5 Successful Social Media Strategies for Education

Social media is a key communication channel for many schools and districts across the United States. It’s where students, parents, and local community members spend much of their digital free time. But the sheer number of social media platforms and their different capabilities can make it a difficult communication channel to manage.

To find out how to streamline social media management and create engaging content for the education sector, we spoke with two school social media experts: Sabrina Thomas, the supervisor of technology services for Clay County District schools in Florida, and Kevin Fenlon, the former media technology instructor, social media and PR advisor, and soccer coach for High Point Regional High School in Sussex, New Jersey. Here are five of their top tips and tricks:

1. Use the right platform to reach the right audience.

There are so many social media platforms today, and nobody can be on all of them all of the time. It’s important to find out where your intended audience is, so you know how to reach them.

In the education sector, you’re likely trying to reach three separate groups: students, parents, and local community members. Thomas says that in her district, high school students have spent a lot of time on X, formerly known as Twitter, so student-centric content goes there.

But Thomas’ main priority is reaching parents. Using engagement metrics, she has determined that it makes the most sense to focus mostly on Instagram, where parents and students spend a lot of time, and Facebook, which “tends to be our general overall channel.” By posting there, she’s able to provide parents a glimpse into their children’s lives at school.

“It offers a conversation starter for parents to talk to their kids about school,” she said.

2. Ask your students.

If you’re trying to reach students, it can be helpful to have conversations with them about what they’d like to see and where. After all, students often view your pages and posts for information and opportunities for connection — and they know what content trends can help engagement.

As part of his school’s strategy, Fenlon has used students as advisors to provide “input on topics they want to hear about, like school trivia, senior stories, or [an] athlete of the month.”

Fenlon added that he’s also asked students to help create social media content.

“Let students tell the story,” he said.

In fact, his school has offered a course through the National Federation of State High School Associations to allow students to earn a certificate in social media and become a “student ambassador” online. The school supplied students with tools and resources to tell their stories, and in return, students created engaging content with unique perspectives.

3. Use graphic design tools to enhance your content.

You don’t need an in-house designer to create beautiful and engaging social media content.

Canva and Adobe Express can help you step up your design game. Canva lets you start from scratch, upload your images, or choose from hundreds of templates to create Instagram and Facebook posts — for free. Adobe Express is also free for K-12 schools and districts and includes simplified versions of some Adobe programs to help you create graphics and edit images and videos.

You can also leverage tools specifically designed for teachers and school administrators. Fenlon recommends Gipper, which has hundreds of education-specific templates to create branded content, especially for athletics. Meanwhile, Thomas likes the newsletter tool, Smore.

4. Use a scheduler to ensure your posts go out exactly when you want them to.

Great content is only effective if you distribute it properly. A social media management platform can help you schedule posts so you can be sure they always go out on time.

Scheduler tools allow you to upload your content and predetermine when and where you want it to be posted. Then, at the appropriate times on the appropriate platforms, they publish your social media content for you.

Not only does this save you precious time, but it also keeps all of your social media content in one place, across channels.
Best of all, many social media management platforms offer free or low-cost membership plans. Thomas and Fenlon both mentioned Hootsuite and Buffer, and you may also want to look into Sprout Social, Loomly, or SocialPilot.

5. Archive your social media.

To maintain compliance with state records laws, most public schools and districts must archive their social media activities, including pages, posts, and comments — even if the content has been deleted, hidden, or edited. And because screengrabs don’t capture the necessary metadata, you need a more robust strategy.

The CivicPlus® Social Media Archiving solution provides a digital archiving tool that helps public schools and districts remain legally compliant and mitigate risk. Set up is easy, usually taking five minutes or less, and all your records get securely stored in our System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2)-certified cloud data center in near real-time. Plus, with our advanced search functionality, you can find the content you’re looking for quickly and export it in a variety of formats.

Compliance Solutions for Public Schools and Districts

Proper social media archiving is the first step public schools and districts can take toward improving compliance with state records laws. The second step is responding to requests for social media records in a timely manner. To streamline this process, check out another one of our compliance solutions for the education sector — our public records request management software, NextRequest. Its automated features and workflows are purpose-built to enable public schools and districts to receive records requests through a modern online portal, route them to designated staff members automatically, and enable staff to release records to individuals or the public at large easily.

However, compliance for public schools and districts goes beyond state records laws. Another way that CivicPlus can help is through our suite of Web Accessibility solutions designed to support Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) web accessibility compliance.

Contact us today to request a demo, explore pricing, or get more information about our compliance solutions.