#OwnTheMoment planner.

Throwback Thursday is a weekly trend that is observed on a Thursday, obviously. The popularity of Throwback Thursday has increased recently with celebrities participating.

The idea behind it is that you share old photos, and share memories.

It is most popular on Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram - where hashtags are the slang of those channels.

@HMSG_senior offer an excellent way of using #ThrowbackThursday.

Theweeklyw  #ThrowbackThursday 1947 was a jubilee year at MSG here’s a pic of the celebratory archery competition pic.twitter.com/GDHDmnDWNK

— HMSG (@HMSG_senior)

February 20, 2014

Schools can introduce #ThrowbackThursday into their Twitter strategy, by tweeting photos from the past. This can help engage your current community and also former pupils.

Give it a try and let us know how you use it!

Our #SocialScore has become the go-to metric for schools to understand how well their tweets resonate with people. We want to show how you can use your score to help improve the content that you share.

Here are four ways that you can better your content using #SocialScore:

1. You are communicating to people

It sounds simple, but it is often overlooked. There are people at the end of a screen looking consuming your content. By remembering this, you tailor your content for real people to share.

#SocialScore is designed to show how people share your tweets.

2. Amplify your content

By not limiting yourself to a single social media channel, but also others, will help Increase visibility.

We’re also seeing schools using sub-accounts that are more focussed on specific sides of the school. If your school does have multiple Twitter accounts, then make full use of it.

We find that sub-accounts often have more engagement. This is because the content is tailored, and specific to an interest. If somebody is following the school’s sports account, then they are interested in sports and much more likely to retweet and share the content.

The other school’s accounts should be used to amplify your content and increase the reach. The key is to ensure relevancy - only retweet content that is relevant to the specific account’s audience.

3. Quality over quantity

If you only have time to share good quality content once a week, then tweet once a week. Don’t tweet because you have to; tweet because you have exciting stories to tell.

By tweeting ‘average’ content, you will dilute the experience and lower expectations. Most of the content you share will be hidden behind a link, and so you want your followers to feel confident that the content behind the link will interest them.

4. Tell stories

People relate to stories, and there are so many stories happening at your school. Share these stories because people emotionally connect to stories. And when there is an emotional connection to a piece of content, people are much more likely to share it.

If you want to find out your current #SocialScore, tweet us @intSchools using the hashtag and we will give you your latest score!

Schools are joining the Twitter party at a rapid rate. Our research has shown that 73% of independent schools have at least signed up to Twitter. However, many schools struggle to be successful on the platform. There is a lack of knowledge and strategy.

These 5 tips can significantly improve your school’s Twitter performance.

[1] Have a Plan

It is essential to have a plan on Twitter. What are you going to tweet about, when are you going to tweet, who is going to tweet? These are simple questions that you need to answer. There is nothing worse than seeing a deserted brand on a social platform. By deserted we mean an account that has not been updated in a long time. You know the kind. The ones who set up and account in excitement but don’t deliver. 

[2] Keep to the Plan

Sounds simple, but its important and people often don’t stick to plans. Make sure your plan is realistic. Don’t over commit yourself. Don’t say “I’m going to tweet 50 times a week” if you can’t achieve that. Have realistic expectations. 

[3] Be Authentic

Social media works for brands because can be personal on a human level. Schools should be no different. Showcase what makes your school different. Tell the stories that happen every day.

[4] Engage

Don’t be afraid to communicate with others. Without two-way communication, you lose the social element of social media. Marketing is much more successful when there is not just one-way communication - that’s just advertising.

[5] Measure

Always measure your social activity. How many retweets do you receive per tweet? How many tweets are self promotional? These are simple metrics to use to measure your Twitter performance. 

Make sure you perform branded searches on Twitter on regular basis. You have to understand the sentiment around your school’s brand. 

Do positive things come up when you type your school into Twitter? Are there any negative news articles that appear?

Try out these 5 tips and let us know how you get on in the comments or on Twitter.

Tweet us (@intSchools) with #SocialScore to find out your score on Twitter. This can be used to benchmark your performance.

Last week we spoke in detail about why a Head should be blogging. This week we are going to take a look at a few examples of Heads that tweet.

Why a Head should be on Twitter

Most likely, your school will already be on Twitter - 73% of independent schools are. However, in some cases the school’s Twitter account is branded as the Head. We believe the Head and school’s account should be separate, as they serve different marketing purposes.

The Head can be tweeting from the school’s account but should not be using it as a personal account. We have found that school’s with a tweeting Head tend to have a high social authority. You can see example of this in the comparisons below. 

