3 Things you Need to Know About Instagram Engagement for Schools, Colleges & Universities
Having an effective Instagram strategy for your school or education brand is so important to grow your account, increase awareness & build relationships. Of course, your content & the messages you put out there are front & centre of any Instagram strategy but engagement should also be an integral part of this. But what is really meant by engagement & how do you integrate it into your school’s marketing strategy? Read on to find out all the info on engagement best practices & our recommendations.
What does engagement mean?
Instagram experts always talk about the importance of engagement but what exactly is meant by engagement? In terms of Instagram, engagement refers to any interaction with your account & content including:
Likes
Comments
Follows
Shares
Saves
DMs
Mentions
Link clicks / swipe-ups
Story sticker interactions
Why is engagement important?
Engagement on Instagram for education brands (and any business) is important for a few key reasons:
Engagement gives the algorithm a nudge to say that your content is being enjoyed and so show it to more people! This includes your own followers & those who don’t follow you. In short, the more engagement you get, the higher up you will appear on people’s feeds & the higher the chance that your content will be shown to people not already in your audience.
It’s a great way to measure how people are enjoying and using your content, and therefore if your strategy is working.
It’s another way of showing off your school’s unique personality & brand voice.
How to increase engagement
There are many ways in which you can encourage & increase engagement on your school's Instagram. Here are a few of our favourite ways:
Always add a call to action (CTA) to your post captions to encourage engagement (e.g. follow for more study tips, comment below if you agree, like if this is you, head to the link in our bio to download our prospectus…)
Use story stickers regularly – a great way to boost your engagement & get you first in the story queue.
Check your insights to understand what posts & content is resonating with your audience most.
Always reply to comments & DMs – it’s polite, good customer service and also increases your engagement levels (and your enquiry numbers, too.)
Be authentic & relatable. People engage with content that is relatable and real on platforms like Instagram - polished & professional content isn’t always the most engaging.
Try & test different types of content & formats to see what your audience enjoys the most (reels, carousels, stories, lives…).
How & when to engage
Engagement is a two-way street! Yes, encouraging & receiving engagement is so important but engaging with other accounts should also be part of your engagement strategy. Here. we call this ‘outbound engagement’. It’s called social media after all – it’s designed to be sociable and start conversations! While education brands may worry about engagement will breach student privacy & hurt your brand's voice & reputation, if done right, engaging can be a win-win for your school. Here are some of our tips for schools to engage on Instagram:
Be upfront with parents, students & teachers about your social media policy & expectations.
Always reply to comments & DMs – not only is it polite & good for your brand, but it also increases your engagement rate meaning your content gets more eyes on it & appears further up the feed.
Follow & engage with posts attached to relevant hashtags to education & your school e.g. #backtoschool #educationmarketing #marketingforeducation #educationnetwork #education #educationbusiness #outsourcedmarketing #smartphonemarketingschool #internetmarketingschool #digitalmarketingschool #activelearning #professionaldevelopment #educationispower #studentsuccess #onlineeducation #highereducation #internationaleducation #learningisfun #educationforall #educationmatters  (tip: you can ‘follow’ hashtags just as you can follow other accounts)
Engage with local businesses & hashtags – social media is about building a community & where best to start than your local community!
Engage with other education establishments & aligned industry accounts – again this helps to build relationships & visibility and also might grab the attention of potential new parents!
Use your brand voice & embody the personality of your school. You may need to adapt this slightly to be a little less formal for social media, but be sure to do this in a way that still feels true to your brand.
Engage with students, teachers, parents & friends of your school – have they posted pictures of the latest rugby match, school show or exam results? Comment, congratulate & say hello!
Integrating engagement into your school’s social media strategy is a good move to help build your brand voice, increase visibility & growth of your account and build an engaged community – all of which are achievable goals for any school, college or university on social media. It doesn’t need to take up a lot of your time, try setting aside time each day (15-30mins) or a few times a week to engage and you will soon see the results of your strategy pay off! Want to learn more about creating a social media strategy for your education brand? Check out our Social Media Strategy Course – which has been specifically designed to help schools and organisations working with students, create a well-thought-out plan that is unique to them and that makes social media a valuable tool to achieve their marketing goals.