Community engagement is one of the most important metrics when measuring success of your #ContentStrategy and one which needs a lot more focus.
At a time of distance learning, parent engagement is key to student retention and keeping those important stakeholders as happy as Larry!
A common complaint from parents is that schools can be too reactive with engagement and comms and not proactive enough, so how can we improve this with some simple community engagement ideas?
TIP #1: Weekly dynamic newsletter
Newsletters offer parents a glimpse into your school’s daily life, this is especially important during these unprecedented times. It allows you to keep in touch with your students and parents as well as demonstrate your school values through photos and articles. Be proactive and send out weekly newsletters to keep your community engaged. Use your #ContentStrategy to underpin your comms and streamline your newsletter process.
TIP #2: Personalised ‘celebrity treatment’
When was the last time you received personalised comms from your child’s school? If you are nodding along at home, you will remember stopping everything that you were doing to read the latest update. If you are shaking your head, how lovely would it be to see what your child has been doing today. Take that little bit of extra time to send out more personalised comms and keep your stakeholders feeling a part of your community.
TIP #3: Filtered Media Wall
#DistanceLearning is still a normality in our lives but that does not mean you should stop sharing your amazing #SchoolStories. Showcase your #SchoolStories on your website to show off your photos and videos shared by your students and teachers in one place. You can then use hashtags to categorise your content so parents can filter through anything that might not be of an interest to them. Use this pre-filtered content as live comms and share this directly with your parent community. Pine Crest School are a great example of using hashtags effectively to allow their community to see all of their Grade 4 content in one place.
TIP #4: Virtual Events
Events, personal meetings and open days create a sense of togetherness. Why not move your office online and share your events virtually? Instead of school visits, use webinars as a platform for engaging with your community and answering questions. If you would like more information about ways to host your events online, check out our previous #SchoolBytes blog here.
TIP #5: Likes & RTS
A forgotten part of building a strong community is interaction. No matter how many wonderful newsletters, blogs or #SchoolStories you put out, none of these will work if you are unreactive. Ensure to like and retweet your community’s posts on #SocialMedia to continue building your relationship. Online parent & alumni reviews can serve as a real voice to push through your admissions while word of mouth is not possible. As you all know, engagement is key to retention especially at a tough time like this, so get liking.
And there you have it, our simple community engagement ideas to keep interacting with your key stakeholders and become more proactive.
Click here to read this article on the Interactive Schools website.
