Sharing Good Practice
SCHOOL PRINCIPALS ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
BY SIMON NOAKES
Y
our school is a brand, with
your Head / Principal acting as
the brand's CEO. In modern
marketing, regardless of the
industry you are in, the consumer rules
the roost. They want engagement
from a brand; to be part of the buying
process.
How you interact with them, can have
a considerable impact on how you are
perceived in a socially connected world.
This means your social media game
needs to be impactful. You no longer
need to simply push your product at
the consumer. Instead, you need to
form a relationship with the consumer.
You need to entertain and inform them
and give them a reason to trust you and
talk about you (word of mouth is your
strongest marketing tool).
Using social media as a school can
make this challenging; delivering a
sense of personality as a bricks and
mortar establishment is more difficult
to achieve. What you want is human
interaction to help with this. Where
better to start, then, than with your
school Head?
In a study, leadership skill sets were
analysed to see if there was a direct
correlation between CEOs who are
active on social media, versus those
who are not.
The findings showed that
candidates who are social are:
CEO
• 89% better at empowering others
• 52%
stronger
communication
at
compelling
• 46% more influential
• 36% better at cultivating networks
• 19% more passionate for results
• 16% better at making decisions
Each one of these findings have a
correlation with the skills you would
expect from a Head.
WHO?
Consider what kind of Head you have,
how they best communicate and the
formats that will best serve them. As
well as this, are they using social media
as a voice within the education sector
or as that personable element to your
school brand?
The school commentator: If your Head
wants to have a presence on social media
to help promote the school, Twitter is
the best channel for this. With Twitter, it
is easy to engage with the main school
Twitter account - to share (or Retweet)
all the amazing things that happen in
your school, or even add a few lines of
commentary to stamp personality onto
the content.
Take David Baldwin - Head of Horizon
English School, Dubai - who does this to
great effect on his Twitter account. and engage with content other
LinkedIn users have used. Use this
channel for networking
Your community will look to your Head as
a reliable figurehead for the school brand
and engage more emotionally with the
content, because it comes from a person
- not a brand. • Facebook: good for reach. More
personal channel than the other two,
but with the largest community - now
over 2 BILLION users!
A voice in education
Many Heads are influencers in the many
topics that surround education.
Mark Steed - Director of JESS Dubai -
uses social media to not only promote
and lead conversation around his school,
but also as a platform to be a voice on
"issues that impact on education".
WHAT?
Video: If your Head is comfortable and
affable in-front of the camera, using
YouTube could be a brilliant idea.
Audio: Or how about just audio?
Podcasts can be an incredibly beneficial
undertaking for your Head. Currently,
there is a notable gap in the market for
more audio-centred content! Could your
Head fill this space?
Written: However, if they are more
effective using written words, then
they should most definitely be using a
blogging channel of some sort.
WHERE?
Website: The Head's Welcome page is
often one of the most-viewed pages on
school websites. Prospective parents
visiting your website want to find that
emotional link, to help better visualise
their child at your school. Your Head is
often the first port of call for this.
It is easy to embed your Head's social
feed onto your website - turning the
Head's Welcome into an interactive,
visual and impactful page.
Newsletter / Parent Comms: most
schools will send out an e-newsletter
to parents every week. This is another
perfect method for your Head to reach
your community. A simple link to their
blog or Twitter profile, or an embedded
vlog hosted on YouTube, can be really
positive.
Leading your school's presence on social
media may be a new concept to many
Heads out there, but it is something
that merits strong consideration.
To see more from Heads using social
media to top effect, take a look at these
Twitter profiles:
• Mark Leppard - British School al
Khubairat
Social:
• Twitter: good for reaching your
community of parents and peers,
engaging with your school and
becoming part of the conversation
• LinkedIn: perfect for connecting
with peers and the professional
community. You can publish articles
• Sasha Crabb - Victory Heights
Primary School
• Kai Vacher - British School Muscat
• Mark Steed - JESS Dubai
• David Baldwin - Horizon English
School Dubai
Simon is the CEO and Founder of Interactive Schools. A fathe r of 4, he founded
Interactive Schools in 2006. He utilizes his experience and passion for strategic
marketing, thought leadership, social media, brand values, technology and
innovative thinking to assist schools in telling their unique #SchoolStories.
Tweet him @SimonNoakes
Class Time
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May - Jun 2018
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