Sometimes dubbed ‘the Year of the Podcast’, 2018 offered interesting insight into the content habits of social media audiences.

In the UK, podcast listeners have boomed in the last five years. In fact, 5.9 million UK adults (11%) aged 15+ are noted as weekly podcast listeners; almost doubling from 3.2 million (7%) back in 2013. While most age groups are represented, the most notable demographic to adopt podcasts are 15-24 years olds.

Across the pond, US audiences are also consuming podcasts at an increased rate. Last year, 12 million people listened to a podcast for the first time and over a quarter of all Americans (84.5 million) listen to podcasts on a monthly basis. To put that in context, that is more people than the combined populations of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal!

"WeChat is a way of Life" - Allen Zhang, founder of WeChat

WhatsApp and its instant messaging, Facebook’s feed and archiving, Twitter’s constant up-to-date feed, Instagram’s photo sharing and YouTube’s ability to create and share videos. Guaranteed that you will have some, if not all of these apps. WeChat has these and so much more and unlike many other apps/websites it is not blocked in China. If you live in the West you may not know of this app, but soon you may install ‘The App for Everything’.

The great firewall of China is real, many websites are blocked, one in particular you may have heard of and rely on heavily… Google, this means no Google Maps, no Gmail, no Google Docs, no Play Store, the list goes on... WeChat takes elements of our favourite apps and brings them together in one app with their own store, maps, social feed, banking, voice messaging, online dating, and so much more.

Created in 2011, ‘Wēixìn’ (almost pronounced like ‘we she-en’) was created as a multi-purpose, social media, and mobile payment app. With WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. all being blocked behind the Great Firewall of China, the only way to stay in touch with the western world (without the use of a VPN) is to use this app… and ask family and friends to download it as well. Beyond having to download and create an account for another app, this will work just the same as WhatsApp, with a few bonuses where they could learn a thing or two. WeChat is becoming harder to put into a nutshell.

Let’s start with a laugh and the app built upon the emoji that is found on every phone and allowed limitless possibilities with the use of ‘stickers’ where you can download premade animations or you can be creative and make custom stickers, it’s easy:

1. Find an image or GIF and save it to your phone or desktop.

2. Open the WeChat app, select ‘account’ and then the ‘sticker gallery’.

3. Select ‘custom sticker’ and add anything you like.

4. Picture this: You get asked if you’re dressed and ready to go to a wedding. In two taps (no more than what you would do for an emoji), you could send one or both of these as a reply…

Think about it, how many times do you pick up your phone and mindlessly check Instagram? How many times do you check your timeline, only to quickly respond to a message and then refresh your feed again for the 800th time that day. Is it any wonder when there are so many accounts to follow? - all claiming to help you achieve your dream body, the ‘perfect’ job, the ‘perfect’ filtered life. We can get lost in a sea of ‘likes’ and comments for validation.  

#DoItForTheGram

Picture this, you’re scrolling down your timeline on Instagram and you are bombarded by images and posts by social media influencers – their message is one that seems simple enough: be yourself, love your body, embrace your flaws. Most of the time these images that are highly edited and perfectly poised often depict an unrealistic standard of beauty. Interestingly, free apps that can manipulate your body or face seem to be one of the most popular editing apps to download.

The younger generation base a lot of their thoughts, feelings, and emotions on what they see online, and can we blame them? This is where the younger generation spend most of their time. This is where they can see inside a celebrity or influencers life, where more often than not the way you look warrants sponsorship deals, free products, and the idea of a lavish, easily attainable life.

Mental health week spiked up a debate as to whether social media is detrimental to teens. A lot of Instagram influencers would proceed to post pictures of their lavish lifestyles with an inspirational caption. In turn, a lot of them were criticised for not actually taking the aspect of mental health seriously and were actually adding to the increasing problem.

