Social Media is a powerful branding tool that is used in pretty much every industry to spread news, awareness and answer client questions. While every brand usually benefits from some social media presence, your school may not seem like a good fit. After all, social media has quite a strong youth presence and the budget is stretched enough as it is without a social media budget.

However, we have come up with 5 reasons why social media is essential for your school’s growth and general visibility, whether that be for new potential students or just to keep your current parents informed about whatever you are doing. Social media can seem like a confusing and often scary world to be a part of but it is increasingly important to ensure that your school is viewed by the biggest audience possible.

It’s free

While running a proper social media account regularly will probably eventually need some general spending to ensure consistent and high quality content, it is a free resource and an incredibly simple one. You probably go home from work and the first thing you check is social media. It’s the same thing here but for your business. A regular posting schedule isn’t that difficult, especially for schools as you, no doubt, have a lot of pre-made assets, such as images and videos, that you can post quickly and easily. All social media is just expanding your reach and you can access over 1 billion users for free.

It gives your school a nice image

You want every student at your school to have a fun and enjoyable school experience and that is reflected in your school’s atmosphere. However, how is anyone outside of your school going to know about it if you don’t shout about it? Now, I’m not saying you need to brag or present your school as a never ending wonderland but a key concern for any parent looking at a school is that their child is going to be safe and have a good experience. Engaging with parents and building up a network online portrays your school as one that is active and that has their community at its heart. If you can build up a strong local community on social media, that works as its own marketing tool to parents looking for a school for their children.

Creating a local and loyal community

As mentioned above, engaging with parents online is a great way to strengthen and grow your local community and get everyone more involved. If you can grow your network of parents, they’ll be far more engaged with you and more likely to support in any fundraising or charity efforts you might run. Barring that, it’s a good way to get opinions on what parents and their children would like to see you do or develop as well as being able to address any concerns. A school with a social media presence is far more open and honest and that generates a better sense of community.

Share your school’s success stories

Another benefit of using social media in a school is to share the success stories of your students. Celebrating a particularly strong exam season or successful fundraiser allows you to build that sense of community while also spreading the word about your school online and showcasing the work you do. These should be done sparingly but when a good news story comes along, it’s beneficial to post about it.

Spread news of upcoming events

Back in the day, schools spread news about upcoming events and socials by hoping that children would tell their parents about it or showing them a letter. Nowadays, you can spread awareness on your phone with a click of a button. This once again comes back to grow your community as well as showing that your school is active and engaged. However, this also allows prospective parents to see what sort of events you put on. If you engage in a lot of fundraising activities, this can look really good on social media and be a really attractive quality for a school.

Social media is something that every school can benefit from if used routinely and in the right way. With it being a free, or at the very least, cheap resource for marketing, it pays to take part in the discussions your parents are having and actively try and engage your community to help build a stronger reputation and a better online presence.