SoCrowd Logo

About     Login

Request a demo
SoCrowd Logo

Blog

5 Education Institutions Achieving Top Marks on Social Media

October 4, 2018

With #WorldTeachersDay just around the corner, there’s no better time to look at how education institutions are using social media to celebrate their work, their students, and educate beyond the classroom.

Whether you’re a school, academy group, college, or university, there’s much to be gained from investing in social media, and we’ve seen more and more education providers getting involved.

But as with anything that requires investment, be it time, money, or resources, it’s crucial that social media helps to deliver against your organisation’s objectives. That might mean using social media to attract new students, increase pupil registrations, lift student satisfaction, or raise awareness of your successes in the community.

To provide some inspiration on how to take your social media marketing to the next level we’re celebrating 5 education institutions that are creating engaging and creative content!

1. ‘Life at Weston Favell Academy’ Series

First up, as lots of schools and colleges are in the midst of hosting open evenings for potential students and parents, let’s take a look at Weston Favell Academy’s creative take on a school brochure.

We think this video showcasing the fantastic teachers and broad curriculum available to students at the academy is an awesome way to engage audiences.

It’s proven that social media content including photos, images, GIFs, and video outperform those that are just text. While presenting the information in this way allows students and parents to get a better feel for the culture at the school to decide if it’s the right fit for them.

Weston Favell have actually turned these videos into a series that explores different aspects of the academy from the style of teaching and learning, to messages from current students. No doubt providing the answers to many parent’s questions in the process, as well as easing the nerves of future students!

Have you considered creating a campaign like this to invite your social media audiences into your school?

2. Bristol Uni’s Selfie Challenge 

It’s an equally busy time for universities with new students arriving and existing students heading back to resume their studies.

While we’ve seen lots of fantastic photos of new students sharing their hopes for the coming year or discussing the course they’re about to start, we couldn’t help but love the feeling created by Bristol Uni’s impromptu selfie challenge!

This image takes us right back to the first few days of university sat listening to tales of what those who attended the university before us have achieved since. Filled with excitement and an eagerness to get started; or at least head to the student union to meet our new flatmates!

Either way, as we know from social media guru, Hel Reynolds — content that can strike an emotion with us has a better chance of standing out and making you memorable. In this case, your alumni might feel nostalgia for their student days, your new students feel excitement to be part of something, potential applicants see you as fun and approachable!

Selfies are fantastically simple and effective content to drive engagement and this one is no exception. Ask students if they can spot themselves and as Bristol Uni have done — challenge other departments or students to get more people in each photo or photos with certain areas of the university!

3. Edinburgh Napier’s Timetable Help Videos

This next example stood out to us because it’s clever in two ways:

  1. This simple video on how to find your timetable will help students that might be too afraid to ask, or don’t know where to find help. This sets out Edinburgh Napier’s social media accounts as a source of information and a useful resource which will keep them coming back!
  2. For those students who don’t know where to find their timetable and are emailing their tutors or the university contact team, this takes some of the pressure off. Proactively promoting advice and answers to commonly asked questions can free up more time for your colleagues across the university to help with more complicated situations which ensures a better experience for students!

Do you receive lots of the same questions from new or prospective students? Why not create a series of FAQ images or videos to help! This could be particularly effective for prospective students thinking about going to university — answering their main concerns, worries, or queries publicly is likely to improve their trust in you and encourage them to return for more information. Of course meaning that by the time they come to pick universities, you’re on the list!

4. Barnsley College’s Student Profiles

Preparing students for their careers after study is an important part of the work that schools, colleges and universities do, and work experience is a massive part of that process.

For students, the opportunity to enhance their CV with part-time work related to their career aspirations is a big draw. Barnsley College have lots of fantastic work experience opportunities in everything from catering, to beauty and hairdressing and social media is the perfect platform to shout about them.

By focusing on the journey of a student undertaking this experience, prospective students can more easily see themselves in that position. Building the profile of the student also helps others who might be at the student’s previous school to relate to them, build conversation, and see this route as achievable!

5. Twitter Cake Debates from Kendal College

The final campaign we chose comes from Kendal Collage and it’s not just because we’re GBBO fans, promise!

We love this because again it’s a very simple way of driving engagement with the college picking up on popular topics like GBBO and Macmillan Coffee Morning. But it’s also showing off personality and presenting a very welcoming and fun side for prospective students who might be thinking of attending.

Polls are easy to run on a variety of topics and could also be used to collect feedback on new college initiatives, vote for college activities like trips, or as a bit of fun to start conversations!

Once again, kudos to the teachers out there that are not only excelling in the classroom but translating that passion and knowledge onto social media too, as well as the marketing and comms folk making it happen!

Of course, this is only a selection of the social media campaigns that stood out to us and we know there‚Äôs lots of awesome engaging content being created so please do let us know if there are other campaigns you think we should feature, and we’ll make sure they get the recognition they deserve! You can get in contact @SoCrowd!

Subscribe