Top 10 Fall Content Ideas for Communication Officers

Creating content for your school’s website, blog posts, newsletters and social media can be an exhausting cycle for Communications and Marketing offices. The list of what your school’s content needs to accomplish is daunting. Today, content needs to:

• Be engaging
• Be authentic
• Share your school’s voices and programs
• Showcase your school’s distinctions
• Stand out from your competitors
• Address prospects’ paint points

Your school’s unique market and marketing challenges will add a few more objectives to this list, especially if you are rolling out a new strategic plan, in a leadership transition, etc. Brainstorm with colleagues in your school’s academic, advancement and admissions/enrollment offices to make sure your content plan aligns with school goals for the year.

Then, there’s the challenge of finding ideas and time to write all the content. For many communications professionals – creative people who want their words and images to inspire – finding fresh ways to share what’s wonderful about your school and its community is one of the joys of the job.

There are ways to work smarter this fall to create engaging, strategic content (and, yes, sometimes just fun content, which is a strategy). We’ve curated 10 (plus a bonus one) ideas for inspiration for you to create a strong, manageable flow of content that can be repurposed in different ways:

• News on your website that can be linked in parent and alumni newsletters
• Social posts
• Story ideas for your school magazine
• Downloadable PDFs for your website
• Handouts at admissions events

Top 10 Content Ideas for Fall

1. Create a content calendar. Before you write a word, plan it out. What messages do you want to push out, and when? What works best for your fall enrollment season? To tee up retention with your current families? What are the messaging themes for this year? Put it all into a shareable spreadsheet, and as you create content this fall, enter it in. Check out our ultimate guide to creating a Content Calendar. 
2. Mine back-to-school content. Gather or record your school leaders and volunteers making speeches (Convocation, Parents’ Night, etc.). Repurpose these into a news story that wraps up leader quotes to inspire people for the year. If your student body president made a speech, profile the student, highlighting a large quote from their speech, what they’re involved in and plans for the year.
3. Create short-form videos on easy questions. Everyone loves video. Everyone loves school spirit. Combine the two in a man-on-the-street style video. During class breaks, after school or in the dining hall, ask students and faculty what they love most about your school. Edit them together for a fun social video and embed them in newsletters for parents and prospects. It’s an easy question to answer without any prep, and the answers are 100% authentic. Use your phone in horizontal format, add branded graphics and a title slide “What We Love About [SCHOOL NAME].” 
4. Showcase student talent. Collaborate with the yearbook staff and advisor to use their photos of sporting events, Homecoming, spirit days and other fall fun. Student photographers get a nice photo credit, and you can write a simple story with captions of the event. And you have great pics for carousel Facebook posts that alumni love.  
5. Showcase teacher personalities. Poke your head in classrooms and faculty offices for unique teachers’ desks or classroom set-ups. Taking a photo of the desk with the teacher and highlighting a few items on the desk are great ways to make your educators shine in a unique portrait. Their favorite desk items (or stuff on their bulletin board) speak to their intellect and humanness. Include their title, what they love about teaching at your school, and you’ve got a winning profile that people will want to read. Maybe do a series in the fall of various departments. Need other profile ideas?
6. Watch the calendar. Every day, week and month is a chance to celebrate something important or silly. Inspiration and a chance to showcase your school abound on these lists. The possibilities are endless.

• September 24 is National Punctuation Day, a great, cheeky chance to do a post thanking your English department for making sure students don’t dangle participles. 
• October 2 is National Custodian Day. What about a photo of your great housekeeping team and a post showing your appreciation for all they do and encourage people to share thanks in the comments? 
• Are your students raising money/awareness during Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Do you have faculty/staff/parent survivors willing to share their stories?   
• There are months, weeks and days specific to education and a great way to showcase your leaders, educators, students and programs. Just a few to get your ideas going:
• October: National Principals Month, Emotional Intelligence Awareness Month
• November: National Career Development Month, National School Psychology Week begins (Nov. 6-10), National STEM and STEAM Day (Nov. 13); American Education Week (Nov. 13-17); Education Support Professionals Day (Nov.15)
• December: Learn a Foreign Language Month, Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 4-10) 

7. Kick it Old School with #tbt. Throwback Thursday may seem so 2009, but everything old is new again. #tbt is an easy and engaging way to create social content that people love. Use your fall calendar for Homecoming or fall traditions specific to your school and post archival pics of those events. (Even five years ago is a throwback). Hype the big game with your rival and talk about the upcoming fall middle school retreat with photos from past retreats.
8. Celebrate your ambassadors. At Open House or your other fall admissions events, take photos of your student and parent ambassadors and do a “Meet Our Ambassadors” news story and social post of their smiling faces, names (for students, years and a few activities). Schedule them leading up to your open house or after with a thank you. It’s great for prospects because they will be seeing these ambassadors throughout the fall. 
9. Summer vacation, anyone? Summer 2024 may be over, but the summer accomplishments of your faculty and students aren’t. Email division heads and ask about faculty summer research and trips, especially those funded by school programs. This is great content that shows how invested your teachers are in making sure your program is top-notch. Email faculty for any leads on interesting student summer activities, trips, independent studies, etc. They will know.
10. College admission season is trending. If you have an upper school, our current and prospective families want to know how you prepare students for college. Ask to tape any presentations (on your phone using rev.com to transcribe the audio file) and craft it into a Q&A with your college counselor on what families should be doing, trends, etc. Ask your college counselors for a round-up of topics of your senior class’ Common App essays. No need to put names to that – the list alone will show the achievements and uniqueness of your students. Include the number of college acceptances and scholarships offered to the Class of 2024.

There are lots of low-hanging fruit for content ideas. Another thought is to scroll through last fall’s social media posts for your school. What did your followers like best? Nothing wrong with a fresh take on an old favorite!

Looking for help with creating the kind of content that moves your school’s engagement and enrollment needles? Let’s talk.