Having a good social media action plan in place at the beginning of the school year will help promote your parent council.
Social media is a great means of helping to build and promote your school community during back to school time. It helps your parent council to immediately interact with the school community right out of the gate. This “real time” partnership allows your school council to feel easily accessible and personable. The trick to using socials channels effectively is not to repeatedly appeal and petition parents to get involved. Showcase what is wonderful about your school community and make it more appealing so that they want to be involved.
With social media nowadays, school councils need to take advantage of telling parents in your community who you are and what your mandates are for this year. Show them what you have accomplished, offer helpful information, ask them for feedback and opinions. But most importantly provide them with a sense that they belong.
Here is an action plan that you can start to look over in the summer for the first weeks of school. Some of these ideas will work best on different social media platforms. But with a little thought, can be modified to fit your schools most popular social media channel.
The Plan
- Introduce yourself! Post a photo of your parent council on social media. Let your school community have the opportunity to put faces to the people that make your parent council. Ask people to like the post to start generating engagement. Ask a series of questions. Some good questions to ask are:
- What are you most looking forward to this school year?
- What parent council events are you most looking forward to?
- If there is one item parent council could help with what would it be?
- Hand over all the info. Provide your school community with links to all the information they will need throughout the school year, important dates and events, your upcoming parent council meeting dates and any important contact information they may need. Provide a checklist of items so that parents can easily find all the information they need. Bonus points if you can provide a visual checklist in your social media post.
- Partner up with your school’s principal. Every school year there are a lot of new people who join your school community. If your principal is willing, try and conduct a short interview with them so that new parents can get to know them and make them feel more “real”. Some great questions to ask are simple. What is your favorite food, favorite move, and favorite time of the year.
- Hype up your school’s curriculum night. In partnership with the school announce when your school’s curriculum or meet the teacher night will be. Highlight the fact that your parent council will be there at the event and where you can be found to ask and answer any questions the school community may have.
- Show your school spirit! Post a photo of your school building, school grounds or even the school mascot. Ask your community for feedback with questions like “What do you like most about our school? What would you change if anything?” Make sure to like people’s comments and try responding to them directly. Make sure to share feed back with the school principal and staff.
- Publish reminders about important back-to-school information. Are there any changes to busing or drop-off procedures. Is there anything happening at the school before the official first day? Some of this information will come from the school, however hearing it from your parent council too won’t hurt.
- Document the first day/week of school. Take a series of photos throughout the first day/week and create a photo album or slide show on Facebook. (Remember to OK this with the school and get permission to use photos of the students.)
- Post helpful resources for families on transitioning back to school or on parenting issues in general. These resources show that your council is knowledgeable and ready to help. You can find many of those resources on the Parents Engaged in Education website.
- Post early thank you notes. This is a good time to thank volunteers and staff members who have come in early and have prepared the school for the beginning of the year. Don’t forget to include photos if possible.
- Take a poll. Ask your school community to vote for some of their favorite school lunches. Or ask your school community to vote for their favorite parent council event. Simply post a question on your Facebook page, post a poll on Twitter or use a free poll such as SurveyMonkey.
- Promote your first meeting. Try to think outside the box. Here is your chance to get innovative and promote your first council meeting. Post a silly picture or provide hints as to what fun things to expect at your first meeting. If available don’t forget to highlight the fact that child minding is available!
- Ask for input/feedback. Give your school community a chance to ask questions and provide feedback so that they feel more invested. If your parent council runs a weekly or monthly newsletter ask your community to come up with a new name for the newsletter this school year. Once you have gathered some choices for a new name ask your community to vote for their favorite.
Putting this action plan in place and executing it effectively will have your parent council saying, don’t you love it when a plan comes together.
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