Five ways to use social media to promote your school’s brand

Social media has totally transformed the way we network and communicate. No doubt you already have a social presence across sites like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, but are you reaping the full benefits social media can offer?

Create a window into your school/classroom

We humans are inquisitive creatures and we all like to be kept in the loop. By regularly sharing photos and videos of student projects, activities and events, parents are given a glimpse into what their children get up to daily. Naturally, you will have safeguarding measures in place to ensure you have safe photography that keeps everyone happy.

But it also serves another purpose – two in fact. Provided the photos and videos you share are interesting and portray your school in a positive light, they’ll essentially become marketing tools, inspiring new parents to place their trust in you and teacher candidates to apply for vacancies.

Give your job adverts incredible reach for free

Gone are the days where school heads must feel ashamed for having multiple vacancies advertised. Turn it around instead and use your veritable network of contacts to attract your next teacher instead of paying an agency to do it! Once you have an online advert, schedule it to post repeatedly for the next few weeks on your social feeds and ask every parent and staff member to reshare it. Remind them that for every teacher they source instead of an agency, that’s about £5,000 they have saved for a school trip instead. I know where parents would rather you spent the money.

Source hands-on learning inspiration for your students

By building a community with the parents at your school and making them feel a part of the learning, you break down the parent-teacher divide and integrate them into your world. You may find that you have a raft of talented and inspirational parents at your fingertips who respond more positively to invitations to be part of school careers advice days and professional services, or simply open the children’s eyes to new experiences.

Become known as a thought-leader in the education sector

This is a trick used commonly in commercial business. A spokesperson engages in forums on social media, and leads debate about relevant issues, and thus, the brand becomes trusted and respected.

This might involve you tracking and using industry-relevant #hashtags on Twitter; writing and sharing news and thought-leadership articles on LinkedIn with a comment from your school; or demonstrating your support for campaigns on industry body Facebook pages. As well as impressing parents, being active on social media in this way might see your recruitment efforts receive a welcome boost. If your school is seen as taking an active stance on issues that really matter to candidates – like workload management and salaries – this will help them to see you as an employer of choice.

Create global opportunities for students

Social media is opening the door to global interactions. For schools with international counterparts, it can draw your communities together as pupils share ideas, photos and videos relating to topics they’re currently learning about. Unique hashtags can be created (and monitored) by schools to allow pupils to interact with peers from different classes, schools, counties and countries.

So, is your school ready to get social? An annual advertising licence with eteach.com comes with a bespoke and customisable career site, the ability to instantly ‘broadcast’ vacancies onto your social media feeds, and countless other incredible tools included as standard.

Speak to our Independent Schools Recruitment Specialist, Harry, on 
0845 226 1906.


W: www.eteach.com/recruit