In the age of online communication, it’s essential not to stray behind as a school. Social media platforms like; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc., open the door to direct communication between parents, teachers, and leading figures within your school’s directory. Here are the reasons why we believe that every school should have a Facebook page.
Communication is Key
As a school leader, you may understand that communication is one of the main characteristics of maintaining healthy relationships with members of the school community. Effective communication helps to improve school morale and organizational efficiency. Administrators who engage in effective communication practices, often earn the trust of the parents, teachers, and students.
Engaging in clear communication practices on a social media platform, allows you to deliver news and pertinent updates in a timely manner. Constituents will be inclined to discuss events in the comments or through private and page messages. Utilizing a social media platform makes it much easier to receive and digest feedback.
Encourage Interaction
One of the great functions of Facebook is that people can respond with comments and various emojis to represent their emotions and opinions. By encouraging interaction with your posts on Facebook, you allow people to voice their opinions, concerns, or suggestions. Not only does this benefit you as a school, as you can use this feedback to improve, your members will feel like someone is listening to them, which also increases morale.
Encouraging interaction is not at all hard to do. When you post something on your page, simply add a sentence like “Let us know what you think,” or “What would you like to see in the coming school year?” These open ended questions allow people to reply with whatever is on their minds.
Host Events
Most schools often have events like parties, holiday celebrations, and open days or parent-teacher conferences. The attendance usually varies per event as some get more advertisement than others. However, when you host a Facebook page, you can create an event to add to your page.
A visible event on your page increases awareness within your audience. Perhaps some parents wouldn’t have found out about the event if it wasn’t for your page. As a bonus, you can also invite people to an event with the ‘invitation’ function, and it lets you see the expected attendance.
Educate and Entertain
With the help of Facebook streams, you can educate and entertain the members of your page. Think of a Christmas song sung by your staff as the Christmas holiday approaches or perhaps a few members of the school board have visited a fascinating lecture by a professor and want to share the conference online for all to see.
You don’t always need to stream live events and videos. You can also share entertaining or educating videos from the internet when they’re relevant to a situation your school is in. Take the COVID-19 pandemic for instance, what’s a better time to share an uplifting video than now?
You can also host an online event in which people can change recipes, DIY’s, book tips, or more! This way, people are happy and will connect these positive feelings to your school, which helps to increase morale.
Facebook Groups
Besides a page, you can also create a Facebook group as this offers a few extra functions, like:
- Members can post information or questions publicly
- Regulate who becomes a member to prevent spammers
- Add a spotlight to a helpful member by giving them a specific badge
- Keeping the group active increases the group’s appearance in everyone’s personal timeline
Little to no other social media platforms offer this function, which is why creating a Facebook group makes your school stand out!
Things to Keep in Mind
There are a few things to keep in mind when creating a Facebook page. For instance, you need to be online regularly to interact with your page members. You also need to post at least a few times a we
ek to show that you’re active. An active page attracts active members.
Lastly, try to make sure that your Facebook page is a safe space for everyone, and that bullying, harassment, racism, and sexism are not allowed. You can do so by setting a few rules and appointing one or multiple moderators when needed.
Hosting a Facebook page is no easy task, but it will benefit you on many levels, from the morale of the students to the engagement of the parents. Besides, it never hurts to try! Go create a Facebook page today and get active!
