Grab your virtual flip flops to create a summer of social media fun with posts designed to engage your community. And, check out the first installment in our two-part summer series on creating great social media content during summer break. Read Summer Social Media Hacks for Independent Schools.
Show, Don’t Tell!
Summer can be a great time to show off your school pride on your social media and web news feed. While you don’t post as frequently as you do during the academic year, it’s critical to maintain a regular posting cadence to use summer break as a springboard to connect with your community in new ways, showcase its achievements, and build excitement for the school year ahead.
The goal for any summer post is to keep your community’s connection to your school going during summer break. Staying top-of-mind is easy with fun posts focused on school spirit like a friendly competition with photo contests around summer themes such as “favorite vacation spot with a good book.”
It’s also a great time to help everyone think ahead to the new school year by hosting live Q&A sessions with teachers, college counselors and/or tech teams to answer questions parents might have about upcoming school events and device questions.
To get everyone sharing their summer adventures, create a special hashtag for your school. This encourages interaction and keeps the school spirit alive until it’s back-to-school time.
Showcase What’s Happening on Campus
Students and faculty may be gone for a few months, but your campus is probably a hive of activity. Share what’s happening with your community to build connections and excitement for the new school year:
- Post updates on summer renovations with behind-the-scenes photos. Celebrate the summer achievements of staff members, including teachers attending conferences, leading summer training or workshops, enjoying sabbatical opportunities funded by your school, or working with colleagues to create a new curriculum
- Give a shout-out to your maintenance and grounds crew for regular summer projects with a photo.
Honor Student and Alumni Achievements
Showcase Students and Alumni: During the summer, feature recently graduated seniors and alumni award winners with their accomplishments to underscore your school’s value proposition and show outcomes–critical to your current and future families.
- Give a graduated senior or a summer award winner the opportunity to take over the school’s social media accounts for a day. Let them share their summer experiences, answer followers’ questions and host live interactive online events. There are lots of ways to keep your posts celebratory and focused on the caliber of your students: Post a photo of a graduated senior in their college t-shirt or in front of their chosen college. Include a short quote about their plans and aspirations.
- Scholarship Spotlight: Feature a graduated senior who received a scholarship for their academic achievements or community involvement. Briefly highlight their accomplishments and the scholarship details.
- “Thank a Teacher” Feature: Ask graduated seniors to submit a short video message thanking a teacher who significantly impacted their high school experience. Share these messages throughout the summer.
- Highlight students who participated in summer academic programs or competitions and achieved outstanding results with program details.
- Showcase students who won awards in art competitions, music festivals, or writing contests over the summer with a photo and artwork, video of the performance, or link to the published piece. Recognize students who excelled in summer sports leagues, competitions, or training camps with action photos or videos they submit to you. It’s a great way to showcase your graduating seniors who were recruited to play at college. Feature students who volunteered in their community or participated in leadership programs during the summer.
- Create an infographic showing how many colleges and universities the Class of 2024 was accepted into and the total number of scholarships awarded, along with a photo of the graduates at Commencement.
These pointers can help you use summer break as a springboard for your school to connect with your community in new ways, showcase its achievements, and build excitement for the school year ahead. Your audiences will appreciate the posts and be proud to see that their school is part of their summer fun through engaging social content.
Let Kalix Marketing Group help your school dive into the summer months with ease. Contact us here.
Missed the first part of this two-part series? Dive into it here.
