Social Media Marketing for Independent Schools

If you're a Marketing Professional working in an Independent School, have you considered Social Media? Everybody seems to be talking about it and businesses are coming round to the idea that used correctly, it can bring massive benefits. So should you consider it an option too?

The answer is, of course, yes. With a huge percentage of the population using Social Media and more and more people signing up every day, it stands to reason that you should have a presence to talk with those who may be interested in your school.

However, the first thing to consider is that, chances are, you already have a presence. Search for your school in websites such as facebook, and you may find that pupils or parents or even teachers will have already set up pages and groups. Anyone looking for your school will find these and whatever impression they take, be it positive or negative, is out of your hands. It's therefore imperative to have a presence, if only to have a say with your own image and to contribute to a conversation that's already happening.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as far as what Social Media can do for you. Speaking specifically about facebook, it now has over 400 million users worldwide, with about 30 million active users in the UK. These can easily be narrowed down to smaller geographical areas, age groups, and even to those who are actually talking about looking for a new school, through the search options. They can then be approached and attracted via a huge variety of methods, all of which use a new form of marketing where a message isn't pushed, like an advert, but spread through friendly community communication. Where everyone's friends are informed whenever a user interacts with you. If you talk to ten people, each will have on average about 150 friends, so that's 1,500 people told. If just 100 of them follow up, again their friends are told, and now 15,000 people know, and so on.

Compare that to a website, which unless you spend lots of money on search engine optimization, will only be found by those who are already looking for your school. Or an advert on TV or in a newspaper, that may pass by thousands of people with no interest whatsoever. Baring this in mind, it's easy to see the potential of Social Media.

Anyone can set up a profile, free of charge, and head towards that potential, but there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things. A business or school ideally needs to administer their own page, as their personality and expertise needs to really shine through the page, but what if they don't have the know how? The answer; find someone who has got the know how. A whole new virtual industry has developed, to offer support, advice, strategy and theory on Social Media Marketing. Many charge for their services, but many also publish a whole wealth of hints and tips online, which we ourselves do at; http://www.facebook.com/eskimosoup

eskimosoup is now working with AMDIS to go further. We are in the process of developing Social Media Workshops, specifically tailored to Independent Schools. Stay tuned for more details coming soon...