How to use social media to build a community of engaged parents

Do you feel like you just can't seem to get your independent school's social media presence off the ground? In this post, we will discuss how to build a community of both existing and prospective parents on social media. We will help you understand what your audience wants, what platforms to use, how your school should be communicating in 2023 and how to transform your content mindset to be audience-centric.

Reasons why you might be struggling

Despite having wonderful photographs and writing good copy, many independent schools struggle to create an engaging community on social media because they don’t share content that most appeals to the two key groups of parents or communicate in a way that feels truly authentic.

What existing parents want…

Your current parents follow your social media platforms to see ‘behind the scenes’ content from daily life in the school. Parents are interested in having more of a peek into their child's life when they are not around to ensure that they are enjoying a fun, interesting and diverse education.

What prospective parents want…

Prospective parents want to also see the above, as this is a great insight into what life could be like for their child at your school. However, they also want to see a buzzing, caring and engaged community of parents, teachers and children as this is often a key factor in choosing which school they want their child to attend.

Based on these needs, your goal on social media is to be community-led, prioritising meaningful and engaging content that appeals to both sets of parents.

So how do you start to build a community on social media?

Step #1: Identify the best platforms for you to use

The first step is understanding which social media platforms your target audience of parents are most active on and to focus on building a presence there.

A rough guide we’d recommend based on parent data and age groups for different platforms would be as follows;

Pre-Prep & Prep Parents

#1 Instagram, #2 TikTok and #3 Facebook

Senior School Parents

#1 Instagram #2 Facebook and #3 Twitter

Giving 80% of your effort on the #1 platform (this is where you focus on growing a community) then 20% to the other two platforms so that you keep a presence in multiple places.

Step #2: Understand your audience

It is essential to have a solid understanding of the requirements of your target audience in order to turn your content difficulties into a triumph. Here are three ways that you can understand the individual desires of your parents when it comes to social media.

• Past experience - what posts have had the most engagement and most comments in the past? This is a great indicator for what content to continue posting in the future.

• Parent feedback - what posts have parents and teachers been talking about? Have you had particularly excited or positive feedback after certain events or activities that you’ve posted?

• Study competitors - Look at what your competitors are doing and see what is working for them. This can give you insights into what parents are interested in.

This will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of what your audience wants to see and what content will create the most engagement for your school. Now you can start to double down on the best-performing posts and create audience-centric content.

Step #3: Engage proactively and authentically

Many schools are worried about coming across as too casual on social media. They often end up having a robotic and formal presence online while the best schools on social media are engaging more authentically and humanly.

To help engagement we recommend the following steps;

Be personal: Parents love to see that you know their child on a personal level, that they aren’t just a number. Personal social media content that shows that you truly know each child is a great way to demonstrate the individual care given to all students.

Be proactive: Actively engage with parents by responding to their comments, answering questions, and encouraging conversation. This will help you build trust and create a sense of community among your audience.

Be authentic: Let the shackles off and engage in a caring, authentic and human way. Parents will engage much more with content that shows that you really know each child and that you’re passionate about what is going on at the school.

Every school and business need to be less polished and perfect in 2023. The best content out there is authentic, personal and frankly a little rough around the edges. Don’t be afraid to let a little personality out, it’ll go a long way in helping to build a community online for parents to actively engage in.

Final thoughts

We hope the steps above are a good starting point to help give you a better understanding of what your audience requires, transform your content mindset into one that is audience-centric, and communicate in a way that starts to create a community.

Good social media content presents you with the unique opportunity to communicate with both existing and prospective families at scale. Start to implement an authentic voice and focus your content to put parents first and you will have already gone a long way in differentiating yourself from the other schools you’re competing with.