
• Our kids are awesome! Wouldn’t you agree?

What other phrases or suggestions could you add to this blog? Please share below!

And if you want to continue to be inspired by the amazing team at #SocialSchool4EDU, sign-up for our free newsletter. We share tips, tricks, and free webinar trainings on what is working best for school social media. Sign up now and get a bonus PDF of 100 inspiring ideas for social media posts.