Faculty and Staff Need to be Involved in Your School’s Social Media Campaign
Social media is an extremely powerful marketing tool, especially for schools. Most schools are taking advantage of this but are missing a key factor: involving faculty and staff members. 
Faculty and staff are the face of the school. These are the people that interact with the students (clients of the school) on a daily basis. They are responsible for the success of the students during the time they attend the school and beyond. The advantage of interacting with students on a regular basis allows for faculty and staff to become aware of campus and community activities and events, among many other things. By allowing them to become a part of the school’s social media campaign they begin to build awareness for the school, manage the school’s image, potentially draw in leads, and create a loyal relationship between students/graduates and the school.
Social media is a great way to:
- Promote class starts
- Provide open house information
- Spread on campus events
- Share photos and videos
- Promote contests
- Share success stories of graduates
- Personalize each student’s experience
Social media is also a great way to learn from students and graduates. What are common issues students are talking about on the school’s social media networks? Do they appear to have the same issue(s)? Social media gives the school a chance to respond to the matter and tell their side of the story. Social media also acts as publicized customer service. There will always be negative feedback, but that is only because it is impossible to please everyone. However, responding to issues shows that the school is listening and does care about what students have to say.
Another large piece to running an efficient social media campaign is posting valuable content on a regular basis. Schools have a lot of potential content such as class starts, open houses, on campus events, success stories, student highlights, etc. By involving faculty and staff members the content will continue to flow and stay fresh.
If having faculty and staff involved raises concerns, good! This means the concept of social media is understood. Many schools outsource their social media because it is a huge job to take on and there isn’t enough time to build and maintain the school’s platforms efficiently and effectively. It is important to keep the messaging and voice consistent too. Involving faculty and staff would mean having them report anything to whoever manages the school’s social media campaign, whether it is a marketing agency or a fulltime employee. That way everything is reviewed before it is posted and the messaging and voice stay consistent.
When choosing faculty and staff members, be sure to include staff from departments students deal with the most in addition to actual classroom faculty. The goal is to have each department at the campus level covered. Keep in mind that every school is different. It will take some trial and error to see what works best, but don’t be afraid to try different strategies to get there.
