Advanced Facebook Tips for Schools
“The question isn’t, ‘What do we want to know about people?’, It’s, ‘What do people want to tell about themselves?”
A sprawling $300 billion giant with 1.6 billion users, Facebook is so much more than a social media network.
"What do people want to tell about themselves" - What does your school want to tell the world?
Facebook is a machine and it's important to know the best methods to tell the world your school's story.
Facebook has been around for 12 years now! Although much has changed, we all know the basics.
What you may not know, is some of the hidden, or latest features of Facebook.
Here's how to set your school apart and become a Facebook expert :)
Facebook Live
'Facebook Live' officially launched in August 2015 but in recent months the feature has been released across mobile, and really come to fruition.
The feature has become increasingly popular and it's becoming a much more common sight in people's news feeds.
The good news for schools? Your school can be one of the first to utilise Facebook Live. Your competitor's won't be using it 😉.
It's a fantastic tool to broadcast what's happening at your school, in real-time!
Here are just some of the many examples of events you could live stream in your school:
- Sports Day - Live stream races. Absent parents could watch their child win their race from the office!
- Open Day - Live stream a tour of the school! Give the world a chance to attend an open day from the comfort of their own home!
- Christmas Show - Live stream the annual Christmas show! Make sure all the family get to see their child's performance.
- Classroom Streaming - If you have an exciting lesson planned, why not share it with the world? Show the world class educators at your school, to lure prospective parents to your school.
- Competition Results - Live stream the winner of the school raffle!
Don't be one of the last schools to get involved with live streaming! Become one of the FIRST!
To start a live broadcast:
- Log into the Facebook iOS app or Facebook Android app
- Tap at the top of your Timeline, News Feed or Page
- Tap the Live Icon (see photo above)
- Write an optional description for your broadcast
- Tap Go Live to begin your broadcast
When you want to end your broadcast, tap Finish (Your broadcast can be no longer than 90 minutes. When you end your broadcast, it'll stay on your Timeline or Page - just like any other video.).
Hot tips for Facebook Live:
1. Tell people ahead of time when you're going to broadcast
2. Go live when you have a strong connection. This should be fine in most cases but if your school is situated in a rural location, check the connection beforehand.
3. Write a compelling description before going live: A great description will capture your audience's attention and help them understand what your broadcast is all about.
4. Broadcast for longer periods of time to reach more people.
Instagram Integration
Back in 2012 Facebook expanded it's social 'empire' by completing the acquisition of Instagram.
It is the 8th most popular social network in the world and is the fastest growing social network in the world.
So just how popular is Instagram?
- 400 million monthly active users
- 41% users are aged between 16 and 24
- 488 Instagram photos uploaded in 1 second
- 90% of users are younger than 35
- 14 million UK users
- 64% of users are female in the UK
Why should I link Instagram to my Facebook page?
- Promote your Instagram account: If you already have a big Facebook community, it's a perfect platform to promote your Instagram. Instagram is great for reaching out to your younger (13-30 years old) audience.
- Easy cross-platform content: Instead of having to upload content twice, you can easily upload to multiple platforms from Instagram.
- Filters and editing: By uploading your content via Instagram you will be able to use their filters and in-app editing tools
Not on Instagram? Check out our beginners guide to Instagram blog to get set up and ready to go!
How do I link my Instagram to my Facebook page?
- Log into your Instagram on mobile. Go to your profile page and click the settings icon in the top right corner.
2. Go down to linked accounts in settings. From here you will be able to link multiple social accounts to your Instagram.
Facebook Insights
Facebook Insights is a powerful tool for tracking user interaction on your school's Facebook Page.
Facebook Insights can be seen by all the admins of your page and it can help you track the number of active users to better understand page performance.
To access insights simply add /insights to the end of your Facebook URL e.g www.facebook.com/example/insights
What Can I find out on Facebook Insights?
1. Overview: This page is great for having a quick overview of your pages performance. Select up to 1 month to quickly review progress. You can export the information for quick printing.
2. Likes: See a quick overview of your history of page likes. This is great for seeing your most popular periods for growing your community.
3. Views: This is so useful for schools understanding their community. You can view: age, gender, country, city, device, and even the source of the page visit.
Have a look at your Facebook Insights. You'll be amazed about the information you can learn about your Facebook community.
Call To Action
The Call to Action (CTA) button is designed to bring a organisations’ most important objective to the forefront of its Facebook presence.
Call-to-action buttons link to any destination (on or off Facebook) that aligns with an organisations' goals.
The seven calls to action currently available are:
- Book Now
- Contact Us
- Use App
- Play Game
- Shop Now
- Sign Up
- Watch Video
For a school, the most popular call-to-action buttons will be either 'Book Now' or 'Contact Us'. If your school has a new video, this can be added as the call-to-action!
Creating a call-to-action button
Schedule Posts
Did you know that you don't have to post to Facebook instantaneously? Since 2012, Facebook has given us the option to schedule posts.
Not many people know about this!
It's a fantastic tool for planning your posts in bulk. This saves you having to post on busy days and let's you relax, and plan your posts in time.
1. Start creating your post at the top of your Page's Timeline. Click the down arrow next to publish. Click 'Schedule' in the resulting drop-down menu.
2. Select a publish date. (Must be between 10 minutes and 6 months in the future).
It really is as easy as that to schedule your posts :)
Backdate Posts
That's right!! With Facebook it's possible to travel back in time!
Why would you want to travel back in time on Facebook? Since 2011 our Facebook profiles and pages have been based in a timeline structure.
The timeline feature allows us to document our life history, adding milestones and birthdays. We can do the same thing with school pages.
By backdating posts and events, you can showcase the rich history of your school and all the big events:
- Founding dates
- Milestones in the development of your school
- Famous 'Alumni' graduations
- Albums of events
Use the timeline feature to showcase the history of your school. It's likely your school has only had Facebook for 3 or 4 years - but the school may have hundreds of years worth of history!
Every year from 1950 onwards should have at least ONE photo from that year.
Guess what your Alumni will do? They will go to the years they went to the school. And if that year has photos of pupils, that will strike a conversation.
- "Who is the girl in the top left?"
- "I wonder what Richard is doing now?"
- "Sarah, is that you in the bottom row?!"
Your alumni will grow your reach for you.
Backdate posts and showcase your impressive history :)
It's really as easy as that to backdate your posts and create a rich history for your school on Facebook!
CONGRATULATIONS! You're a real life Mark Zuckerberg!
If you would like further advice (or even social training) get in touch with one of our 'Social Jedi' here at Interactive Schools!
We're doing an enormous amount of INSET, and other training at schools for teachers, marketing departments, and leadership teams.
We would love to hear any thoughts/comments you have below.