Have you ever heard of vamping? No? You may be surprised to read that many of us are guilty of vamping on a regular basis. What could be even more surprising is that 80% of teens have admitted to vamping!

‘Vamping’ is the act of staying up late at night to use electronics; a familiar concept to many of us who own smartphones.

Vamping on Smartphones

With 83% of mobile users now using smartphones, and a world that’s constantly adapting to keep up with online demand, almost everything is readily available at our fingertips. Clothes shopping, food delivery, news, video games, health and fitness, TV and movies, audio, literature, sports and so, so much more!

With how much these handy little devices have to offer these days, most of us spend very little time away from our phones - bedtime included.

SmugMug and Flickr, two major photo-services on social media, have recently joined together. Fans and users of each channel have grown concerned about the possible impact of this.

Will SmugMug's acquisition of Flickr see the latter cease to exist? Will there be an entirely new platform that utilises the best of both? Will we get FlickrMug or Smuckr?

…let’s take a look!

What is SmugMug?

SmugMug (founded in 2002) is an independent photo management platform for amateurs and professionals alike to share and sell photos. It provides users with a secure platform for photo storage, easy sharing and e-commerce capabilities. The SmugMug community, as a whole, are renowned for actively encouraging and empowering each other to learn, share, and inspire (putting the social in social media).

What perhaps makes SmugMug stand out a little, as a social media platform, is it’s subscription only approach. Services start at $5.99/month, rising to $30/month for premium accounts. This in turns helps the business turn a very healthy profit and users enjoy zero ads and little to no outside investors plying their trades.

What is Flickr?

Flickr (founded in 2004) is likewise an online photo management and sharing platform. The first version was more of a chat room tool (called FlickrLive) that focussed on photo sharing capabilities.

It was later bought by Yahoo! in 2005 as a replacement to Yahoo! Photos (a struggling platform that later closed for good in 2007). Yahoo!, in turn, was acquired by Verizon and coupled with with AOL to create a new subsidiary called Oath.

Flickr itself declares that it has two core goals as a social media platform:

1. “We want to help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them”

2. “We want to enable new ways of organising photos and video”

What are the differences between SmugMug and Flickr?

Both SmugMug and Flickr offer similar platforms, where users can buy and sell photos. But what sets them apart from one another?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an important consideration to take when working on websites. It is the way we optimise how websites are set up and the content that populates them to rank them better on search engines.

If someone searches for your school on Google (or another search engine), you want your school to be the top result! SEO is important for your school website; we want you to have a strong presence online in our digitally-led world.

Well into 2018, we have seen the algorithms and techniques for SEO change. To keep on top of things, here are 10 SEO tips for schools:

Website SEO tips

[1] Optimised homepage: ensuring that your homepage meets SEO best practice is a vital step in boosting your site's ranking. The main aim is to ensure that keywords and page title is correct.

Keywords should only be used once per page, otherwise you will be competing against other pages for ranking. For the homepage, you will want to look at keywords like:

• school name (i.e. Interactive & School)

• type of school (i.e. Independent & Preparatory / Senior / Secondary / Primary etc.)

Page title should be the name of your school.

[2] URLs

In a similar vein, using good practice across your URLs will help with SEO. The page's title should match (or at least make up the core of the URL) as it moves through the different levels of your sitemap.

With the arrival of social media, we have seen much change in the way we communicate today. Even the language we use has taken direct influence from social channels old and new.

Twitter’s prominence today in pop culture and everyday conversation exemplifies this perfectly. After all, the definition of “tweet” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. This year we have witnessed one of the most influential and powerful individuals on our planet, President Donald Trump, making regular headline news with the content he shares over Twitter.

But just how did this massive platform come to be, and how has it developed over the years?

The Dawn of Twitter

The first Tweet was published on March 21, 2006 9:30 pm PST when Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, published:

The doors are once more open! Pupils and staff, old and new, are filing back in. Classes, which stood so eerily quiet only a few weeks ago, are open again for business. Yes! Welcome #BackToSchool.

So, as the education machine rolls into action once more, you are likely facing a giant - and still growing - list of tasks. But do not fear! We are here to help out.

Let’s get straight into in then, with the @intSchools #BackToSchool Marketing Checklist for 2018-19.

What marketing trends should I be looking at?

The realms (and channels) for marketing are changing at an incredible rate. To stay ahead, schools and their marketing teams need to adapt too.

