For the marketing department in a school, the new academic year brings the opportunity to review the calendar of events to begin preparing marketing strategies. When it comes to evaluating the success and audience of your content and campaigns, it has never been easier with analytics tools.

Why track analytics?

Putting out regular content on your website and social media is important to reach your parents, pupils and staff, because this is where your audience are on a daily basis. Naturally, you will want your audience to grow, attract new pupils, parents and staff, whilst also interacting with your existing audience.  Analysing your content and audience provides power to grow.

Each year, schools all around the world share their inspiring #SchoolStories throughout December. Each day, there's a new challenge to tackle and share with your community. We call it #SocialAdvent.

Will you be taking part?

The #SocialAdvent Challenge 2018

December has been a firm favourite at @intSchools HQ over past years. We put a lot of time into making this challenge as fun as possible for all schools and teaching professionals, who want to get involved.

This year, we are looking to make our fifth #SocialAdvent challenge - can you believe it - the greatest one yet, with a record number of participants across a global audience. To make it extra special, our creative Jedi have been hard at work - coming up with and designing a bigger, better and up-to-date #SocialAdvent, to help spread festive cheer throughout December. 

Get involved!

Download the #SocialAdvent Calendar using the links below. We have created two versions for you:

• poster - download and stick to your wall

• foldable desk calendar - download, fold in half and keep on your desk

Augmented Reality (AR) is the result of using tech to superimpose images, text and sounds on the world that we see. A great example of AR, that many of us will recognise because of its incredible impact back in 2016, is Pokémon GO.

Chatbots have had a notable impact across tech industries. Utilising current advancements in AI, chatbots are tools that simulate conversation to provide assistance and learning.

Many of us will likely have interacted with a chatbot at some point, the more likely places being voice assistants (such as Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Home or Microsoft Cortana) or via messaging apps (like Facebook Messenger or WeChat).

So what possible applications could chatbots have in the education sector…in schools? Could we use these as tools for learning in the classroom? What about for admissions or marketing? Let’s take a look.

In the Classroom

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