Nowadays, there is an obsession with posting the ‘Perfect Selfie’ and our society is inundated with images that are meant to sell us a product, brand, or lifestyle. Is it any wonder that when we look at our own lives and they do not quite fit into the backdrop of an ‘Instagram’ filter, we see our own accomplishments fall short? Does my edited image or heavily filtered photo make me more of a marketing tool? We are so spoilt with everything being so easily accessible and on demand all of the time that we can sometimes forget to connect with reality and appreciate what it takes to be ‘alive’, in a world consumed by virtual reality and refreshed timelines.

This ideal can be detrimental to our teens that seem to live their lives on a social platform often doing things or posting content purely for ‘likes’ and doing it #ForTheGram’. There seems to be a conflicting message across most influencers, ‘be confident, love yourself, but that’s only okay if you fit into the mould and the standards of what society deems beautiful.’ If we can manipulate our images so easily, do we lose touch with reality? And constantly chase impossible and unrealistic #Goals.

It must be difficult and confusing for our future generation to receive such mixed signals and it’s hardly surprising that the youth of today set such high standards for themselves and anxiety and depression in teens has increased drastically, ‘Anxiety disorders are the most common of all mental illnesses and affect 25 percent of all teens and 30 percent of all teen girls.’ Even teenagers that don’t necessarily want to engage in social media can feel the pressure of having to keep up with the latest social trends in order to fit into conversation with their peers.

It isn’t all doom and gloom though, there are a lot of positive messages that can come from social media and we can see the sense and the shift occurring. Influencers such as Chessie King, who set up an Instagram campaign about cyber bullying and internet trolling, edited an image of herself but edited it using comments her trolls had left her on her page. She did so to highlight the detrimental effect that cyberbullying can have on people, especially teenagers, and shared the ‘beauty ideal’ with her followers:

Who’s online?

Smartphone ownership has become more common than ever in teen life, with 95% of teens now reporting that they own a smartphone or have access to one. This easy access to the internet, of course, leads to a much higher involvement in online activities. In fact, 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis!

Back in 2012, on the other hand, only 66% of 16-24 year olds owned a smartphone. At this time, back in 2012, the number of active Facebook users surpassed one billion, making it the first social network ever to do so! Whilst you may remember those days of Facebook being the most popular social media platform around, with teens glued to the site almost every waking moment - those days are now over! Facebook has now lost many teenagers from both the UK and the US, as mobile social networks like Instagram and Snapchat have really begun to take over. Now that such a high number of these young people are in possession of smartphones, it’s no wonder that they are turning to social networks like these, which were designed specifically for mobile devices, as opposed to Facebook, which was predominantly a desktop site.

But it’s not only teens whose smartphone ownership has increased dramatically since that time. The majority of parents with children currently in school are also smartphone-users, with 95% of 25-34 year olds and 91% of 35-54 year olds also now owning smartphones, compared to only 60% and 42%, back in 2012.

So, what are teens & parents using today?

It’s clear that social networks are now at a stage of maturity where they are appealing to almost all age groups, in different ways. However, Instagram and Snapchat are obvious exceptions to this and are mostly more popular with younger age groups. Whilst Facebook is still technically the most popular social network in terms of active users, the younger generation is certainly beginning to move away from this and more toward more mobile apps.

In terms of how we are sharing social media, the line between social networking and messaging apps is constantly blurring, with teens just a click away from sharing their thoughts with not only their followers/friends on various sites, but also directly to their friends via direct messages. Thanks to our desire to often message privately like this, many existing social networks have adapted and expanded to accommodate for this, adding private messaging functions to enable a faster and more direct approach to sharing content.

Facebook

Facebook still stands as the most populated social network. This is no surprise, as they are constantly updating and expanding to try to include more and more functions and features. The site allows users to share photos, videos and other content, to sell items on their ‘marketplace,’ and also to privately message other users. Having recently added ‘stories’ too, following the success of this feature on Snapchat and Instagram, it’s clear that the network is making every attempt to keep up and remain relevant and active in youngsters, who have mostly moved over to being active on other social networks at this point.

However, as it currently stands, Facebook is significantly more favoured by a slightly older audience of 23-37 year olds, with an estimated 80% of respondents within the age bracket using the platform regularly, so parents in this age group are extremely likely to be active on the network. However, it has been predicted that various fake news and data breach issues currently circulating the channel may prompt many users to turn away. 2018’s algorithm changes even prompted Facebook to state that they expect users to spend less time on the site as a result.