An example of a Head branding their Twitter account as the school is Cokethorpe School - @HMCokethorpe. The school Twitter account is also the Head’s. This can cause confusion as the handle suggests it is the Headmaster but the name is branded as the school. We would suggest changing the name to the Head’s real name. The description should still contain ‘Headmaster of Cokethorpe School…’ as this will give clear indication to the user and also aid discovery.

5 things your Head could tweet

1. Opinions - Head’s tend to be very opinionated. These should be shared to encourage discussion and thought motivation. Opinions on developments in the education sector are particularly interesting and help spur debates.
2. Stories - Every school has a story. We advocate the sharing of stories within schools because that is what makes you different.
3. Works - The Head can be sharing the work of pupils. Parents enjoy seeing their child’s work being showcased and it serves as great content. 
4. Updates - Content and news from the school should be retweeted and shared by the Head.
5. Education - It may sound obvious, but this is a strong marketing opportunity. Heads tend to be associated with their favoured subjects and could be tweeting educational content.

You can see from these 5 examples that the Head should not just tweet about the school. There should be a certain level of personal tweets involved too. 

Introduction to Social Authority

Social authority measures your school’s influential activity, primarily through the number of retweets. Its a 1 to 100 point scale based on a user’s influential content. It highlights the schools that are incredibly effective in engaging their followers. If you want to learn more, please check out our blog post about Social Authority.

Comparison of some top Heads

You can see how these schools that also have their Head tweeting - have a good social authority too.

Do you think your Head is, or would be good, on Twitter? Would you like to know their #SocialScore? Tweet us @intSchools and we can use them next time on our blog.

We have just seen a very interesting pop up on Twitter.

“Your friend @Username is back on Twitter! Mention them in a Tweet to welcome them back.”

Twitter is encouraging us to engage with people who have returned to the site after a period of inactivity. They also include a ‘Compose a Tweet’ button to make the outreach much easier.

The social network has a problem with retaining users - it is one of the reasons we see such conflicting user numbers. So many users have signed up to the user but these accounts lay dormant through lack of activity. Twitter often email inactive users to encourage them to return but are now turning to people you know and trust to give you that little push back to the service. 

Hopefully, Twitter will not be overusing this feature as it may be quite irritating for some users and could actually make people unfollow users. This will occur if Twitter keeps encouraging us to engage with people we do not actually know. 

It could be a risky move by Twitter but it shows their long term commitment to re-engaging inactive users. 

Have you noticed this box? What are your thoughts on it?

Keeping up-to-date with social media trends is difficult enough without worrying about future trends! Fortunately, the guys at TwinEngine have this covered for us all. Twitter is expected to position itself as the global newsroom and we are still waiting for Facebook to enter the world of search. 

This infographic explores different social media marketing trends and how they will take flight in 2013. 

Do you agree with these predictions? Do you have any of your own? Let us know in the comments below. 

Source: TwinEngine.

Your Twitter profile picture is a great opportunity to create visual recognition to your brand. It is the image that will appear to the left of all your tweets. It is therefore important that you choose the best possible image. Many schools choose their logos and this is usually a great tactic as long as you realise just how small your image is going to be. The school logo tactic becomes problematic when there is a lot of detail to fit into such a small space.

Things to remember:

• Ensure the image fits into the square box. When a profile picture is cropped or distorted it looks very unprofessional and cheap. You want your school to show it cares about the details - show it with your profile picture.
• Any copy in the image must be readable. If your logo contains words that cannot be read then there is no need for it to be included. 
• Consider using a headshot. Many businesses use their CEO or Social Media Manager’s face as their picture. People connect with faces and we understand this schools and their Heads are hesitant to move forward with this technique. Businesses understand the need people have for a human connection with brands so why can’t schools? It is an option. 

Your bio tells the story of your school all in 160 characters. Three things to include in this space:

• Describe your school
• Explain what makes you different
• Show some personality

Tip: Make sure you include your location and your website address. 

Schools follow a wide range of accounts on Twitter - current parents, prospects, pupils, education specialists, competitors, local news, celebrities and many more. 

Not many people are aware of the capabilities that Twitter lists can provide. Schools can organise who they follow into precise lists that help organise the plethora of content into actionable communications. 

When you have your lists created you can quickly check what current parents are tweeting or if you are looking for latest news you can check up on education specialists. 

