Do you know your publications from your stacks? Your embeds from your unlisted posts? Join the #DigitalJedi @intSchools rebellion and become a master on #SocialMedia. This 5-stage guide will take you from an Issuu #SocialPadawan to a #DigitalJedi.
Congratulations on completing stage 2 of your training. Now #SocialDroid come forward and continue your Issuu training. Now that you’ve got to grips with the basics of what this platform has to offer, let’s push it up a notch.
Do you know your publications from your stacks? Your embeds from your unlisted posts? Join the #DigitalJedi @intSchools rebellion and become a master on #SocialMedia. This 5-stage guide will take you from an Issuu #SocialPadawan to a #DigitalJedi.
You’ve made it this far! Don’t give up now. You’ve made it to the final stage of your Twitter training!
So, you’ve been tempted by the dark side but have seen the light again. Go forth and complete your training.
Do you know your retweets from your lists? Your pins from your moments? Make sure you’ve brought your lightsaber because this 5-step guide will take you from a #SocialPadawan to a #DigitalJedi.
Let’s continue your training with stage 4.
You’ve made it this far and are tempted by THE DARK SIDE of Twitter… Put your Twitter in dark mode for Stage 4 of your training, as this is your biggest test yet!
Do you know your retweets from your lists? Your pins from your moments? Make sure you’ve brought your lightsaber because this 5-step guide will take you from a #SocialPadawan to a #DigitalJedi.
Let’s continue your training with stage 3.
At Stage 3, you are at one with the #SchoolStories and the #SchoolStories are at one with you. However, you’re not quite ready yet to take down the Death Star!
As your school's marketer, knowing how to monitor Tweets from other departments is essential. Yes, when it comes to Twitter, you are handing the reins over to your teaching colleagues - but you need to keep them on track, and on brand!
There are plenty of tools to help you with this. Having to watch over 30+ Twitter accounts can understandably be something of a task! This is why you need something to make this as simple as possible.
Enter TweetDeck - our absolute favourite tool for Twitter monitoring. With a small amount of investment and knowledge, you can have TweetDeck set up to monitor and control all of those accounts at your school. It is invaluable!
Create a list on your main Twitter account and add all of your sub accounts to this list.
Open up TweetDeck and add this list as one of your columns.
Tweetdeck also allows you to schedule tweets in for next week so you can get out on time every Friday evening, knowing your #SchoolStories will still flow smoothly across the weekend.
It’s as easy as that! If you’d like to learn more, read our comprehensive guide on managing your Twitter accounts using TweetDeck.
Do you know your retweets from your lists? Your pins from your moments? Make sure you’ve brought your lightsaber because this 5-step guide will take you from a #SocialPadawan to a #DigitalJedi.
Missed stage 1? Catch up here.
Let’s continue your training with stage 2.
So, you’ve completed Stage 1 of your training and you’re getting to grips with the basics of Twitter. Now, let’s step it up a notch as we battle on in the fight against bad #hashtags.
You’ve sent out your first tweet, now let’s drive engagement even further with these tips:
Reply to a thread: Try jumping on a current trend/hashtag and adding your thoughts on the topic. How about adding in your hashtag to the conversation?
Step up your retweets: It’s great to share content from other accounts on your own feed so your followers can see your likes/interests. Now, let’s try adding a retweet with comment. Click the retweet button, and add in your own thoughts and relevant hashtags.
Share a video: We’ve all scrolled through our phones and landed on a video. Although we may be enjoying the video, we have a tendency to move on as soon as we get bored. The average human attention span is around 8 seconds these days so try to share short, engaging videos directly through Twitter. Twitter has the option to share videos of up to 140 seconds. If this isn’t enough for you, the site allows you to share out video links directly from YouTube on your feed. This is great for longer events such as alumni interviews, student achievements, head’s messages, etc.
Share a GIF: First day back at school? Last day before the Christmas holidays? Send out a moving image to make the post a little more exciting. Did you know? Tweets with a GIF get 55% more engagement than those without!
Create a poll: Polls are a great way to drive engagement and see the interests of your followers. For example, we recently shared one on what future topics followers would like to learn about in our future blogs.
Pin a Tweet: Got an open day coming up or a school event? Has the head just shared a new blog, or has there been a great achievement in the school? Use Twitter’s Pin feature to make sure this tweet always appears at the top of your feed.
Which video format is better in 2019? Traditional horizontal video (16:9) or vertical video (9:16); the latter having found its feet in the last few years largely because of social media and Stories (Instagram Stories, Snapchat Stories, Facebook Stories and so on).
It’s been an interesting argument to watch unfold. Video professionals are holding tight to the values of horizontal, old habits die hard after all, and marketing professionals are now shifting to vertical to reflect changing content consumption habits.
Having a successful marketing strategy largely starts and ends with content. If your content is good, then you are far more likely to get the engagement and reach you desire. If your content is bad, it will inevitably end up being a waste of time. With good content, the question simply becomes when/where should it be posted.
Of course, “good content” is a relatively vague term:
“Good content” can differ massively from school to school; community to community.
“Good content” can become bad content very quickly, as trends shift.
“Good content” can be on Facebook; or Twitter; or Instagram; or Snapchat; or YouTube; or Pinterest; or any other platform, meaning the medium and type of content is not defined.
“Good content” can be measured in different ways, meaning that knowing what works better is not always so black and white.
With this in mind, it makes sense to be open to as many different forms of content as possible. It does not necessitate using each and every one, that would be close to impossible and almost certainly ineffective, but instead being experimental and ambitious. Trial and error will win out.
So how about this for an exciting and most likely to be engaging endeavour...a radio station for the school?
A school radio station can have lots of useful benefits, especially for pupils:
Inclusion: Radio is a tool for communication. Having a radio run by pupils, for pupils and a wider community, can help build an air of inclusion around the school.
Confidence: Not everyone is great at being in front of the camera. While video content has its place in school marketing (very much so in fact) it is always beneficial to have #SchoolStories involving all types of pupils from across your school. A radio can be far less intimidating, some kids are natural talkers but can feel stifled by the camera. Even if they are not natural talkers many pupils will still have a view they can express on radio, which can help build their confidence speaking in a more public forum.
Speaking & Listening: Radio can be a fantastic tool for developing these skills. Working on a radio does require good speaking and listening skills after all!
Student Voice: The Student Voice is often a very important aspect of a school; having that forum where pupils can have opinions and a say on their education. The school radio can be a perfect place to facilitate this.
Teamwork: Running a school radio will require dedication and teamwork - valuable traits for pupils to learn at school!