Twitter

It has been reported that 81% of millennials check Twitter at least once per day. The site allows for direct messaging alongside its primary use (sharing Tweets and media), but also is likely popular due to the novelty of being able to mention anyone’s Twitter handle in a Tweet. This means that a user can interact with their favourite celebrities who - elsewhere - would usually be unreachable. For younger users, this can be exciting and can allow them to feel closer to their favourite musicians, sports stars and other celebrities, giving the illusion of some kind of connection, when they are retweeted or liked by one of these stars.

Last year (2018), data protection became one of world’s most discussed topics, hitting headlines as technology leaders were held to account about the issue in the US. Luckily for us this side of the pond, 2018 saw new legislation that helps protect our user data and privacy - the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR.

We cared about it so much that “What is GDPR?” became one of top Google searches in the UK last year. To give a simple overview, under GDPR law, anyone holding personal data must be clear in what data they hold, and what they do with it - this includes names, email addresses and any other data that is considered to be personal. It also gives consumers power to request all data that a company holds on them and also the right to be removed from databases - no questions asked.

There’s been a lot of information about GDPR - but what does it mean specifically for school marketing? Just before GDPR came into legislation, we published 7 priorities to make your #SchoolWebsite GDPR compliant, but now that GDPR has been in legislation for a while, here are a few trends we’ve noticed that may have affected you:

Your #SchoolWebsite became secure

Why have an open day?

When planning any event we have to consider the purpose of the event. One question that we encourage schools to ask themselves is:

If we were a company, what would our product be, and how would we market it?

An open day is an opportunity to show off what you have to offer and provide guests with something tangible to take away from it. There are around 2600 independent schools in the UK, so how can yours stand out? Open days are a chance to portray the school brand, after all. School open days create “a first impression that can last a lifetime”.

It is important to make an open day a personalised experience. One way to achieve this is by creating an immersive open day experience - bearing in mind the different objectives you wish to reach. For instance, a prospective parent will be interested in the nitty-gritty questions whereas a prospective student will want an experience to be able to fall in love with the school and their #SchoolStories.

How to make your open day extra special

[1] Creative Concept:

Each of our #InspiringSchools has their own creative concept which should be promoted at open days. For instance, James Allen Girls’ School use portraits as their creative concept. At their open day, they used large photo frames at the entrances to encourage parents and prospective students to take photos and personalise the concept.

Here is a creative print that was used by JESS Dubai at their open day.

So, What is Instagram?

Instagram is a social media platform that typically focuses on media and videos and has a square image format. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, on Instagram you have something called a ‘feed’ where you can follow, like, and comment on content and media that you find engaging. Much like on twitter, you can follow people that you don’t know, as well as celebrities and influencers.

Instagram is one of the most popular platforms that is used today, especially amongst Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996). It is also a platform where you can showcase photography, art, music and even try your hand at food blogging. As part of our social media strategy at ‘Interactive Schools’, we encourage our clients and schools to use this platform to their advantage by uploading pictures and #SchoolStories in a creative and effective way - the purpose is to use Instagram as more of a highlight reel and best bits. Art and photography can be showcased here, anything that is visually appealing, highlighting creativity and inspiration will work well here.

Stories:

There are so many ways to utilise Instagram stories to promote your school, these ‘stories’ only last 24 hours max. However, if there is something that you would like to highlight, you can still save these stories onto your profile.

Hashtags:

You can tag your post with a #hashtag (much like on Twitter), you'll be able to tap the hashtag to see a page that shows all photos and videos people have uploaded with that hashtag. Keep in mind that when people with private profiles tag posts, they won't appear publicly on hashtag pages.

Showcases:

January is a great month to not only look ahead to the coming year, but to also reflect on the year that has gone by. What impacts did it have? What can we learn from it?

Let’s begin with our 2018 #SchoolMarketing Trends & Predictions.

