How to Use Social Media Marketing to Promote Your Private School

Social media has become an essential tool for marketing and advertising. It has proven to be a powerful platform for businesses and organizations to connect with their target audiences, and the same is true of social media marketing for private schools. Social media marketing can be a valuable tool for private schools to promote their brand , increase enrollment and engage with their community.

With the right strategies and techniques, private schools can use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram , and TikTok to their advantage, effectively communicating unique value propositions, showcasing facilities and programs, and creating a strong online presence. Here are our tips for using social media marketing to attract and retain students, increase engagement with parents, and strengthen the brand image of your private school.

‍How to Market to Decision Makers: Private School Parents

Private school parents are decision-makers who are looking for the best education for their children. To effectively market to them, private schools need to understand their needs and preferences, and the marketing channels they use the most often. 90.4% of millennials use some form of social media, so it’s highly likely that the parents of your current and future students are engaging on at least one social media platform.

Staying active on these platforms shows that you are dialed into and understand the behaviors and needs of your target audience. Here are some strategies to help private schools use social media to market to those millennial decision-makers.

1. Showcase Your School's Value Proposition and Mission Statement:

Private school parents want to know what sets your school apart from others. Here are a few prompts to consider when thinking about your school’s competitive advantage:

• What benefits can your school offer their child, that another school can’t?
• How strong is your school community, and do your school’s values align with their family?
• Highlight your school's unique selling points like academic excellence, extracurricular activities, small class sizes, or personalized attention.
• Use your social media platforms to showcase these activities, feature testimonials from satisfied parents and students, and engage with your community.

2. Leverage Your Online Presence

Private school parents often search for schools online, through websites, social media and even Google searches. Use the different digital tools your school uses to weave your marketing message across the internet, reaching your audience in different ways and sharing different aspects of your school’s ecosystem.

3. Engage with Parents

Host a live Q&A session, information night, or another conversational event. Invite past, present, and future families to provide feedback, offer insight and ask any questions they might have. If a live event isn’t within your wheelhouse just yet, consider posting a question or call for feedback where parents can comment or send messages to be answered at a later time.

This is also a great way to uncover holes in your marketing or communications. If the same questions come up repeatedly, it might be time to update your website or strengthen your communications on that subject.

What Makes a Great Social Media Account?

Think about the brands, businesses, or companies that you follow. Why do you follow them? Do you learn something from them? Are they informational? Do you share a common interest or goal? Consider what you can provide for your private school parents that would make them want to follow, share and engage with you.

Consistency

Consistency is key, and regular social media posting is no exception. A random post once a month will do no good in helping you reach your target audience or inch closer to your marketing or school recruitment goals.

Showing up regularly will help your audience know what to expect when to look for your posts, and when to see if there’s something they might have missed. It also shows that you’re committed to the social media relationship of offering something valuable to your followers.

Personality

Show off your school’s personality and culture in your profiles. If a social media follower stepped into your school, attended an event, or met with someone on your staff, they should have a similar experience or interaction as they would online.

If your social media posts feel formal, stuffy, and regimented, but your school is outgoing, casual, and personable, your social media platforms aren’t doing a good job of representing your brand or recruiting the types of students and families you want.

Private School’s Social Media Marketing Content Ideas

Getting started with social media marketing for private schools doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Using a social media calendar can help with the planning and organization of posts, and it can allow multiple team members to contribute to the online platforms.

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for your posts, here’s some inspiration to get you started!

1. Behind the Scenes. Take your followers behind the scenes of your school with a look at everyday life. Don’t wait for a special event or a unique day, sometimes the best posts can feature regular parts of your school schedule or routine.

Photos from the lunchroom or recess, or even everyday classroom activities can give private school parents a peek behind your doors. It’s also a great way for current families to stay connected and up to date with what their child is doing daily.

2. A Day in the Life. Give prospective families an idea of the experience your school offers, the requirements, and your students' responsibilities. Choose students for these posts that are involved in different activities like sports, athletics, or music to diversify your content and reach parents whose children have different interests.

3. School Events and Accomplishments. From athletic events to awards programs, celebrate your school’s accomplishments by showcasing your students’ achievements. Post a recap of a football game or the highlights of your school band’s performance. Put the spotlight on social activities like school dances, community events, or fundraisers to show the personality and culture at your school.
4. Important Updates. School closings due to weather, early release reminders, or due dates for field trip permission slips are types of content that you can include in your school’s social media marketing calendar. Don’t rely on this marketing channel as the only outlet for communicating these updates; providing reminders to busy parents will be appreciated.
5. Staff & Alumni Profiles. Reach out to your community of graduates and get them involved in your marketing efforts! A real-life success story about parents, local business owners, accomplished athletes, politicians or anyone with an interesting story will resonate and should be considered profiling.
6. At-Home Education Ideas. Offer ideas for your parents to keep classroom learning going at home! This is especially helpful if you’re coming up on a long weekend, spring break or summer recess. Simple DIY science experiments, reading or writing prompts or outdoor activities are great options to share on your social media platforms.

Test, Evaluate, And Adjust Your Private School’s Social Media Strategy

While a good social media marketing strategy, social media calendar, and even publishing tools can help to smooth out the process, social media marketing should never run on auto-pilot. It’s important to check in periodically to assess what is or isn’t working, check the performance of new campaigns or ideas, and make adjustments as you see fit.

Utilize the reporting metrics of each social media platform (or a publishing tool if you use one) to look for trends in engagement, reach, or other activity.

Create An Experience That Centers On Your School

Social media marketing can be an effective tool to market to private school parents by utilizing creative content, clear messaging, and a consistent brand image. By creating an experience that centers on your school, your social media marketing can speak to current families, educate potential new families, and serve as an effective marketing channel for recruitment.

If you’re thinking about getting started, or maybe it’s time to adjust your social media strategy, contact our team at SOLVED today for a free consultation!