What to Include in your School's Social Media Marketing Strategy in 2022
New year, new social media goals! Stop posting on social media and start MARKETING on social media with our handy guide & best practices for growing on Instagram in 2022.
Are you reflecting on last year’s marketing strategy and wondering where you can improve and how to attract new admissions in 2022? If your school’s marketing strategy doesn’t involve Instagram, you are missing out. With global users growing at a rapid rate, it is the perfect place to reach students and young parents and should be a central part of your school’s marketing this year.
2021 was a big year for Instagram with a lot of updates & new features designed for us to get the most out of the app and help reach new audiences. Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO announced at the end of 2021 that “Next year is going to be pivotal for Instagram” so we are expecting more of the same in 2022. New to Instagram or not sure who to leverage your current profile to attract new admissions? Don’t worry! We have outlined the best ways to use Instagram to effectively market your school in 2022.
Stories
Stories are the best way to connect directly with your following, encourage engagement and build trust and relationships with people. Showing behind the scenes of your school/events/people gives a sneak peek into what’s it’s really like and goes beyond the “perfect” Insta photo. Using story stickers is a great way to get interactive with your followers (and boost engagement!), find out what they are thinking and build a sense of community. Polls and quizzes are a great way to have fun, encourage engagement and teach your audience about your school and its story & people. The new ‘link’ sticker allows your school to link directly to an external source for example your school’s website or mailing list. The ‘Add Yours’ sticker, another new feature for stories, is great to encourage students/staff to respond to your story with their own picture, great for community building and events/activities!
Reels
We’ve said it before and we will say it again – if you’re not making reels for your school yet, now is the time to start to avoid being left behind! Video content is going nowhere and is set to become more of a focus on Instagram in 2022. Top tips for creating great reels are; keep them short (10s or less), always use high-quality video, practice, practice, practice, and of course, have fun! Keep an eye on your insights for what is resonating with your audience too, you will get better as you go and learn what’s resonating, we promise. Take a look at our Instagram Reels for Education: Beginners Course to learn everything you need to know to get started.
Hashtags
While hashtags shouldn’t be a central focus of your school’s Instagram strategy, they shouldn’t be overlooked either. They will work for you if you are producing quality content and can act as a little boost for your posts if done right. Best practices for 2022 are to ensure they are in the caption itself (not the comments) for SEO purposes, ensure they are related to the post / your niche and avoid using large hashtag groups as your content will get lost in the crowd. School’s also benefit from using location/local hashtags as well to reach the local community and also creating their own hashtags encouraging others to use them when posting.
Try new formats & features
Instagram has some great features & formats and while it may seem overwhelming to include them all in your school’s strategy, it is worth trying them out & seeing what your audience likes and engages with. Why not go Live at your next event, use the Collab feature with another brand you are working with or start a Guide for pupils or potential new parents. Instagram’s algorithm loves it when you use all its features, so it is worth giving them a bash in 2022.
Bio
It may seem an obvious one, but have you updated & optimised your bio for 2022 yet? Ensuring you have key information & keywords there is essential to get your school’s message across effectively and get people to hit that follow button (or better still, enquire!). Ensuring you have your school’s name or keywords in the ‘name’ section is important as this is searchable so will help you be found. A short & concise bio about who you are & what you do and follow with a Call to Action (e.g., “Download our prospectus here” or “Visit our website here”) and a link and your location are all essential to a school’s Instagram bio. Tip: sprinkling in a few emojis will put across a bit of your school’s brand personality too! Relevant & up to date highlights such as “About Us” “Our School” “Events” also help people find information quickly & easily. Treat your Instagram bio like a mini-website & give new people the key information they may be looking for.
Refreshed Strategy
Lastly, having a clear plan in place when it comes to Instagram (or any social media platform) is key to growing in 2022. Posting without purpose doesn’t cut it anymore but defining clear content pillars, a well thought through strategy & attainable goals will help you get the most out of Instagram and the amazing potential it has to build a community and reach new audiences. If you are unsure about where to start when it comes to creating a strategy for your school, take a look at our course Creating a Social Media Strategy for your Education Brand.
So, are you ready to smash your school’s marketing in 2022 and start attracting new admissions? Hopefully, this post has helped you to get started with nailing your school’s Instagram strategy but if you are looking to level up and learn how to grow from an expert, take a look at our Instagram for Schools course, designed for school marketers who really want to harness the power of Instagram marketing.