When I do one-on-one, personalized marketing coaching for private schools, one of the most common questions is:
“What social media platform is best for our school?”
It is a difficult question to answer. I believe that social media really should not be narrowed down to one single platform. Facebook, with all its enormity, is no doubt a formidable player in social media, and thus, should be a major platform in your school’s social strategy. Twitter is significant for reasons of connecting with your community and I completely believe in Pinterest for web traffic. So why Instagram? Here are 5 reasons Instagram is such a great tool in marketing your school:
- REACH – according to one research site, 50% of Instagram users are under the age of 30, 50% are females and a majority have mid-to-high incomes. That probably mirrors your target demographic, especially if you are looking to attracting moms of younger kids (which you should).
- VISUAL – whether it is just preference or due to the busyness of our culture, but we are a visually-oriented people. If you told a focus group that they had 5 minutes to go on the internet, my guess is that 99.999% of them would spend those precious seconds looking at pictures or watching videos rather than reading articles.
- ENGAGEMENT – while you wonder and worry about why people do not seem to comment on your Facebook posts, it is increasingly likely that your Instagram users are liking (and even commenting) on your photos/images/graphics and videos.
- UNIQUE LOOK – the Instagram culture rewards and expects fantastic photo presentation. While this may intimidate some, it affords you creative leeway to capture your school in unique ways and from unique angles. With all of the many tools, filters and special photo/video editing apps available, you should never have a reason to post a boring photo (and your fans will love you for your efforts!)
- CROSS-POSTING – with the right tools and correct setup, you can post to Instagram while also sharing those images on Facebook and Twitter. While I do not advocate this being your only strategy for content publishing on these two platforms, it does make it easy to augment your content on those channels without having to do much at all.
To learn more about strategic social media coaching, contact Donny or Randy.
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