[1] Chatbots

Chatbots had been widely used in a variety of industries - but are yet to filter through to schools.

We have been testing chatbot experiences for schools, whether that’s for current parents or prospective parents.

Here’s a couple of examples that can be integrated into your website and messaging platforms (e.g. Facebook Messenger)

• Current Parents - “When is the next half term break?”

• Prospective Families - “Do you have bursary options?”

The key is to make people aware they are in conversation with a bot - and not a human.

[2] Voice Assistants

Amazon say over 100 million Alexa devices have been sold so far (wow!). Alexa is being installed into almost every type of home product - cars, fridges, mirrors, decorations, chairs, toilets (yes, really).

The number of Voice Assistants had certainly proliferated in 2018, and we expect this to continue into 2019 too,

[3] New Video Formats

Vertical video exploded in 2018 with many publishers adopting mobile-first content creations.

Other video ‘tactics’ cemented themselves too, including meme bars and caption overlays.

We also witnessed more schools harness the power of 360 VR experiences, and live streaming.

[4] Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality

Consumer AR/VR continued to grow in the last 12 months, with more devices and content being release. The highly anticipated Magic Leap was released following $2.3 billion in investment.

Want to see how AR/VR is being used in the classroom? Take a look at the thread on Twitter #ARVRinEDU

With any new consumption device, there needs to be compelling content available. Fortunately, this is being produced - particularly in education.

[5] Internet of Things

2018 was the year of smart devices. Amazon claim there are 28,000 smart home devices that work with Alexa.

That’s going to continue into 2019 and beyond - and you can view more about smart tech in the trends/predictions below.

[6] #SchoolMarketing Automation

We’ve seen schools adopt more automation as part of their admissions and parent engagement process. Whether that’s through Mailchimp, Hubspot, or any other CRM/Email platform.

Many of our schools have stripped the time taken to produce newsletters from 8+ hours per week to just a 5 minute process.

This is also true of wider integrations with your MIS, calendar, fixtures, payments, and other school systems.

[7] Messaging vs. Social Media

Social media engagement has transitioned into private messaging - through Instagram/Twitter DMs, WhatsApp, FB Messenger.

Has your school tried WhatsApp Broadcasts yet? Read on for more…

2019 Predictions & Trends

[1] Podcasts

Podcasts have been on a growth trajectory for the last few years - but are still not a staple in every company’s #ContentStrategy. This is surprising considering almost 50% of the US population listen to podcasts.

We suspect this will change in 2019.

Ideas for your school:

• Students reading news articles (maybe in different languages, if you have an international community)

• Advice and insights for parents

• Teacher insights and ideas

• Leadership episodes for deputies, assistants, Heads.

[2] Newsletters

Who’d have thought email would make a come-back? Although we get bombarded with emails, there is a still a market for niche-newsletters that serve a specific need.

In the #SchoolMarketing world, we find newsletters being one of the top ways to engage with current parents and prospective families. Our client newsletters frequently receive 70+% engagement rates.

[3] Micro Influencers

It’s rare to go on to Instagram without seeing your favourite influencer posing with a protein shake, latest camera gear, a new bag, recommendations on airlines - and just about anything to advertise!

The influencer marketing world has opened up a world of possibilities for marketers and content-creators. The Instagram influencer industry alone is valued at $1.6 billion.

We expect companies/agencies to reallocate money from mainstream influencers to those with 1-10k followers (micro-influencers who have a smaller but highly engaged community).

[4] Privacy (DuckDuckGo etc.)

An interesting year for Facebook, right…?

As more people become concerned about their privacy and what large tech companies do with their data, we suspect more privacy-based platforms to emerge and grow.

DuckDuckGo (a privacy focussed search engine) has seen its traffic grow 10x in the last 5 years.

Whilst still accounting for a small percentage of school website traffic, it’s still important to be aware of these channels and the presence that your school website has.

When was the last time your searched for your school on DuckDuckGo?

[5] Smart Everything…

It’s rare to see a day go by without a NEW smart device for your home.

