Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. With more and more parents (and students) connecting on social media platforms, schools can embrace the platforms as a way to connect with their communities and celebrate their students. If your school is already harnessing the power of social media, you can up the ante by using digital signage inside your school to amplify your social media presence.
Our friend, Andrea Gribble from #SocialSchool4EDU, presented an engaging webinar called Your Back-to-School Social Media Checklist for Schools. In the webinar, she shared 10 tips to make this year your school's best year on social media.
Here are some strategies school administrators can use to increase their school’s social media presence by using digital signage like Rise Vision.
Use Digital Signage to Increase Your Following
As part of the #SocialSchool4EDU back-to-school social media checklist, sharing which social media channels parents, students, and the community can find your school on is important. Use digital signage to showcase your school’s selected social media channels, display live feeds from your channel, popular posts, and updates for increased visibility.
According to a study by Gitnux, 91% of educators have used social media to communicate with students. So use your digital signage within the school to inform your students about how they can connect with the school further and outside of the classroom.
Facebook is the most popular social media platform for schools. Your school can use digital signage templates like these to encourage students to engage on the platform.
Build an Army of Storytellers
Your school is chocked full of powerful storytellers - teachers, staff, and students all have unique stories and experiences you can share on social media. You can use digital signage in two ways to build your army:
- Encourage staff to share their stories, photos, and content with a centralized source so that content can be re-shared on social media. Use digital signage to let people know how they can have their stories told. This also ensures that you have a non stop flow of engaging content to share on the school’s social media platform with followers.
- Use digital signage to re-share popular posts or stories from your social media back into the school. When Rise Vision speaks to their customers (and they do - a lot), one of the most common remarks they get back from administrators is that students love seeing their photos on the digital displays.
Regardless of which method you choose to use (we recommend using both), sharing stories through digital signage is a great way to create a sense of belonging and foster a positive school culture.
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Schools can also proudly display their entire social media feed to keep students engaged during school time when they don’t have their phones to check.
Build Your Brand
Digital signage is an excellent way to sprinkle your school’s branding throughout the school. With Rise Vision, you can upload your brand kit including logo and colors to reinforce your brand identity throughout campus and online.
Cross-Promote the Weekly Features
Another one of the big items from the #SocialSchool4EDU back-to-school social media checklist is establishing 1-2 weekly features. You can cross-promote these features using your digital signage system (or vise versa).
Some popular templates that you can use in your digital signage and then share on your social media as weekly features include:
- Student spotlights
- Teacher appreciation
- Upcoming events
- Fun initiatives like pet appreciation and more!
By sharing these features on your digital signage, you can foster a sense of anticipation and involvement from your student body as well.
You can also use the professionally designed templates from Rise Vision digital signage as a basis for your social media if your fountain of ideas runs low!
Increase Student Engagement by Asking Questions
Digital signage can also be used to increase student engagement by asking thought-provoking questions or displaying polls to encourage students, staff, and parents (on social media) to share their thoughts and opinions.
The same study from Gitnux reported that 81% of schools reported increased parent engagement due to social media usage. Polls and questions can be a great way to get the conversation going. Share insights from within the school from students to your social media so parents and the community can be part of the conversation.
Digital Signage is a Powerful Tool to Amplify Your School's Social Media Presence
At the end of the day, digital signage and social media should be used together to connect with the communities and celebrate students.
You can use both mediums in tangent by cross-promoting content, using digital signage to source stories from within the school, and as a powerful tool to engage with staff, students, and parents when they step into the school.
How will you use digital signage to amplify your school’s social media presence?
Want to learn more about increasing your school's presence on social media? Watch the Your Back-to-School Social Media Checklist for Schools webinar presented by Andrea Gribble from #SocialSchool4EDU.
