Have you ever been at the grocery store, and something catches your eye, so you go ahead and grab it? Well, sharing and interacting with content on social media is very similar to that. The average time a person looks at a post is 1.7 seconds, so including a pick-me-up factor is essential to increasing engagement and effectively communicating with your audience.
Using social media to communicate with potential leads and families who are already part of your school is crucial to creating a sense of community and loyalty. Social media can be the perfect tool to help you promote future events, highlight students’ accomplishments, help families get to know your faculty, and share any other important updates regarding your school.
Did you know that there are around 238,643,482 social media users in the US, and 91.9% of brands promote themselves on social media platforms? So, are you creating content that makes your audience stop scrolling?
Here is the Schola list of dos and don’ts for leveraging your social media presence to improve your communication with families:
✅DO: Use Video – Video is KING! 55% of people view online videos every day. By creating a brand guide for your video creation, you’ll be able to define and achieve consistency with colors, fonts, and templates. Make your content even more recognizable by including intros, watermarks, and name titles.
Tip: Canva to the rescue! This online tool offers a pro feature that allows you to maximize your brand recall by using pre-made templates, so you don’t need to be a video expert to create unique and compelling content. Give it a try!
❌DON’T: Neglect Metrics – Analyzing your metrics and tweaking your content is crucial for effective communication. Try A/B testing your social media ads by comparing two similar ones and seeing which performs better, so you can start promoting your most effective content.
✅DO: Keep It Short & Simple – Think about the information you are sharing and the attention span of your audience. Including short, straightforward, and friendly written content will increase the chances of parents actually reading it.
❌DON’T: Leave Out The Value Proposition – Put a spotlight on what your school offers that is unique. It can be the type of education it provides, its curriculum, or even the location.
✅DO: Grab Their Attention ASAP – Create short videos and share high-quality pictures based on the interests of your community. Find new and creative ways to talk about everything related to education. Why limit your content to sales?
❌DON’T: Forget Urgency & FOMO – Make sure to apply fear of missing out (FOMO) to your content strategy, so your school is families’ top choice. Capture the action! By sharing events such as family day, college visits, or field trips, you’ll start applying fear of missing out (FOMO) to your content strategy, so your school remains families’ top choice.
Which Stage Is Your Audience In?
When it comes to communicating with families via social media, there are several different stages they go through before making the decision to apply or enroll to your school.
- Awareness: Families that see your ad on their feed
- Interest: Families that like, comment, and share your content
- Consideration: Families that visit your school profile
- Intent: Families that request more information
- Evaluation: families that read the application
- Decision: Families that apply to enroll in your school
You’ll want to alter your communication based on where they are at in the process. That’s where using personalized email and text message campaigns on top of your social media can be an effective way to turn those interests into enrollments. Whatever stage your audience may be in, Schola offers valuable tools to target and maximize your communication. Keep in mind that social media is a powerful and immediate way to communicate with your community, so start making the most of it!
Want more insight on communicating with families? Check out our other articles, and join our weekly webinars to stay up to date on all things student recruitment.
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