Social media is constantly evolving. What worked well last year may prove to be less impactful this year. Here are the marketing trends you should be making a note of this academic year:

• Voice OS:

  • Test your school on voice search

  • Does Alexa, Google, Siri know your school?

  • Can you ask "Alexa, what time does the school concert start tonight?". If not, find out how we can build an Alexa Skills App for your school - email alexa@interactiveschools.com.

• Virtual / Augmented Reality:

  • Are your classes making the most of the most modern #EdTech innovations?

  • Does your website offer a virtual tour?

  • Could VR be ‘perfect’ for education?

• ChatBots:

  • Have you thought about utilising ChatBots to help your community find answers on your website / parent portal / apps / social media?

• Google Analytics:

  • Do you track goals / conversions from your website?

  • Do you have a dashboard set up to monitor key metrics and visitor behaviours? Do you receive these reports weekly?

  • If no, how can you best understand your audience and refine marketing and site content appropriately?

Website and parent comms

Knowing which trends are hitting the sweet spots in marketing right now is essential. But what about the more constant areas, such as your school website and parent comms (i.e. your email newsletter)? Be sure to consider each of these carefully, to make the most of them.

• Website / Creative:

  • Is your website truly ✨stand out✨ and reflect your school?

  • Visit your school website 'for the first time' and imagine you are a prospective parent - maybe even ask a friend!

  • What emotions do you feel when viewing your current creative campaigns?

  • Is your site speed 'excellent'? Test on Google Speed Test.

  • We are showcasing our incredible portfolio every day on Twitter - #WebsiteShowcase. Take a look. We can deliver this for you.

• Email newsletter:

  • Does your weekly parent newsletter takes longer than 5 minutes to put together? If not, speak to our team ;-)

• Review your Google Search:

  • Have you reviewed your search engine results page (SERP) on Google? What links comes up?

  • Does your school have a 'Knowledge Panel'?

  • Correct logo?

  • Social icons displaying?

  • Review your presence on Mumsnet and other forums/directories

  • Do you control most of the first page? E.g. are the links mostly 'owned media' - your website, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter etc.

  • Learn more about Search Engine Results Pages (and how to influence them).

The #BackToSchool Strategy

How about the big part… the strategy that leads all this?! This is the most important part to implement and maintain.

It will undoubtedly change as the year goes on - meeting the demands and changes of your school - so we have 5 Interactive Schools inspired actions to take, that really kick off the new year:

1. Does your marketing STAND OUT? What will make you different from your competitors? Social is BIG! You can't afford to be a needle in the haystack. To have impact, you need to have emotional impact on every stakeholder: parents, pupils, prospective families, teachers (plus future staff!), alumni, and the wider community. 

2. Does your social naming match throughout? Your social handle is your new .com domain - it’s how people will find you, and what you will display on your advertising. This becomes a direct representation of your brand on social media. Have a consistent name across every channel.

3. Do you have a content strategy framework ready to use at your school? This should cover all the details such as:

• what to post

• when to post

• who posts

• where it is posted

• ratio of school-related posts to non-school-related posts

• who oversees the profiles.

If you don't have one then make sure you define one. This will essentially be a one-stop guide for you to refer to when considering the coming social media marketing plan.

We can also help with this! We offer social media training to at both a marketing and school-wide level - how about inviting us in for an INSET or school training day?

4. Is your process to communicate with parents streamlined? This isn't just about responding to queries raised by parents on social media. It is about how you get information to them. Take your school email newsletter. Does it take ages to put the newsletter together? Do you use analytics to determine the impact of your newsletter? Do parents even read the newsletter, or does it go straight through to spam? All a parent is interested in is a mention of THEIR child - how can you deliver these personalised stories?

5. Do you have an audit process in place to make sure content is only published once? Nothing looks more unprofessional than duplicated content. We often see schools link their different social platforms (such as Facebook and Twitter, or Facebook and Instagram). While this does save time it does take away social authority. People don't want to see the same stuff, they want to be engaged with lots of different media!

Need more help? Speak to our team

We hope that this guide has aided you in your #BackToSchool preparations. We'll be keeping our ear to the ground for all your #SchoolStories.

We'd love to hear from you, please leave comments or thoughts about social media marketing and this article below.

Welcome to a new academic year

August and September is an exciting time for many schools around the globe, as the gates open once more for another fantastic year of learning, growth and innovation. New pupils have joined your ranks, bringing their unique personalities and passions. What are you doing to spark these interests in your pupils?