In the first few days on 2019, we have seen:

• Smart Toilet - Kohler release a smart toilet that promises a ‘fully immersive experience’

• Smart Plank of Wood - Hands on with Mui

• Smart Ring - Motiv’s Fitness Ring

• Smart Oven - Smart counter-top oven identifies food and cooks it for you

We’re already building experiences upon the leading IoT platforms/assistants to connect with parents in the channel of choice.

Have you thought about integrating your website with smart devices?

[6] Emerging Content Channels

We’ve had many of years of the usual suspects - Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat - and a lack of breakout apps recently.

Below are a list of emerging platforms to check out:

• Twitch (Gaming)

• TikTok (Previously Musical.ly)

• Byte (NEW in 2019) a new looping video app from the creator of Vine

As ever, we will continue to keep your school up to date with new apps/platforms through our #SchoolBytes newsletter.

We recommend understanding emerging channels. If they break out, then you will have a head start in the tactics and language that works - and even if they do not, some of the attributes may end up in more popular apps (e.g. Stories originally from Snapchat).

Your school should also reserve its URL/handle. Even if you do not end up using it, you still own your brand name.

#SchoolMarketing Trends & Predictions

[1] Greater Insights & Real-Time Reporting

With a plethora of data out there, it’s easy to get lost in the noise.

We believe schools will harness data discovery to make more informed decisions and to increase conversions.

Every #SchoolMarketer should have a second screen for monitoring and real-time reporting. Add it to your budget for your Bursar ;-)

[2] Focus on Creative, Narrative, & Experiences

Every school says ‘we are different!’ - yet look and sound exactly the same as every other school.

Since we launched our dedicated creative studio to craft UX design magic, we have witnessed increases in admissions enquiries and student numbers with our clients.

How can you increase student numbers? Craft in inspiring narrative that captures the essence of your school - and tell that story consistently across every touch point you have with a prospective family.

It’s no longer just about a website - but the whole experience at every stage of the prospective journey.

[3] WhatsApp Broadcasts

With more and more parents using WhatsApp (we’re sure you have parents in private groups!), schools will start to add this to their parent comms mix more in 2019 and beyond.

WhatsApp Broadcasts are lists of recipients you can send regular (broadcast) messages to.

While this may seem similar to a WhatsApp Group, the major difference is that people cannot see other people in the same Broadcast List (making it far more private and secure).

This can be useful for the whole school, specific year groups, or boarding houses.

Find out more about WhatsApp Broadcasts for schools.

[4] Voice

We’ve spent the last 18 months working on voice strategies with a selection of our clients. 12 months ago, we launched our Amazon Alexa Skill that allows parents to interact with the school via their Alexa-enabled device.

“Alexa, what time is the school concert tonight?”

With 40% of adults using voice search each day, it’s essential to add voice to your SEO strategy.

What does Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant already know about your school?

Social media is a vital tool that schools should be making the most of these days! The ability to reach large audiences, both within and external to your community, is a core facet of your school's marketing efforts.

Being active on social media is key. In our #SocialAdvent challenges, we aim to encourage schools to try out all kinds of social devices, hopefully inspiring them to find a few favourites and keep experimenting with them throughout next year.

Yes, #SocialAdvent is back for 2018… And it's bigger and better than ever before! 

For 25 days, we set a different challenge each day. These challenges will help guide you in new ways to create content or use different areas of social media more effectively. The idea is that you will be able to share content that your community will be interested in.

You’ve likely heard of (and perhaps even using) WhatsApp, a popular messaging app that allows you to you easily communicate with people. It’s a free app that works in a similar way to Instant Messenger. You can chat with friends, clients, business partners - and even create ‘groups’ so you can message multiple people at once. All you need is a mobile device or tablet with an internet connection and you’re golden!

With mobile tech, we have so many tools readily available at our fingertips to connect with people all over the world.

WhatsApp Broadcast

Even though you may use WhatsApp all the time, you may not be aware that you can create something called a WhatsApp Broadcast. And before we begin, this does not have to be a message sent to all of your contacts that starts of with, “If you don’t pass this on it will bring you 7 years bad luck”