unity m Comearning L
Social Media User Guide For Academies
1
What are the benefits of social media? Marketing is an important part of any Academy and helps enable it to fulfil our vision of providing ‘Exceptional Education at the Heart of the Community’. Social media is just one strand of marketing that goes hand-in-hand with printed materials, such as your prospectus and posters, and digital channels such as your website. What can social media marketing do for your Academy? •
Increase awareness of your Academy amongst those in the local community and wider area
•
Improve ‘loyalty’ – someone who sees regular, positive updates from your Academy appear on their social media feeds will be more inclined to maintain interest and support
•
Present the opportunity to convert/change perception – for those who are on social media and already aware of your Academy, but who have perhaps not previously perceived it in the best light, social media is an excellent way to demonstrate otherwise
Increasing awareness and reputation through social media can, as a result, have wider implications such as raising the number of parents who want their children to obtain a place at your Academy. Why is social media so important? Approximately 75% of people will research a product or service online before investing in it. This applies to Academies too. Parents are likely to use social media and your website as one of their first ports of call before deciding whether to even consider visiting your Academy. A website is therefore one of your best marketing tools because it stores an abundance of information that will market your Academy. It is your very own online prospectus and social media is one of the best ways of directing people to your website. 2
3
Managing your online reputation
Managing negative comments
Social media platforms and your Academy website are accessible to all, making engagement with parents and the local community easy. Regular, positive and helpful posts which direct users to content on your website are the best way to build a strong, authentic and trusted online presence for your Academy.
If you find negative comments on social media, do not respond immediately. Take a short time to consider the best possible response and seek advice from comms@oasisuk.org if necessary. Share allegations or defamatory comments with the Principal and ensure OCL’s ‘Procedure for dealing with allegations against a member of staff’ is followed.
However, not everyone will have something positive to say, and so it is important to manage your online reputation. This will help to build resilience against any negative content. Update your Academy social media pages regularly with good news stories and helpful information to ensure your Academy has a productive and positive online presence.
In the first instance, and if appropriate, you should respond privately and directly to an individual who has posted something negative on one of your social media pages. It is advised that you avoid public confrontation on these public spaces. A suitable, private response to an individual who has left a negative comment may be:
“We are sorry to hear about this issue. Please feel free to contact us directly, by emailing info@oasisacademyxxxx.org.”
You may also wish to respond indirectly to an online issue by using tweets, posts and articles. It is advisable to maintain a positive, online reputation. For example, you may want to mention positive progress surrounding the Academy and promote any positive action taken to counter any issues. As part of your social media interactions, you should aim to create a consistent and positive brand-building message for your Academy. Over time, this will become your Academy’s online ‘voice’ and the means by which your trusted, digital reputation is built.
4
5
6
7
Twitter Twitter is a free social network which has seen its number of active users grow over recent years to 313 million in 2016. It adopts a micro-blog format, which allows short, instant rolling updates on a feed. People see updates from accounts they actively choose to ‘follow’. As a social media platform, Twitter networks ideas and topics from people and organisations. It is simple to use, allowing updates or text sharing, which can include images, text and links. It focuses on quick, real-time information, which allows people to use hashtags to easily connect ideas and topics. This makes searching for a topic extremely simple. From the point of view of an Academy, it is a helpful way of providing updates of what is going on to parents, teachers and those with an interest in the Academy. It helps to create an online ‘voice’ for the Academy.
8
9
Signing up To set up an account, go to www.twitter.com and click the ‘sign up’ button. You will then be asked to enter: •
Your name – use your Academy name.
•
Your email address – you must use a generic, Academy email address i.e. info@oasisacademyxxxx.org. This provides safety against an account becoming inaccessible, should your social media champion leave the Academy at short notice.
You will then be asked to enter a phone number – but there is the option to skip this step
If you are not currently using a generic, Academy email address for your Twitter account, please take the necessary steps to make this change as soon as possible. Please note that when using a generic email address, you will need to be an approved user of and have access to the email account, in order that you can verify the email address. Contact comms@oasisuk.org for all advice and guidance. •
Creating your Academy’s Twitter account 10
Password – create a password. If there is more than one Twitter account handler at the Academy, you must ensure that all necessary safeguarding precautions surrounding access to and use of a Twitter account are taken. In this instance, it is advisable that you change the password regularly to ensure that only the correct account handlers have the ability to tweet on the Academy’s behalf.
As web champion, if you ever leave your post at the Academy you must arrange for the Twitter login credentials to be handed over to the new web champion prior to leaving. This includes organising access to the generic email account for the designated member of staff and for the password to be passed over.
Creating your Twitter handle Your Twitter handle is your username – the name by which other users will find your account, and the one people will use should they want to mention you in their tweets. There is a 15 character limit on Twitter usernames. If your Academy has a long name – e.g. Oasis Academy Henderson Avenue – you will need choose a username that represents your Academy clearly and is memorable, but which fits within the limit, for example OAHendersonAve.
11
What’s the difference between your name and username?
