#DigitalJedi Training Guides
So, you’ve set up your fresh social media accounts and you’re ready to go. This easy guide will take you through step 1 of #DigitalJedi training to become a #SocialPadawan.
Do you know your retweets from your lists? Your pins from your moments?
So, you’ve taken the first step of signing up to a Twitter account. You see the blue screen in front of you and a plethora of opportunities, but where to start?
Constructing your #SchoolStories:
The first thing you need to think about is what content you’d like to post. What is the subject/point of your tweet?
Next, condense those words. 280 characters sounds a lot but can soon run out!
Then, add media. There is nothing worse than a tweet about the BEST event ever and then no photo or video!
Tag your tweet: #love, #beautiful, #summertime, #nobodycares!
Twitter for marketing is about categorising and archiving what you share. Although it is impossible to own a hashtag, simply adding your school name/abbreviation can make a huge difference. E.g. #intSchoolsLIVE. A #GenericHashtag will just get lost in a sea of unrelated content.
Here are some great examples from our schools sharing their #SchoolStories:
BONUS TRAINING:
Make sure to mention (@) any relevant departments or other accounts. If you are tweeting from the main school account about art, why not give the art department some love by mentioning them in the tweet? Then, the art department can engage with your content and share the love back!
If you see another department sending out great content, slide into their direct messages (DMs), letting them know what a great tweet it was?!
Congratulations on completing Stage 1 of your training.
Do you know your stories from your highlights? Your showcases from your boomerangs?
This first stage of training will give you the skills you need to start out on Instagram. A good foundation is essential for any social media strategy, as well as planning. Without planning, content can just become noise without a clear objective. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place! If you follow our TOP tips, you’ll be a #DigitalJedi in no time!
So you’ve downloaded the app. You have loads of photos saved and ready to start out on this new platform, but HOLD ON a second! Before setting up any account, it’s well worth having a good think about your social naming. Consistent naming across platforms gives you that extra brand awareness that you’ve been looking for and makes you easily discoverable for people searching for your school. A good tool to check availability of naming is www.namecheckr.com, which allows you to enter a handle and see if it is available across all platforms. If it isn’t, go back to the drawing board and come up with a naming convention that is.
Once you’ve selected your naming, you’ll need to complete your bio. This small section gives you a chance to say a little bit about yourself and what you do. As a school, a simple description of where you are and how old your students are will suffice here. We also recommend including your main school hashtag (strapline) so that users can jump on this and know your official hashtag (ENGAGEMENT, ENGAGEMENT, ENGAGEMENT).
151 Likes, 0 Comments - Radley College (@radleycollegeoxon) on Instagram: "Sunshine over Radley #RadleyPlace #RadleyChapel"
There’s just one more step that we recommend before posting your first photo. Have a look on other school accounts or business accounts to see the type of content they are sharing. OR what content they are NOT sharing but should be! Instagram should be your so-called vanity profile. Here, you should be sharing your best photos, such as your beautiful school buildings, modern sports centre, or frosty school field. Instagram is not the platform to be sharing 10 posts per day of normal activities that your students are doing. It’s not about the people, it’s about the place! It’s your showcase of the best of the best! The truly WOW photos.
The final step to becoming a #SocialPadawan on Instagram is, of course, sharing your first photo! Choose a high-resolution photo that you think would really grab people’s attention. Check out our blog on how to take the perfect smartphone photo for tips on how to capture this with just your mobile.
Once you have chosen your photo, it’s time to describe it. Use short and snappy captions including some of your main school hashtags. As Instagram is more of a vanity profile and likes, comments, and shares are important, you could also use some more generic hashtags here to make your content easily discoverable. Once your photo is tagged up and ready to go, click SHARE et voilà, you’re good to go.
Flickr is an image and video hosting website, it comes with a free and pro version. While the free version is a good starting point, the real treats of Flickr are found in its Pro version. A Pro subscription will provide you with services such as unlimited storage, partner discounts, advanced stats, and increased exposure.
The first step is to create your account, think of this as crashing down on #Dagobah and finding your #DigitalJedi stood there, ready to train you!
Much like Twitter, (which you can become a master of in our helpful blog series), Flickr allows you to upload a profile and header image. Try and keep the two consistent and clear within the borders offered to make your account appear professional and POP!
Now you can make the decision, how will you structure your account? Will you divide photos into albums by subject? Or by year group? The choices are endless, and they are yours.
The benefit of Flickr is this ability to organise your photos into albums with easy and instant access, relieving the stress of trying to find all of the Sports Day photos in the stream.
Create an album by clicking the ‘Album’ tab and selecting ‘new album’. The page it will bring you to will allow you to rename the album and (when you have the content) move images from your account into the album. This same process also applies when creating a gallery.
After you have decided how you will post, now it is time to post. To metaphorically front flip over a rock, while we, your humble #DigitalJedi, cling safely to your back.
You can upload multiple images at once, keep in mind free accounts are limited to a maximum of 1000 images, this may seem like a lot now, but a year of #SchoolStories will see this number fall fast!
With your image(s) uploaded you will land on this page. At this stage of your journey, the multiple options may scare you, a disturbance to your confidence. Fear not! For now, we shall keep things simple. Simply update the description of your photo(s) and add them to an album, either the one you made earlier or create a new one from the ‘Add to albums’ pop-up.
BONUS TRAINING!:
The task now is to turn your attention away from yourself, turn to those around you (on Flickr) click on the Flickr name in the top left and explore all of the images presented to you.
This time is to be spent exploring, seeing what others post and, if you like it, favouriting images by clicking the star in the bottom right of an image.
So, What IS SoundCloud?
Soundcloud is an audio distribution platform to share audio. As opposed to a music platform such as Spotify, it is free to upload tracks on SoundCloud. It is a platform used by everyone from complete beginners to professional musicians.
Where does Soundcloud fit into my #ContentStrategy?
Your school can make use of SoundCloud to promote any audio created by the school. It is a great tool to get other departments involved, so that it is not just ANOTHER marketing job. Encourage the Music and Drama departments to share their great content with you. Here are a few ideas for possible content:
School productions (be careful with copyright)
Student recordings
A school podcast (Find out how to start your own in last week’s blog)
Student/Alumni interviews
Q&A sessions with staff
Revision guides
Foreign language conversations
Reviews
How does SoundCloud work?
Step 1: Click the upload button
Step 2: Drag and drop your file and choose whether you’d like it to be public or private.
Step 3: Basic info: Insert a title, create a custom URL for your track, choose a genre.
Step 4: Add your tags. This stage is vitally important as it is how users will find your track. For those with a stunning @intSchools website, these tags will also be vital for filtering content on your media wall and to make sure that visitors to your site find related content.
Step 5: Describe your track. A short description for your track will suffice here. This description will make your track easy to find on search engines.
If you feel like you need more training, our team of #DigitalJedi here at Interactive Schools will be with you, always. Send an email to social@interactiveschools.com to plan in an INSET training date now.