Do you want to unlock the potential of Facebook?
Looking for simple strategies to improve your Facebook marketing?
In this article, you’ll discover how to unleash the power of Facebook for your school district or small business.
How Social Media is Impacting the Way We Engage
The world of social media is changing rapidly. This powerful medium is impacting the way we engage our parents, students and the overall community. Emerging trends in social media will influence the way we use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and countless other platforms.
Now that consumers are in control of the buying process, we must as marketers change the way we implement our social media strategy.
The Power of Social Media
Social media has changed the landscape of communication. With more people haivng smartphones than ever before, we are seeing social media usage rise at a tremendous rate. Social media is especially popular with the younger generations that have never been alive without social media.
Facebook is Still Number One
Facebook is still the largest social network on the planet, but many school districts still do not know how to take advantage of what the platform has to offer. And to complicate things, Facebook continually adjusts their news feed algorithm, making it complicated to keep up.
Much of what you hear about social media is that Facebook use is declining. However, young parents, a key demographic for school districts, are gravitating back to the platform to keep in touch with family and friends. Your district needs to be online, and Facebook is still the place to be.
“With every share, no matter how micro, you’re building awareness of your brand in a native way.” Capitalize on its sharing culture.
What is Working on Facebook
Video has taken over the Facebook news feed. After making video a top priority, Facebook has been promoting it in the news feed to more people. Here is a list, gathered by BuzzSumo, of the best type of posts on Facebook that get the most reach.
Let’s Audit Your Facebook Page
Here are some simple techniques you can do to audit your Facebook page and determine which posts are working best with your audience.
Go to your Facebook page and click on the tab labeled “Insights”
Insights –> Posts –> Post Types
Keep track of what is working for you on Facebook:
You need to develop a customer focus mentality when it comes to branding. Know everything you can about your audience… parents, students and the community. Don’t forget. The customer is in control.
Conducting a Simple Monthly Audit on Facebook
Here is a simple tip to see your best working posts using graphs in excel. This audit might sound complicated, but it is quite simple. Facebook does much of the work for you.
Once again, click on the “Insights” tab, and then click on the button labeled “Export Data”
You will then select the button “Page Data” For file format, select Excel with a date range of one month determined by the data you want to analyze. The last step in this process is to select “All Page Data” under layout. Then click “Export Data”
What You Need in Your Spreadsheet
You will only need three columns… Date, Lifetime Total Likes & Daily Page Consumption. Delete the rest in your Excel spreadsheet.
Chart #1 – Daily Facebook Growth
Now, Facebook followers are not your most important statistic to track. Fans really mean nothing if they are not engaging with your content.
However, sharp spikes in follower growth can mean an engaging post has drawn more potential customers to your content. By tracking daily user growth, you can analyze trends of when content might have contributed to more people liking your Facebook page.
The only two columns you will need to build your line graph is “Date” and “Lifetime Total Likes”
Chart #2 – What Posts are Working?
The next chart is a great way to track engaging content on your Facebook page. By creating this graph, you can visually see what content, on what dates, struck a chord with your audience. By evaluating “Daily Page Consumption” you can see spikes of your most engaging content.
The only two columns you will need to build your line graph is “Date” and “Daily Page Consumption”
You can now use this graph to go back to the dates that stand out, and find your best performing posts. Here is a simple worksheet to help you analyze what content is working to engage your audience.
Remember, quality is always better than quantity. You need to be aware of the Facebook algorithm. Posting too much on Facebook can have a negative impact on your reach. Experts agree that one to two posts a day is ideal.
One advantage Social Media Managers in a school district is that we are a local operation. We do not have to worry about a global market. You can see from the graphic below that our audience on social media is active from about 6:00 am until about 10:00 pm.
I call this riding the whale because of the unique shape of the graph.
2019 Facebook Image Dimensions
The Perfect Facebook About Section
Many school districts are so concerned with their news feed content, they forget to optimize one of the most important sections on your business page. The About section on Facebook is indexed by Google, which makes it very important. Make sure to spend adequate time on this section.
About Section Checklist
It is also a great idea to create a Facebook Page Username. This gives you an unique URL to make it easier for your audience to find your page.
I would also suggest adding a Call to Action Button on your page. This can drive your audience to further interact with your content. You can choose from having your audience contact you, send you a message, call you, sign-up for your enewsletter or send you an email.
Video Success on Facebook
Upload your videos directly to Facebook rather than sharing a link from YouTube. Video uploaded natively to Facebook is more likely to get more engagement due to Facebook’s algorithm.
In fact, Quintly found that “Facebook native videos perform up to 4 times better than all other video formats.”
Optimal Video Length of Your Facebook Videos
BuzzSumo has some interesting statistics when it comes to video length on Facebook. In their 2018 Ultimate Guide to Facebook Engagement, they found that the optimal video length for the most engagement on Facebook was three to four minutes.
Developing Your Description on Facebook Videos
What is your video about? You need to write a well thought out description using keywords related to your video. The better the keywords, the better the SEO will be to help your audience find your videos.
Facebook video thumbnails are another crucial part of the uploading process. A strong thumbnail is like a digital billboard on your audiences news feed highway. Create eye-catching visuals with strong descriptor keywords over the image. Make your audience stop scrolling and watch your video.
Using Facebook Live
Streaming video is a vital part of our social media strategy. With increased competition in public education, school districts must use innovative approaches to market their schools.
While most live content creators concentrate on the broadcast, there are three important stages school districts should concentrate on to create a successful Facebook Live broadcast, which includes The Buzz, The Show, and The Follow-Up.
Read my Article How to Facebook Live: What Schools Need to Know Now to learn how to be successful on Facebook Live.
Facebook Live Ideas for Your School District
Using Facebook for Customer Service
Customer service has become a critical piece of marketing in schools. A happy parent shares all the great things happening in your district. It is important to use social media as a tool to help with implementing great customer service. This includes listening, addressing concerns and answering questions.
Facebook Customer Service Daily Checklist
Discover Your Real Fans on Facebook Pages
Audience Insights on Facebook is like a treasure chest of information about the people who interact with your page. You can drill down to find their interests and other pages they are interacting with. This is a great asset to use to target these individuals using Facebook advertising.
You can select any page that you manage to analyze your audience. Click inside the box called “Your Page” to drop down a list of pages you manage for your district.
Conclusion
Emerging trends in social media will influence the way we use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and countless other platforms. Facebook is still a powerful platform to reach parents of young children. Use the tips above to get the most from your Facebook page.
Do you have any questions about Facebook for school marketing? Let me know in the comment section below.