Header image
Your username appears in your profile URL (the direct link people can type in to find your profile). It is used for logging in, it is what people will search to find you on Twitter, and it is the handle they will use to mention you in their tweets. Your name is a personal identifier. It appears on your profile page and above your username when you tweet. It is the name which people will use to identify who is tweeting. Name Username/handle
This should be an engaging image which is to sit at the top of your Twitter page. Try and use a high resolution image from your most recent photoshoot that portrays life at the Academy. Optimum size: 1500x500 px
Customising your profile You will need to customise your profile to add public facing information, to give information about your Academy and to portray it in the best possible way to boost engagement. Profile picture This should be a high resolution version of your Academy logo.
Creating your Academy’s Twitter account 12
N.B. If you need to arrange a new photoshoot please contact comms@oasisuk.org Bio This should provide a summary of your Academy. It may include your vision, mission and potentially your Ofsted rating, should it be appropriate.
The optimum size: 500x500 px. If you require an image to be created then please email comms@oasisuk.org
13
Following and Followers
Engaging with tweets
‘Following’ someone on Twitter means you are subscribing to receive their tweets on your homepage feed. We advise that you follow those people and accounts which are relevant to your Academy and local community, as well as those relevant to OCL as a national organisation. In the first instance, this will boost engagement with those who live and work in the local area, whilst at the same time furthering OCL’s vision to provide exceptional education to all of our communities.
You can engage with the tweets that appear on your timeline, and in fact any tweet.
These accounts may include: • • • • • • • • •
@OasisAcademies (the National Oasis Community Learning account) Other Oasis Academies, Hubs and Charities Oasis Leaders (e.g. Steve Chalke, John Murphy, Regional Directors) Ofsted Department for Education Local businesses Your local MP and Council Your local newspaper Local community organisations
Tweet Activity Retweet Like
Some of the things you’re likely to do are:
Your followers are everyone who has chosen to subscribe to your tweets. These are likely to be made up of people who have an interest in your Academy. For example, members of your local community, parents who have children at the Academy, local MPs etc.
Reply – if you want to make a comment about someone’s tweet, then replying to it is a good way. When you click reply, the username of the account who has posted the tweet will appear, and then you can type your reply. Please note, if someone visits your Twitter account, they will be able to see replies you have sent to tweets.
Your timeline
Retweet – by retweeting someone else’s tweet, it will be posted to your Twitter account and therefore your followers will be able to see it too. If someone mentions your Academy favourably in a tweet for example, you may want to retweet it so that followers you can see this.
The first page you’ll see when you log into Twitter is your ‘timeline’. The homepage timeline is a live feed of everything that the Twitter accounts you follow are tweeting. The newest tweets appear at the top.
14
Reply
You can simply retweet onto your profile by clicking the retweet icon and then hitting ‘Retweet’.
15
Or you can retweet and provide your own comment on the tweet by clicking the retweet icon and then hitting ‘Quote’.
Producing your own content Tweets should be engaging, exciting and provide an insight into how fantastic your Academy is. Tweeting at least once daily, if not more, helps people to stay engaged and will increase your follower count. Amongst other ideas, you may want to tweet about:
Like – liking a tweet shows your support for it. This means that those people who follow the accounts of the tweets you like will be able to see that you have liked a tweet. Users can also visit your account homepage to see a list of tweets that you have liked. Don’t forget – you are acting on behalf of the Academy and so your tweets should be professional and friendly. As a public sector organisation, you should avoid making political statements or tweeting about contentious issues.
• • • •
Events at the Academy Student achievements Academy achievements i.e. results, Ofsted, awards Visits from local MPs, authors, sports people, etc.
Tips Making an impression – you should aim to tweet about one story at least five times. This ensures that more of your followers view your content and, as a consequence, increases engagement. Link shortening – you only get 140 characters to use in each tweet, so shortening a long URL is a great way to save on characters. Online services such as ‘Bitly’ exist which do just this. You can paste a long URL into Bitly and it will provide a shortened version for use in your tweet. Bitly is a good service because it also allows you to see how many people click on your link. Full stop before mentioning someone at the beginning of a tweet – by including a full stop at the beginning of a tweet, Twitter will register this as a direct reply to the person/organisation you are mentioning and it will be visible for all of your followers to see. If you do not include the full stop, only those people who follow both you and the person/ organisation you have tagged will be able to see your tweet. “.@JohnOasisMurphy is speaking at the Oasis National Conference about raising the bar for all students”
16
17
Use of photos – using visual content (images, infographics and videos) increases engagement with your tweets. Research has shown that on average, tweets accompanied by a photo get 313% more engagement than those without. Live tweeting – live tweeting throughout an event is a great way of attracting attention to your Academy’s Twitter account. If there is an event happening in the Academy, for example a new building opening, an awards evening or a conference, it is great to ‘live tweet’ regular updates of what is happening. Remember to quote things that people say, tag speakers in the tweets and use photos.
Removing content – you can only delete content from your timeline which has been posted from your account. If someone else has posted inappropriate or negative content to your timeline which you would like to be removed, you can report the tweet to Twitter in the first instance. This may, however, take a while for Twitter to remove. One practical step you can take until the offending content is potentially removed is to post more content to your timeline. This may include retweeting other content, including images, to push the negative content further down your timeline.