It is easy to fall into familiar patterns; to stick to what feels safe. But, to be a truly forward thinking organisation, it is time to take stock and look to the future. What new paths can you take this year to adapt to a very fluid, tech-led world? Because the bottom-line is this: to be impactful we have to remain relevant and not stagnate.

Make way for the UX Agency

Practicing what we preach, we have recently gone through a total rebrand - looking to the future. We will continue to do what we have always done well, but continually adapt and roll with the times to do it even better!

We want to drive a forward-thinking, innovative approach to how schools not only market themselves but also how they can look to disrupt old-fashioned education models and adapt new principles relating to the #FutureSchool.

In the article, @SimonNoakes - our Founder and CEO - describes his vision to start the conversation. 

The #FutureSchool: Evolution or Transformation?

For hundreds of years pedagogy has formed the core to teaching and learning. 

Learning outcomes and academic results have become the focus for educators and the community around them - a narrow view that is having less and less to do with today's modern needs in education. While striving for educational greatness is not necessarily a bad thing, the single-mindedness desire to top league tables and churn out the best grades is failing our children. Schools need to be adaptable to new styles of education, otherwise the only losers will be those who are receiving an education.

"Schools tend to focus on buying technology, without considering the human impact."

Schools talk a lot about ‘educating the whole child’, and ‘giving them opportunities beyond the curriculum’ to thrive in what they are good at - but are we missing the point? 

The Reality

We’ve all heard the arguments of how social media is raising a generation of socially deprived young people, with added concerns of depression and mental health issues stemming from the continued impact. It is often all to easy to forget about all the good that social media has enabled / done.

Here are four ways in which social media has helped save the world.

1. #GivingTuesday

The holidays are everyone's favourite time of the year, spending time with your loved ones and exchanging gifts with each other. But what about the ones who have no one?

This is where #GivingTuesday comes in. Started back in 2012, #GivingTuesday is a trending hashtag that continues directly on from #BlackFriday and #CyberMonday.

Before we start, let’s get this out the way - emoticons and emojis are not the same.

• Emoticons are formed by using typographical marks, such as :) or ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• Emojis are actual images, such as or ‍♀️

Since their birth in Japan back in 1999, emojis have exploded into text speech all around the world. From  to , emojis can be used anywhere around the world to convey universal messages.

But what is it about emojis that makes them so addictive?

The use of emojis in text speech adds emotion to what you’re saying. How exciting!!! can quickly become sarcastic and negative just by switching the emoji to . Displaying clear emotions is most definitely a large part of the usage of emojis, but not its singular purpose.

They’re also quite often used to soften sad news. “Sorry I can’t make it tonight, but have fun ”. Or they could be used to express yourself in a more comfortable way. “️ ❤️ you”. And finally, they can be used when words are just not enough. “I bought you a car” and the reply “”.  

Emojis help us express ourselves, but is it really enough to call it it’s own language?

Emojis may not have set rules like other languages, but there is a universal understanding of what most of them mean. Let's give this a go....

POP QUIZ: Can you guess what these emojis are referring to?

1. (clue: dance)

2. ❤️1️⃣4️⃣ (clue: yearly event)

3. (clue: film quote)

4. 1️⃣➕⏰ (clue: song title)

5. (clue: film)

6. Can you guess the song below?

Cinemagraphs are a fun and exciting way to add a little bit of gravitas to your content. Captivating and inspirational to your audience, they provide a different dynamic; a new way to look at art and an interactive, visual form to work with. A cinemagraph is a living image - a still photograph that contains an element of movement looped seamlessly to create a never ending moment. It is a mixture of both photo and video and creates something magical by tricking the mind into thinking it’s seeing something truly different.

In short, they can breathe life (or bubbles) into a piece of content to give it that real WOW factor.

The amazing, spectacular world that is hashtags tends to elude the best of us, even more so when you’re an educator. And somehow they still remain an ever important part of the online world. Whether you’re searching for a particular subject or writing a post, knowing which hashtags to use is key.

These 20 #hashtags will offer you a convenient and easy list to help you stay in the loop and join the important conversations on Twitter.

[1] #EdTech

Technology and education are forever intertwined, whether we like it or not. The advancement of tech is doing wonders in revolutionising teaching; and if you want to keep on the forefront of what’s going on, it’s a good idea to tune into the #EdTech hashtag.

This will give you constant source of education technology ideas, new tools for students, and how other educators are putting technology to good use in the classroom and beyond.