Setting Up Your School's Instagram Account
Instagram, owned by Facebook, is a visually focused social media network that allows you to provide an insight into your school’s day to day by sharing imagery, videos and graphics. Linked to your Facebook page, Instagram is one of the most effective ways to visually represent your school. If you’ve not set up your school’s Facebook page yet, read our post first.
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!)
As Instagram is owned by Facebook, to create a ‘Business’ page (as opposed to personal), you’ll need to link it to a Facebook Page. Once you’ve followed the above steps to create a Facebook profile, you’ll be able to create a Facebook Page linked to it. When you set up your Instagram Business Page, you’ll be prompted to link it to Facebook.
Your Handle
Make sure that 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). On Instagram, your handle will be how followers will tag your school so make sure you’re happy with it.
Your Profile
Similar to your ‘page’ on Facebook, each Instagram Business Profile includes a ‘profile’ where you can change your display image and add a biography, link, address, phone number and email. These appear as buttons on the page – like the below.
For consistency, make sure your display picture and biography is consistent across your social media accounts.
Your Biography
Instagram biographies have character limitations so make sure you utilise it fully. Make sure to include what ages your school caters for, what programs you offer (e.g. GCSE, A-Level, IB Diploma, SATs), and your location. If you have a short slogan, include this as well. If your followers want to know more, they can click through to your website.
Your Hashtags
A hashtag is a way of sorting Instagram posts into common groups of images or subject matter – we’d suggest establishing a hashtag for your school that is similar to your handle e.g. #YourSchoolLDN – ours is #DigitiseMySchool. As your Instagram grows, you may wish to use more hashtags – see our ‘Ultimate Instagram Guide for Schools’ post for a guide to getting your posts out there.
Now what?
Once your page is set up, it’s time to follow some people on Instagram! We’d always suggest following people that are relevant – that could be competitor schools, the official accounts for your qualifications or exam boards – anything. We’d strongly advise against following any parents or students to avoid conflicts of interest.