I wanted to share some key strategies for other school leaders that I have used when it comes to starting and running a successful school Facebook page.  According to PEW Research 69% of adults are using Facebook.  More importantly parents, grandparents, and relatives can tag and share information quickly.  This is one of the best ways to communicate with your school community and with how schools are viewed in the local, state, and national media now it is more important than ever for schools to be sharing their stories with the community.  

1) Recognize your students and staff:  This could be student of the month, honor roll, perfect attendance (pre-covid 19), or other special awards.  Parents love to see their child(ren) of Facebook and more importantly they love to share the positive news with their friends and Family.  

2) Messages need to come from Teachers not Administrators:  Ask yourself if you would rather see a message/picture of your 20 year veteran teacher who is a rock star and the community loves and trusts or a message from your superintendent who messed up the decision on the snow day or the principal who called you about discipline of your child?  Administrators have a high turnover rate and longstanding teachers or coaches are well respected and viewed by the community.  Turn your Facebook page over to your staff and your school community culture will explode exponentially!  

3) Review your Facebook Insights:  See what posts are effective and engage your community and continue to model your future posts off them.  Typically on Facebook pictures of students and teachers are more effective than just words highlight students.  Short videos and use of emojis are also a way to increase engagement. 

4) Strategic Boosting of Posts:  If you have something special moment/occasion to post (winning a regional, high school graduation, etc.) make sure to boost the post to reach a wider audience.  Wins are hard to come by as an administrator or a school nowadays.  Any opportunity you have to really focus on a big positive and to promote I would not miss out on those opportunities.  Depending on your content and goal I would recommend to spend between $100-$1,000.  

5) Drop the megaphone and grab the Microphone:  If you have ever been to a large event a megaphone can only reach a few hundred people, but a microphone plugged into a powerful speaker or many speakers can reach thousands of people.  This is an important concept to understand as your Facebook audience (number of likes to your school Facebook page) is key in how many people you can reach.  If you are posting 2-3 times per day with great content and you only have 100 followers your results will be much different than if you posted 2-3 times per day with average to below average content with 1,000 followers.  The amount of people that follow your page in most cases is more important than the content you are using.  Make sure to invite people to like your page and in some cases use a Facebook ad to increase community members to like your page.  

If you use these 5 essential keys to Facebook in schools as an administrator you will be on the right track to improving your communication within your school community.  Again, people are out there telling your story and sometimes it is not always true or positive so any opportunity you can use to promote your school and share the positives is a must for all administrators!  

Blog written by: Andy Jordan Principal