Facebook is a marketing giant. In fact, if Facebook was a country it would be the most populated country in the world!
This means using Facebook as part of your school's marketing is simply a good idea. With a population of 1.86 billion users (as of the end of 2016) it is likely the vast majority of your community, the parents currently at or interested in your school, are Facebook users.
We have listed 5 advanced tips to help you get the most out of the marketing behemoth.
As a business, your Page is eligible to be verified by Facebook. This means you are officially recognised as an organisation, and parents will be able to find you more effectively. Not only this, but this little tick by your name becomes a badge of security - when people see it they will feel safer about liking and interacting with your Page.
There are a few criteria that should be met before you can attempt to verify your school's Page:
If these are met you should see the option to verify in your Page's Settings.
It is also possible to verify using a business document. Simply follow the same steps but click Verify this Page with documents instead, at the bottom-left of the window that appears. You can then upload a picture of an official document (e.g. phone bill / utility bill) showing your school's name and address.
You may have noticed that Facebook has an unofficial / unmanaged Page of your school. These are created when people tag or check-in at your school without using your official account (perhaps your account wasn't set up at the time).
After you have verified your Page it becomes possible to merge the official with the unofficial - nice right! Sometimes, Facebook will do this automatically for you - double nice!
This is nice and simple to do:
Please note that:
Facebook added the Call to Action button to business Pages towards the end of 2014. A call to action is nothing new to marketing - and having stood the test of time a simple, effective way to get interaction.
As a school you want your community to primarily be using the Contact Us button - driving queries directly to a school email address or phone number.
Once you've created a call-to-action button, you can track the number of people who have clicked on the button. There are two ways to view this information:
Hover over your Page’s Create Call to Action button and then hover over View Insights to see how many clicks it’s received in the past seven days
Go to This week on the right-side of your Page and hover over the box showing the name of your call to action
Insights are Facebook's term for analytics. By making use of tools such as Insights, you are able to start answering one of the most primary marketing questions: WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?
Getting lots of engagement on your posts is great - it's what you are looking for in one sense. But, getting lots of engagement from circles that are outside your community does not necessarily translate to the one thing you want from your school's marketing: enquiries.
Insights gives you the opportunity to start tailoring your content to suit the demographics which match your community.
You should already have a basic idea of which demographics you are aiming your marketing at - i.e. age groups, geographic location, general interests, spending habits - and this is all through analysing the parents that already have their children in your school.
In using Insights, and taking the next step, you can start analysing the individual people who are encountering your brand on Facebook. This allows you to actively curate the content that resonates best with your demographic and thus give you an idea on what your community wants to see.
Right now, videos are kicking up a storm in content marketing. Their popularity is so high that Facebook is actively pushing video content up on Newsfeeeds.
This means that utilising video content as part of your marketing strategy is a proven, effective way to get more engagement.
Facebook allows you to upload videos directly, or natively, (in the exact same way you would a photo) - instead of sharing a URL from a channel such as YouTube. There are various benefits for uploading native videos:
#Hashtags on Facebook do not have the same effect as they do on channels such as Twitter or Instagram. Understanding the art of what should go into Posts is important, especially when looking to keep your community engaged (which should be all the time ).
Research shows that Posts with hashtags get less engagement - so why look to go against this evidence.
Here are a few ideas for creating top, engaging Posts on your Page:
Live-streaming services are coming thick and fast on social media. We predicted Live-streaming would be a big trend in 2017, and it looks like our prediction is already fulfilled! So, why should you be using it?
Check our handy guide for getting your school set up on Facebook Live.
Facebook has a wealth of tools which can help drive your marketing to your community more efficiently. In understanding these tools, and using them correctly, you are giving your school a boost in standing out against your competitors.
Remember, Facebook is massive! This means that while you can reach more people, and it is also likely more of your parents are using Facebook over other channels, there needs to be an effective strategy in place - otherwise your content will be washed away and not seen.
We are here to help! If you have any queries regarding Facebook and social media please do get in touch, or leave a comment below.