When you are struggling to find content to share, lists can be a saviour! If you have a list that is dedicated to shareable content then you can create your own curation portal. Once you need inspiration you can simply go to your curation list and find some tweetable content. 

Twitter allows you to customise your background. This enables you to completely brand your Twitter page and also provide extra information about your school. It allows you to create an impression on people who have no previous experience with your school. 

Hubspot have put together a great list of 17 examples of Twitter brand pages. You should use this list for inspiration.

You must follow your audience. There are so many Twitter users that do not believe they should be following people - they feel it may take authority/prestigiousness away from them. The reason social media has exploded for consumers and businesses is because of the way it has regenerated the ability to converse, collaborate and share. 

It is not necessary for you to follow every follower but it is important to follow those who you are or may converse with.

Not only does it help build relationships but it also helps manage conversations. 

Note: RGS High Wycombe make a very good point in the comments about following pupils. 

Have you ever heard of Instagram? The free iOS (and now Android) app was recently acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. Photos are simple but yet tell you a visual story that your followers, in their time conscious world, consume in seconds. 

Instead of just tweeting “We’re on a school trip” or “We have a famous visitor today” you should add a picture of your trip or the visitor at the school. 

Just as you review any plan you must also review your Twitter plan. If you have a publishing schedule or you just have guidelines you must look back and analyse your content. What worked and what didn’t. 

Tweeting for 50 when starting out and tweeting for 5000 engaged followers require different tactics and content strategies. 

Have you implemented any of these for your Twitter account? Have you got more ideas to add? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Twitter has obviously taken the world by storm. It is highly popular with people to keep up to date with news, blogs, articles etc. but one of the lesser known tool Twitter possesses is the fantastic ability it has to help learn.

Twitter is a digital communication network that is formed around shared interests. This social hub in which experts share and curate content from their field of work creates a feed of information which students should use to form their own knowledge.

140 Characters – Cut to the Chase

Students are busy trying to educate themselves with relevant content. As Twitter uses only 140 character it enabled students to quickly filter out irrelevant information. By looking at a short and sweet title we can all instantly learn what a link contains without the need to click through.

#Hashtag – Group & Track Discussions

The hashtag enables students to follow subjects that they feel most interested in. 3 ways to do this is via:

• Classroom/seminar discussions – once a class or seminar is over it doesn’t mean that learning has to cease. Use the Twitter hashtag to carry on from the classroom. Create a unique hashtag for your class to follow up. #Year8History
• Conferences – many subjects have conferences that take place - for example, TED talks create incredible discussions on Twitter using #TED… hashtags. A science conference would be exciting to follow on Twitter for any science student.
• Subjects – most students have a specific subject that they are passionate about. Some students may find Shakespeare fascinating so why not create a Shakespeare hashtag to curate a discussion with other students that have the same passion.

Who Should I Follow?

To get started you need to find some people to follow but don’t sweat, this is an easy (and fun!) task.

First of all, find a couple of people who have similar interests to you – to do this use Twitter Search and input your interests. Follow this people and then look at whom they follow, tweet and retweet. Then follow the people who you think could be of interest. Begin to share content and engage with these people and you will find that they will start to follow you back!

Following these easy steps can ensure that you get the most out Twitter for learning. Do you have any more tips or any examples of how Twitter has helped you in the education world? Let us know below!

Twitter is one of the hottest properties on the web right now. It seems everyone is Tweeting but schools have not been as active as others.

Schools can heavily benefit from the use of Twitter and here’s why:

• Simplicity – the idea, the usability and the ease of use is so simple that anyone can adopt. Some people may be afraid to use new technology but Twitter is so easy to use anybody at your school can use it.
• Concise Communication – because you can only use 140 characters you must be concise. This allows students, parents and governors etc. to be able to understand your message a lot clearer and easier.
• Quick Communication – sometimes we all need to let people know of urgent information. Schools are no different. Twitter gives a direct link to parents and students of school news. For example, with one tweet you can let every student and parent know that the school is closed for the day because of snow.

• Variety of Platforms – you can use Twitter from almost everywhere: on your PC, laptop, mobile, smart phone, tablet device etc. This means that no matter where your target audience is you can communicate with them and vice versa.
• Excellent Learning Tool – you can learn so much more about your school and students by using Twitter. You can also keep up in real time with education news and hear other opinions. Asking your followers questions can be an essential research tool.
• Inspire – people share what inspires them and using Twitter allows you to have access to inspiration. It can help you and your students create something magical.

Twitter really is a great tool to use and it should have a place within schools.

Let us know what you have done to implement Twitter into your school!