25 Content Ideas to Kick Start your School’s 2023 Social Media Calendar
Can you believe it’s 2023?! We want to help you plan ahead and get your school’s social media content calendar jam-packed with content ideas to post on your social channels.
Social media is a great place to reach potential new students and parents as well as build a community & relationships with parents, students, teachers and staff. It serves as a place to share information & news, build brand awareness, promote your fabulous school and increase school spirit so should be a central part of any school’s marketing strategy. Drawing a blank with what to post? We know that coming up with ideas can be a task, so we have you covered! Keep reading for 25 content ideas for your school that will engage your audience, show off your school’s USPs and make your social media planning so much easier! (Top tip: Drop these ideas into our free Instagram Content Planner to get your socials off to a flying start!)
What’s coming up this year
Share a list of events, competitions etc you have coming up this year/quarter.
2. Remind people of your school’s values
New Year is a great time to remind people of your school’s philosophy, values and what you strive for.
3. Tour of your school
Share a reel showing off different parts of your school – a great way to let people see what you’re amazing school is really like!
4. Department spotlight
Shine a light on one of your departments introducing staff, showing classrooms, and taking a peek at what children are currently working on. An easy one to then recreate for all your departments and schedule regularly into your content calendar.
5. Introduce a club
Your school’s clubs deserve a shout-out! Share a post introducing a club, what they do, any achievements they have gained and how students can join. Repeating this post for all your clubs will give you a host of posts to keep you going this year.
6. Your schools’ resolutions
What is your school planning / aiming for this year? Share your goals with your audience and keep people updated on how you are getting on with them as the year progresses.
7. Interview a teacher
Interview a teacher asking them why they love their job/subject/your school, what their students are working on and any tips they have for their subject.
8. Study tips
Exams coming up soon? Share some study tips for your students or tips for parents helping their kids study. These could be from students themselves, teachers, or proven study tips.
9. A throwback photo
An easy one for when you’re stuck on what to post – share a throwback photo (#throwbackthursday #flashbackfriday) & talk about how things have progressed since then.
10. Reel of children returning after Christmas break
Be ready on the first day of term and film students returning refreshed after their festive breaks, being welcomed by staff & getting back to the classrooms.
11. Share some User Generated Content
User Generated Content (also known as UGC) is content shared & taken by your community (students, parents, teachers, staff - where better to get content from?). Keep an eye out for any tagged photos and photos in your school’s hashtag or geotag for great content you can then post to your page. You could even ask your audience to share/send any content they have to use.
12. Back-to-school prep
Are your teachers & staff busy prepping for the kids returning to school? Share what they are preparing to tease about the start of term.
13. Alumni Spotlight
What better way to paint a picture of how fantastic your school is at preparing students for life than by shining a spotlight on a past student & what they have achieved since leaving.
14. Sports clubs at your school
List what sports clubs your school has sharing images of the teams & their achievements.
15. January challenge from your PE department
Everyone wants to get active in January so have your PE department share a January fitness challenge to boost your audience's physical & mental health post-Christmas.
16. World news
React to some topical news or world event and share what your school is doing to help / how you are educating them on it.
17. Behind the scenes
People are nosey by nature and want to see exactly what goes on behind the scenes to make your school tick! What about sharing some preparation for an upcoming event, exam prep, your school office staff, mealtimes or work being carried out at the school.
18. A day in the life
Share a short “day in the life of…” post by taking several short clips from throughout the day & editing them together in a reel. This could be a student, teacher or even headmaster/ mistress.
19. Reminders
Reminders for parents & students are always a good post idea to make sure people don’t miss important dates such as events, deadlines, exams, competitions etc.
20. Answer some FAQs
Share the answers to your most commonly asked questions.
21. Social media dates
These days there seems to be a social media day to celebrate almost anything! But some dates can work for school content & relate well to their audiences’ examples include Random Acts of Kindness Day (17th February), World Book Day (3rd March), World Environment Day (5th June) and Teachers’ Day (5th October).
22. School updates/improvements this year
Do you have any school improvements happening this year (new buildings, gardens, renovations)? Share your plans and progress! Don’t forget to take before & after photos too.
23. New Year message from school leaders
Share your school leaders wishing your audience a happy new year and their hopes for the year ahead.
24. Repurpose
Look back at what posts performed well in the last year and use this information to plan future posts. You could repurpose a previous post that performed well, a blog post or a newsletter item and create a social post.
25. Host a Q&A
Ask your audience to ask you anything! Invite questions in a post or on stories from parents, students & potential new students/parents. Use the comment box sticker on Instagram stories to encourage questions and then share the questions & your answers to your story (you could even save them to a highlight for people to refer to). No-one asking any questions? No problem! You can always put questions in the question box yourself to then answer…no one will ever know it was you!
There you have it! We hope this article has helped and has given you plenty of inspiration to kick off your 2023 socials and give your engagement a New Year boost. Time to get planning, filling up your school’s content calendar and creating your posts! If you need more help with creating a social media marketing strategy and truly mastering how to effectively market your school on Instagram to attract new admissions, take a look at our Instagram for Schools course.