The online world provides lots of great ways to connect with people beyond your immediate school community. This can help your school in several ways:

• Supporting subject leaders – subject leaders being able to share best practice with others of the same subject can really enhance their job satisfaction and help bring fresh ideas to your school
• Promoting the school – showcasing the work you do for students helps to put your school on the map which can help raise pupil admission numbers and job applicant numbers.
• Raising funds – using social media can help to promote your fundraising needs to a wider audience
• Connections – reaching a wider audience can help you make connections across the globe, which can in turn give pupils interesting pen-pal type projects, and also connect you to a world of potential career advisers as those connections may happily take part in talking about their jobs and lives to inspire your students.
• With the decline of X/Twitter, and due to some controversy regarding how it is managed, schools are starting to consider using other social media platforms to reach their audience. This blog will look at some of the options available and some important factors to consider for them:

·  Instagram: Instagram is a popular platform for sharing images and short videos, making it ideal for showcasing school events, student achievements, and student life at your school

·  Facebook: Facebook is still a widely used platform and can be useful for sharing news, announcements, and updates with parents and the wider community. Our Facebook Guide for Schools can help with ideas for how best to use this option.  

·  LinkedIn: LinkedIn can be useful for connecting with alumni, staff, and other professionals in the education sector. More and more school leaders are joining LinkedIn as a way to connect with others, discuss key topics, and promote their own school(s) to the wider education community. It is also a great place to connect with current and potential suppliers.

·  TikTok: TikTok is a rapidly growing platform that is popular with younger audiences. Schools can use it to create engaging, bite-sized videos that showcase their school culture and values. There are schools who are hugely successful in showcasing their school and students through TikTok.

·  YouTube: YouTube can be used to share longer videos, such as recordings of school events, student performances, and educational content. Students can also have their work shared here – anything from them planning and recording content, through to simply creating slideshows of art work.

·  Threads – Threads accounts are linked to Facebook or Instagram accounts as part of Meta, which means it can be easy to add content across the channels. Although Threads is more ‘Twitter-like’ in the way it works. Schools are not, so far, very successful on Threads as it lends itself to a more ongoing storytelling approach which may not suit the content schools want to put out.

·  BlueSky – Another ‘Twitter-like option, BlueSky is where most of the education crowd from Twitter has gone. Using or searching the #EduSky hashtag can help you to find other teachers and subject leaders who are chatting and sharing best practice.

It’s important to note that the choice of social media platform will depend on the school’s target audience and the type of content you want to share.

Sixth form colleges and other FE institutions may particularly find TikTok is a good fit, for example, as their student audience are already active on this platform. They may realise that the college is the perfect fit through carefully chosen content. Many schools are allowing older students to run “takeover” days where young people take control of the school feed for a day to add content that they think would be useful for highlighting the school/college’s strengths. Some headteachers are also taking up the challenge of appealing to the next generation through witty content!

Any social media channels can also be a great way to showcase potential career and learning paths which students may not have thought of. You can ask former students to also send in content for your social media channels. This can support not just prospective students but help your current students to connect with your alumni.

Staying safe online

Safety is a critical concern when using social media in (or for) a school setting. Here are some key points that schools should consider before using social media:

–          Privacy settings: Ensure that all social media accounts are set to the highest privacy settings to protect student and staff information. Make decisions on whether you want public or private accounts. On Facebook, for example, you can choose between public business pages, which are great for advertising, or closed groups where you only admit current parents/students. On platforms such as TikTok you would need a public account to make the most of the advertising potential, so you would want to ensure personal information is minimised, perhaps asking current students to use a pseudonym on the platform when making content for the school.

–          Content moderation: Implement a content moderation policy to ensure that all content posted on social media is appropriate and does not violate any school policies or community guidelines. You could have some key students in charge of this, as well as staff who have oversight, as the students are usually more than happy to help out with making social media a success. Digital Leaders can plan and implement a content strategy which is also giving them fantastic skills for future careers!

–          Cyberbullying: Educate students, staff, and parents on the risks of cyberbullying and implement policies and procedures to address any incidents that may occur. It is important to ensure there are easy to access mechanisms for anonymous reporting of concerning content, and that incidents are handled in an appropriate and timely way.  

–          Appropriate use: Develop guidelines for appropriate use of social media and ensure that all users are aware of them. This can include e-safety rules such as students using pseudonyms when they are on camera or podcast recordings so that they are not identified as easily. And making sure other personal details are not given away. Many platforms allow for filtering of comments and bad language to help you to keep the school accounts clear of any undesirable content below your videos/photos.

–          Deepfake concerns: Many schools have become concerned about the growing use of “deepfake” photos and videos. This is where someone’s image is used to then create an AI video or photo which looks like them but in a situation that they were not really in. If this is a particular concern for you in using images on social media you can mitigate this by either using AI yourself to modify photos of students and staff enough that they no longer fully resemble themselves, or by using content which does not include faces. This could mean only using images of work done by students, or activities where you take photos with just the backs of the heads of pupils.

Top tips for social media use

If you do want to make a plan to use social media more, no matter which platform you choose, here are some key tips for making the most of the time you spend:

Know your audience: Understand who your target audience is and tailor your content to meet their needs and interests. Decide whether you are targeting other teachers and school leaders, prospective students (for older students), prospective parents (for younger students), your wider local community, or a wide range of people.

Consistency is key: Post regularly and consistently to maintain engagement and build a strong online presence. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. A simple “picture of the week” of something a child made can really spark joy for your audience.

Engage with your community: Encourage engagement by responding to comments and messages promptly and asking questions to encourage participation. Again think about who you want to connect with. Maybe your English department wants to find book recommendations for a particular topic or year group?

Quality over quantity: Focus on creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that showcases your school’s unique strengths and values. Have a look at examples from other schools for ideas if you get stuck.

Measure and analyse: Use analytics tools to track your social media performance and adjust your strategy as needed to improve engagement and reach. This can help you to see what works and what doesn’t. But bear in mind that things are always a bit slow at the start, give it time!

You can also embed some of your social media content into your website to help keep it up-to-date so get in touch to ask us about that.