Sharing Good Practice affinity for single-sex education and the importance of children going home to their parents at 4 pm , but if you ’ re now leading a co-ed boarding school , then continuing to champion single-sex classrooms isn ’ t going to do your school any favours .
It ’ s unlikely that you ’ re completely against co-ed boarding or you wouldn ’ t ’ t have taken the job , but you ’ re likely to have some biases that are difficult to shift . Not only will this make your content inauthentic , but it might also make you feel uncomfortable , which is likely to make you resent engaging in thought leadership activity in the future . This is why finding and honing your niche is key , as it provides parameters to what topics you will and won ’ t discuss ( which might upset your comms team , but hold firm !), and allows you to confidently employ your expertise within the context of your own school .
Choose Your Channel
Having topics you want to shout about is just the first step , finding appropriate outlets ensures that your time , energy and , for some of you , sanity aren ’ t wasted ! This is where you have to take control . A good comms team should present their ideas to you in the early days , this will help you to know their strengths and for them to understand
what will or won ’ t interest you . They ’ ll undoubtedly tell you writing an article for the school blog or recording a video interview is the best way to go , but there are three things to consider before deciding on an outlet :
• Who are you communicating with ?
• What are you trying to achieve ?
• How comfortable do you feel ?
Whilst the first two questions might appear obvious ; our experience tells us that schools often make a real mess of these decisions . Whilst convention says that ‘ videos belong on YouTube ’ ’ or ‘ articles live in blogs ’, this might not necessarily be the place where your desired audience is spending their time and could result in the content you ’ ve created being wasted and lost .
Your marketing and communications team should know who the audience on each channel is ( if they don ’ t , then you have a problem that should be looked at - pronto !), so take their views into account , but remember that your name will be associated with this work for a long time . This is exactly why you have to be comfortable with your content , where it ’ s being shared and in what form . You have to really own your thought leadership activity . You ’ ll be constantly surprised at how often and for how long people will discuss your articles with you , so scrutinise the pros and cons of each channel prior to distribution and ensure that what you ’ re discussing , accurately reflects your own views .
Meaningful Impact
Although there are many variables to consider when engaging in thought leadership activity , it has the potential to have a huge impact on your school . Not only can it help to drive admissions demand , but it creates excitement in your work and enhances brand affinity . Your current parents know their children are in safe hands , staff feel like the school is going places , and your alumni feel a sense of pride in the school that was once theirs .
That sounds like a pretty good impact to me .
Ben Weston-Conway is Marketing Manager at Interactive Schools , the world ’ s leading marketing communications agency for independent and international schools .
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