How to Promote Your School on Social Media

Your school's open house is no longer a once-a-year event, it’s happening 24/7 on social media. Every post, story, and video you share gives prospective parents, students, and the community a window into your culture, values, and daily life. This guide will give you a clear, actionable framework for promoting your school on social media, helping you build a vibrant online community that drives enrollment and engagement.

Start with a Strong Foundation: Strategy First

Jumping onto social media without a plan is like teaching a class without a lesson plan - it leads to chaos and missed opportunities. Before you post anything, take a step back and define what success looks like.

Define Your Goals

What do you really want to achieve with social media? Your goals will shape every piece of content you create. Get specific. Instead of "increase engagement," aim for goals like:

• Increase inquiries for next year’s enrollment by 15% through a targeted Facebook ad campaign.
• Boost open house registrations by 25% by promoting it through Instagram Stories and Reels.
• Improve parent retention by creating a private Facebook Group for community building.
• Showcase school culture to attract two highly qualified teaching candidates via LinkedIn.

Identify Your Audience Segments

You’re not talking to a single monolith, you're speaking to multiple groups with different interests. Tailor your message for each one:

• Prospective Parents: They want to see the learning environment, hear from teachers, and understand your school's unique value. They care about safety, academics, and student happiness.
• Current Parents: They need updates, reminders, and want to feel connected to the school community. Celebrate their children's achievements!
• Prospective &, Current Students: They want to see their friends, fun events, sports, and behind-the-scenes content that feels authentic and not overly polished.
• Alumni: They enjoy nostalgia, want to hear about the school's growth, and are your best source for testimonials and fundraising.
• Faculty &, Staff: Spotlighting your talented educators helps with morale and attracts new talent.

Choose the Right Platforms

Don't spread yourself thin by trying to be everywhere. Focus your energy where your audience actually spends their time.

• Facebook: Ideal for reaching parents and the local community. Use it for formal announcements, event pages (for open houses and fundraisers), photo albums, and running targeted ads. Creating a private Facebook Group for current families is an excellent way to build a tight-knit community.
• Instagram: This is your visual portfolio. It's perfect for showcasing your school's "vibe" through high-quality photos and, most importantly, short-form video (Reels). Use Stories for daily, less-polished updates and interactive features like Q&,As and polls.
• TikTok: If you’re a high school looking to connect with prospective students, TikTok is powerful. It’s all about short, creative, and trend-focused videos that show off your school’s personality in a fun, non-corporate way.
• LinkedIn: Your professional home. Use it to post job openings, highlight teacher accomplishments and certifications, share articles from school leadership, and connect with your alumni network.

Content Pillars: What to Actually Post Aboard Your School's Socials

“We don’t know what to post” is a common hurdle. To solve this, build your content around a few key "pillars" or themes. This keeps your feed consistent and makes content creation much easier.

Pillar 1: Go Behind the Scenes

The polished photos in your brochure are great, but parents and students want to see what daily life is really like. Show the "unseen" parts of your school that make it special.

• A 15-second Reel of a messy, exciting science experiment in progress.
• A time-lapse video of the art room transforming for the annual student exhibition.
• Photos from the playground showing friendships in action.
• A quick Instagram Story with a teacher explaining a unique project the class is working on.

Pillar 2: Spotlight Your People

Your people are your greatest asset. Humanize your school by telling their stories. People connect with people, not logos.

• Teacher Tuesdays: A short video or carousel post introducing a teacher. Ask them a fun question like, "What’s your favorite book to teach and why?"
• Student Spotlights: Share a short Q&,A with a student who has achieved something exceptional, whether it’s winning a debate competition, leading a new club, or completing a service project.
• Alumni Success Stories: Feature an alumnus on LinkedIn who is doing great work in their field, and ask them how their time at your school prepared them.

Pillar 3: Celebrate Wins (Big and Small)

Your social media feed should be a source of pride for your community. Celebrate everything from championship wins to small classroom breakthroughs.

• "Shout-out to the 4th-grade class for raising over $500 for the local food bank!"
• A video of the standing ovation after the school play.
• Photos from the varsity soccer team’s big win, tagging the players.
• An announcement highlighting students who made the honor roll.

Pillar 4: Provide Value and Answer Questions

Think about the questions you get asked all the time during admissions tours and parent-teacher meetings. Turn the answers into social media content.

• A short video tour of the kindergarten classrooms, narrated by a teacher.
• A blog post (shared on Facebook and LinkedIn) titled, "5 Questions to Ask on a High School Tour."
• An Instagram Live Q&,A with the head of admissions a week before the application deadline.
• A carousel post explaining the step-by-step process of financial aid applications.

Pillar 5: Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC)

Your most powerful marketers are your happy families and students. Encourage them to create content for you!

• Create a simple, memorable hashtag (e.g., #LifeAtHilldaleSchool) and encourage parents to use it when they post photos from school events.
• Run a "school spirit" photo contest where families submit pictures in school colors.
• Reshare posts and stories from students and parents (always with permission!) to your own story. It's authentic social proof and saves you content creation time.

Building a System for Consistency &, Engagement

Great content is only half the battle. To see real results, you need a workflow that enables consistency and a commitment to actively engage with your audience.

Use a Content Calendar for Planning

A content calendar is your single source of truth. It can be a simple spreadsheet or a visual planner in a social media tool. A calendar helps you:

• Plan Ahead: Map out content around key dates like enrollment deadlines, spirit week, holidays, and school events.
• Stay Consistent: Ensure you have a steady stream of content going live across your platforms without scrambling at the last minute.
• See the Big Picture: Get a bird's-eye view of your content mix to make sure you’re balancing posts across your different content pillars.

Batch Your Content Creation

Don't try to create a new post from scratch every single day. Block out time to create content in batches. For example, you could spend one afternoon a month:

• Walking through the school to film 5-10 quick video clips for Reels and Stories.
• Writing captions for the next two weeks' worth of posts.
• Designing graphics for upcoming event promotions.

This approach saves an enormous amount of time and mental energy, freeing you up to focus on the most important part: engagement.

Engage, Don't Just Broadcast

This is the "social" part of social media. Your job doesn’t end when you hit "publish." True community is built in the comments and direct messages.

• Reply to a comment: Make it a goal to respond to every comment, even if it’s just a simple "Thank you!" or an emoji. It shows you’re listening.
• Engage with your fans: Set aside 15 minutes each day to look through mentions and your school's hashtag. Like and comment on posts that people share about your school.
• Ask questions: Don’t just state facts in your captions. Ask your audience questions to spark conversation. "What was your favorite science project you ever did?" or "What are you most excited for this school year?"

Final Thoughts

Promoting your school on social media is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s about building relationships and telling your school’s unique story through authentic content and consistent, meaningful engagement. By defining your goals, understanding your audience, and creating content that serves them, you can turn your social channels into a powerful engine for community building and enrollment.

Putting these strategies into practice consistently is often the hardest part, especially when dealing with multiple platforms and formats. We built Postbase because we understand the frustration of trying to manage everything - from planning short-form videos in a visual calendar to scheduling posts that reliably publish on time. Our goal is to give school marketers one clean, modern tool to manage everything, including a single inbox for all your comments and DMs, so you can spend less time juggling tabs and more time building your community.