Another good idea is to do a ‘Day in the life’ of your Academy. People love to see what is going on inside an Academy. A tour of lessons and features with students could set your Academy Twitter apart from other local schools. Remember! Whenever posting photos on social media, ensure you have appropriate photo permissions. This is essential for posting student photographs. What others are saying about you – Hootsuite and TweetDeck are free, online services which can be set up to send you notifications whenever your Academy is mentioned on Twitter. These are useful tools to help you keep track of what is said about you and respond in the appropriate manner. Scheduling tweets – Free, online services including Hootsuite and TweetDeck can also be used to schedule tweets. This is useful for good news stories which you would like to share again at a later time. For example, you may wish to vary the original tweet slightly but share the same story three times in a week. Alternatively, you might plan and schedule all of your tweets for the week ahead, in order to have a steady stream of content appearing on your timeline at regular intervals. Remember! The more you tweet, the more likely it is that your followers will see your story.
18
19
20
21
Facebook As a social media platform, Facebook connects people by allowing shared status updates, photos and videos. It focuses on each person adding their friends and family to their pages so that they can stay connected and interact easily. From an organisational point of view, its focus is much more on a personal engagement with the audience and it has been reported among educationalists that it offers a more sustained and engaging way of interacting with their audience. It can therefore be used to foster a stronger bond between your Academy and its stakeholders.
•
Password – create a password. If there is more than one Facebook account handler at the Academy, you must ensure that all necessary safeguarding precautions surrounding access to and use of a Facebook account are taken. In this instance, it is advisable that you change the password regularly to ensure that only the correct account handlers have the ability to post on the Academy’s behalf.
As web champion, if you ever leave your post at the Academy you must arrange for the Facebook login credentials to be handed over to the new web champion prior to leaving. This includes organising access to the generic email account for the designated member of staff and for the password to be passed over.
If you already use Facebook in a personal capacity, imagine some of the company pages you have ‘liked’ and whose updates you receive. This is what you will create for your Academy.
Creating your page
In order to do this, you must first create a new, blank Facebook account – i.e. you cannot create a public page without creating an account first.
Once you have set up your Facebook profile, you’re ready to create your public Academy Facebook page.
To set up an account, go to www.facebook.com and fill in your details. •
Your name – fill in your own name.
•
Your email address – you must use a generic, Academy email address i.e. info@oasisacademyxxxx.org. This provides safety against an account becoming inaccessible, should you or your social media champion leave the Academy at short notice. If you are not using a generic, Academy email address for your Facebook account at present, please take the necessary steps to make this change as soon as possible. Please note that when using a generic email address, you will need to be an approved user of and have access to the email account, in order that you can verify the email address. Contact comms@oasisuk.org for all advice and guidance
Click here 22
23
You’ll be asked to select what type of page you are creating.
Profile picture You should add a ‘profile picture’, which we recommend should be a high resolution image of your Academy logo. The optimum size is 180x180 px. If you need assistance resizing your logo to fit in this frame, please contact comms@oasisuk.org
You’ll then be asked to choose a category. As Facebook is an American company, there are no options for secondary school.
Header/cover photo
If you are a Primary Academy – Primary School
You should also add a header photo to your Academy’s Facebook page. This should be a recent photo that shows what life at your Academy is like.
If you are a Secondary Academy – School or Education
The optimum size for this is 823x315 px
We would recommend the following categories:
Company name: enter the name of your Academy i.e. Oasis Academy Inclusion
Creating your page 24
Then click ‘get started’.
25
Producing content
Share messages
Once your Facebook page is set up, you are ready to start posting updates.
Access Academy Facebook page
To access your page, log into Facebook using the new account you set up. This will show you the news feed for that account. To access the Academy Facebook page, use the shortcut on the lefthand side, or click on the page on the right-hand side.
The highlighted box above is where you type the messages you want to share with the people who have ‘liked’ your page. There is no character limit on the length of the update you post, but bear in mind that people don’t like to read lots of plain text. Best practice suggests you should share a photo with an update you post. Photos shared with text attract more engagement and attention. What to share – what you put on Facebook is up to you. We would recommend the following: • • • •
Creating your page 26
Important messages (such as Academy closures etc.) Photos from events News stories (with a link to the story on your Academy website) Features, such as a ‘Day in the Life’, where you post regular updates throughout the day of things going on in the Academy
What others are saying about you – you should research which Facebook groups related to the Academy exist, if any. It is not uncommon for parents to set up groups to discuss issues at the school. Should you have access to and become concerned about the content being published in any such group, please do not hesitate to contact comms@oasisuk.org Removing content – if someone posts inappropriate or negative content which you would like removing from your Academy news feed, you can delete this content directly. The person who posted the content will not be notified. 27
unity m m Co earning L
If you have any queries or questions, or if anything is unclear in this guideline, please contact the National Communications Team comms@oasisuk.org 28
This guideline should be used in conjunction with the OCL Social Media Policy