School Public Relations
School public relations carries more clout than advertising or marketing, and is often less expensive. Are you implementing strategic public relations at your school?
As a school administrator entrusted with the education of youth and fostering a positive school brand to current and potential families, your job is not easy. Take comfort in the reality that powerful components for your school’s success already exist in your school—the valuable relationship of teachers and parents.
We’ve blogged previously about the legal requirements of website accessibly and how to make your school website ADA compliant. We’ve even provided full website accessibility services to make things easy for our clients. But there is one thing we haven’t talked about yet in all this—and that is the public relations aspect of ADA compliance.
Benefits are a huge motivator. And whether we realize it or not, much of our day-to-day actions are motivated by benefits. School marketing has incredible benefits such as approval, trust, investment, support, involvement. These benefits are worth your time at least a few hours every week.
As you practice school public relations, you’ll improve your school brand, connect with your community, and boost your marketing efforts. Consistent, strategic messaging with the end goal of creating and nurturing relationships with your publics is key to your school's success.
Here are six tips for building strong school public relations. We’re going to help you get out of your comfort zone and look at some school communication risks that can vastly improve your school’s public relations.
When you are looking to increase your school's enrollment, positive, uplifting, and inspiring stories and testimonials are the "x-factor." Use it!
In part 2 of our school customer service series, we’ll take a look how to deal with difficult or upset persons as well as how to deliver constructive criticism.
Do you ever feel like your school public relations plan is missing something? Take a look at your school-parent community partnership. How often do your students’ families come to your school? Do they have reasons to look forward to their time on your campus?
As a parent in a busy family, one of my greatest struggles is getting the messages sent from schools. My children attend high school, junior high, elementary, and preschool, and staying au courant in our home is no small feat. So, if you can get my attention, you’re really doing something right.
Marketing your school is essential in today’s competitive educational environment. The good news is that there are so many effective ways to do it—you just need to get started. So, here are 51 ideas to get you moving in the right direction.
Nearly every educator will agree that positive parent engagement improves a child’s educational outcome. Besides making common sense, many data-driven studies are proving what we all know intuitively.
Trust—all across our country—is perceived as wounded and limping. Whether within corporations, government, or our schools, many feel the damage is irreparable. We disagree, and you should as well. You have the ability to rebuild trust in your circle of influence and create optimism that replaces cynicism. Trust rules. It drives your school’s cohesiveness. It drives performance. It even drives student achievement.
Whether you’re managing school marketing for a public or private school, chances are you would like to grow your enrollment. More than a monetary investment, your school is an investment of time and trust for the families you serve. So what better way to show other parents what a great school you have than to let them hear it from other parents?
When many parents select a school for their child, they are selecting with their heart, not their mind. This is actually how we make most of our purchases as well. Branding is about winning the heart. It is an intangible. A feeling. An emotion.
How do you envision the impact of negative comments on your community’s perception of your school? In this blog, we’ll provide some informative tips to help you take action to protect your school’s reputation online via your school blogs, website, social media, or other online site.
Standardized testing—do these two words raise your blood pressure? It seems as though the school year all comes down to testing, doesn’t it? For administrators, your school grade, your school reputation, your school brand, all rely heavily on the results of how students from your school perform on test days.
The term “brand” is much more than a logo or school motto, and it encompasses much more than your school letterhead and newsletters. Your brand is an image that includes the ideals that you want to promote to your enrolled families, prospective families and visitors, and the community at large. A distinctive brand can be one of your school’s most valuable communication assets, especially in this time of school choice and open enrollment.
Have you ever walked into a crowded room where a hundred little conversations are taking place all at once? It sounds a little like a beehive buzzing, doesn’t it?
In school communications we don’t throw the term “marketing buzz” around much—although maybe we should.
Your school website should be the hub of communications for your school. We understand when complications arise—like ADA compliance—some schools would like to throw the towel in and give up on their online presence altogether. But in today's mobile world and climate of school choice, you cannot ignore your school website—especially if your school is struggling.
There are lots of reasons people decide to do things themselves instead of outsourcing or hiring a trained professional. ...
What makes the difference in a DIY success versus a DIY train wreck?
The answer is having the right foundation and tools.
When it comes to school websites, many schools don’t recognize their most valuable players and often don’t even put them in the game. Typically, all the focus is on the main office or district website. If you aren’t using your school-level websites as strategic communications tools, it is like only playing your second string all season.
It’s not easy to be a risk-taker. After all, “risk” involves the possibility that something unpleasant or unwelcome may happen. But risk also includes the possibility of something wonderful or amazing happening. What kind of school leader are you?
In part 3 of this customer service series, let’s look at some healthy, guiding principles to follow in order to establish your school as dependable and committed to good communication habits–both face-to-face and written.
Learn how to use the power of words to improve your school customer service in part one of this 3-part customer services series for schools.
Successful schools communicate to their parents and students that they are part of a team, not just observers whose presence matters very little. If you inspire a student with a school program, activity, initiative, etc., your efforts will be multiplied by their enthusiasm to the get the word out to their family and friends. Increased parent engagement through your students is a crucial part of successful school public relations and marketing.
Here are some simple ways your school’s office personnel can contribute positively to your student enrollment efforts.
Telling deeply satisfying, meaningful stories isn’t just a tool or device to use once in a while; it’s an essential strategy in communication and in marketing your school.
Imagery is a timeless form of communication that engages audiences in various ways. Whether you recognize it yet or not, seeking to increase your use imagery as part of your school marketing is important, easy, and effective. Let’s look at the value of concrete imagery, such as pictures either on a printed page or screen
This month our social media team reminded us that school social media can (and should!) be so much more than the same old, tired news post or calendar reminder on our social media streams. With a little extra investment and the courage to be personal, schools can turn their social media into a truly unifying force with their overall community.
A strategic communications plan for your social media can improve relationships with parents, build trust, and encourage engagement. When it comes to school communication, parents want important information such as events and meetings, policy changes, and news that affects the education of their child. However, this is information better suited for e-mails, newsletters, and the school website.
Nationwide, schools in the United States have a public relations problem. It would seem they could fix these problems with some well managed strategic communications and marketing efforts, right? But, the problem goes deeper than that. It isn’t even entirely a perception problem; some of it is a reality. We must respond to these issues quite differently.
What is effective school communication? Most people would acknowledge that it is critical to the success of our school, but it is a broad topic and difficult to pin down.
It sounds simple enough, right?
Merriam-Webster says it is “the interchange of thoughts or opinions.” I think the use of the word “interchange” is significant, as it indicates mutual give and take.
When it comes to school social media management, there are those who outsource and those who prefer to learn what they need to keep things in-house.
Marketing is usually a word used by for-profit businesses and shunned by educators. Most of us don’t enjoy being “marketed” to, so we don’t like the thought of having to market ourselves when we have dedicated our lives to one of service. We might feel we should be exempt from all that nasty marketing/sales stuff. But, we may need to rethink this!
Back-to-school jitters aren’t just for students and teachers; administrators certainly get their share of the stress that comes along with that first day.
In the field of education, we often don't think of ourselves as service providers. We just don't relate what we are doing in education as being about customer service.
Doing more with less is a beautiful concept. It allows you to simplify processes, be more productive, and use resources most effectively. For schools especially, the notion of doing more with less should be particularly appealing given stretched budgets, sparse staff, and ever-increasing to-do lists. Let me tell you how our friends at Ridgefield Public Schools (RPS) are managing their to-do list all while saving staff time and staying within their budget.