Setting Up Your School's Facebook Account
Facebook is a social media massive that can’t be ignored. Owning Instagram and Whatsapp, we’d suggest setting up a Facebook page first to help set up your other pages. If you’ve not read our other post on ‘Why Your School Need’s Social Media’ – we’d suggest reading that before this one. But now you’re here, let’s help set up your Facebook.
What would my school use it for?
Facebook is a platform that does it all – from sharing videos to imagery to links to your website – it’s a platform that a massive proportion of the world uses and is a great way to build up your school’s online presence and community.
How do I set it up?
With all social media networks, we’d suggest setting them up linked to a generic social media email address for your school. That way, if someone leaves or moves on, there’s no risk of the social media account being manipulated. We’d suggest creating a generic email like: socialmedia@yourschool.com. (This also means you’ll avoid the numerous emails from all your accounts!)
Once you’ve created a Facebook profile with this email, you’ll be able to create a Facebook Page linked to it.
If you need a hand with this, Facebook have a comprehensive resource bank for all your questions.
Your Handle & URL.
As we mentioned in our post, ‘Why Your School Needs Social Media’, make sure you’re using a consistent handle across all social media and that it reflects your location & school. We suggested structuring it like @YourSchoolLDN or @LDNyourschool so that visitors & followers know your school’s name and location. (Don’t forget that you could abbreviate your school’s initials to make it shorter).
Make sure that all your school’s key information such as office opening times, school holidays, websites and links are added in so that even when you’re setting it up, people have links to be directed to.
Before you worry about your posts, upload your school’s logo as the Facebook Page’s display image and then a high quality image for the cover photo. These two images will instantly give a flavour of the school so make sure they’re chosen wisely*.
What would I post?
This part is up to you! We’ve seen educational institutions use it to share upcoming school events, snippets of recent school shows, exam results etc – the choice is yours.
We’ve often found that the most engaged audience on Facebook are aged 35+, which makes it a great platform to engage with parents (and even grandparents!).
Whenever we schedule a post, we ask ourselves:
- What would this post mean to a new parent?
- What would this post mean to a current parent?
- Is this post educational?
- Does this post engage and cause a response?
By making sure we can answer these questions, we ensure that we’re effectively communicating our key marketing messages and confirms that everyone who sees the post is engaged – because remember, not everyone who sees each post will be a current parent.
Consider the language used and whether your audience are native English speakers.
It’s all about trial and error.
Facebook audiences react differently so try a few things to see what works. It’ll take a while to develop your audience and grow followers so remember to be patient.
Work with the whole school.
Make sure to keep in touch with the academic staff and senior management team to make sure everyone is aligned on your social media – and that they are able to have input into any upcoming posts.
Great! You’re all set up. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for updates on social media and how you can take your platforms to the next level.
Setting up your Instagram? Read our post on setting up an Instagram for your school.
*With new GDPR regulations affecting UK and Europe, ensure that any imagery of students is associated with a consent form. We’d suggest having all new parents sign a form upon admission of students to allow you to use any imagery of them in future marketing activities – most parents will be fine with this, but the consent form is absolutely imperative.
