School Facebook Page Guidelines & Tips

(+ Example Templates)

Every social media channel has a lifespan. While new ones appear on the scene, others go out and die. However, some social media platforms have been major players for so long that they have become a part of our daily lives. Facebook is perhaps the most notable example, with nearly 20 years of experience.

Even today, Facebook is an influential social network hosting millions of users and pages. Although Facebook’s famous algorithm shift of 2018 didn’t offer a shiny future for the organic reach of schools, it is still the go-to platform for many schools and educational institutions. Facebook is still the most popular social media platform out there, effectively competing with many new ones.

Having an immense competitive advantage and a high level of flexibility to modify and adjust makes Facebook a perfect place to build a supportive, online school community.

But running a school Facebook page is quite different from a personal Facebook page. You need some help, and we’re happy to get you started. Here we will review some of the benefits of a Facebook page and then give you a few pro tips and some templates to get started. Ready? Let’s dive in!

The Benefits of a School Facebook Page

Every social media platform comes with various advantages and disadvantages. Facebook has long invested in fixing bugs, software, and security issues to offer a safe and convenient platform. The following are eight benefits of having a school Facebook page:

Team-Work and Management

Education institutions, high schools, and universities can utilize all the great opportunities a Facebook page provides to streamline their projects, communications, training, and more. Due to the popularity of Facebook groups, Facebook pages are more productive and easier to use than other platforms.

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Create a Supportive School Community

With the growing online marketing and social media channels, every brand aspires to build a strong follower base. For schools, that usually means a community of like-minded people interested in the school’s well-being. The online community may include current students, prospective students, teachers, parents, school administrators, and even businesses and charitable organizations.

Having these people on your side boosts your online exposure. They respond to every post you publish, share your new blog post, and retweet your announcements. In short, they create a positive reputation for your school. And sure enough, you should also be there to appreciate their support by offering quality content, educational services, and by posting about various school events.

Build an Online Support Hub

At some point, prospective parents or students will need to contact you and get advice on various topics, from admission to graduation. Even current students can use some assistance with things ranging from class issues, technical problems, setting meeting appointments, and so forth. Instead of one-on-one meetings that take forever, you can set up an online support hub on your Facebook page.

You can showcase your ability to answer questions quickly and candidly and let everyone know you are there for them. It gives students a pleasant ‘exclusive club’ feel and a reason to promote your school’s image.

Personal relationships through social media

Confidence Building through Personal Connections

They say, “people buy from people.” School marketing may not seem like selling a product, but at least to some degree, it follows the same principle. Besides, we know for a fact that human-to-human interaction is the basis of trust. That’s why it is essential to represent the ‘face’ of your school, not its ‘brand’ on social media or one-on-one contacts.

A Facebook page can provide the chance to engage people in meaningful discussions, understand and appreciate their values and insights, and respond respectfully. This will automatically translate into improving your brand image and credibility among your audience.

Use Instant Feedback from Polls

You can spend a fortune to collect information from websites, apps, market analysts, and strategists. There is no doubt that every one of these resources is valuable. Nonetheless, there is one group that can provide the most accurate and practical data from the real-time experience of your services: Your Students!

You can no longer create polls on a business account in the same manner that was previously available. You can, however, create polls in Facebook stories. The feature is not available on Facebook’s desktop version, but it is accessible on both Android and iOS devices.

Use the Advantages of Business Networking

Gone are the days of lone wolves in the market. Today, every successful brand enjoys a high level of interconnectivity. Many businesses have entered into long-term partnerships with schools to deliver a new kind of real-world learning within the curriculum.

Schools can partner with other schools, universities, and local and national businesses and invite them for various roles and events such as guest speakers, job shadowing, student conferences, mentorships, and internships. Here a Facebook page can solidify your ‘like, know, and trust’ approach.

You will be surprised to see how many opportunities rapidly pop up that may not have otherwise come to your attention. This will be a great chance to expand your audience reach beyond its current limits.

Research Your Target Audience

Establishing a solid and unswerving reach over certain audience segments can be challenging. It requires identifying gaps in the marketing strategies, researching primary competitors, their school promotion tactics, marketing strategies, and their overall weaknesses and strengths. But above all, you need to find out everything you can about your audience—your students and their parents.

The Facebook page lets you enter into different discussions, getting to know more about your current and potential clients, how they think about education, what they want, and how you can help meet their needs. A school Facebook page can be a peerless database to reallocate your resources into more profitable channels.

Offer Clear Value

The primary difference between school marketing and other types of marketing is the values you contribute to society. Adding value is a foundational principle of every educational organization. This may come in the form of a high-quality education or content and blog articles you post online.

Remember that in a distracted world, with sponsored irrelevant content pouring in from all sides, creating quality content is the only way to survive. School Facebook groups and pages let you create organic conversations around topics of interest to you, teachers, parents, and students.

Pro Tip for Optimizing a School Facebook Page

You are absolutely right if you’re thinking, “creating a Facebook page doesn’t automatically bring all these benefits.” You need to optimize your Page to get the best out of it. Use the following tips to attain online visibility:

#1 Optimize Your Profile

Once you set up your school’s Facebook page, you can optimize your profile descriptions and features. Anyone who sees your posts on Facebook and wants to follow your Page would often head to the ‘About’ section to learn more about you. So, give yourself a proper introduction!

Fill out all the details, and give a full description of the school’s address, contact info, and opening hours. Adding value proposition can also help you target the right audience and encourage users to “like” your Page. This section is the right place to share the story behind your efforrs.

You can showcase the school’s achievements and awards as well. Remember that people love gratitude. Sharing the school’s achievements and awards shows prospective students that a supportive community will always appreciate their efforts.

#2 Pin the Most Important Content

The pin feature is one of the best ways to ensure certain posts get the expected visibility. You can use pins to inform students and parents about the announcements, deadlines, school events, or even new content you post on your school blog or elsewhere.

To pin a post, click on the ellipsis button in the post’s top right corner and select “Pin to top of Page.” And don’t forget to rotate pinned posts once in a while.

#3 Use Facebook Search Operators

When Facebook removed Graph Search, many believed that competitor research and market analytics would be impossible on this platform. But that wasn’t entirely true. We found out later that you can use Facebook search operators to filter Google search results for Facebook-specific information.

Facebook search operators use Boolean searches through Google to enable filtering and refining search results for competitive analysis. You can look at other schools’ online activities, content type and quality, and social media engagement in general.

You can also research your audience and find out what type of content they like. This way, you can redirect your content marketing strategy to publish more engaging content.

#4 Customize Page Tabs

If you’re a Page admin or editor, you can customize, add, remove or reorder some of the page tabs and sections. Of course, some tabs and sections, including Home, About, Likes, Posts, Photos, and Videos, are part of Facebook’s default setup, and you cannot remove them.

But you can add a few customized tabs to your Page and give users a unique experience. For instance, if you have received brilliant reviews and remarkable testimonials, you can add a “Review” section to prove your school’s credibility. You can also include “Support Services” on the Page and give parents a communication channel to share their problems.

To create customized tabs, click on “More,” scroll down the drop-down menu to Edit tabs. There you can create new tabs and reconfigure the current ones.

#5 Claim Your Facebook Vanity URL

A vanity URL is a customized URL linked to your Facebook Page that replaces the default URL, which is usually a random series of numbers. A vanity URL makes it easier for students and prospective parents to remember and find your Page. Plus, it is more professional-looking from the outside.

Once you have created your Facebook Page, find a link to the About tab. Click the “Create Page @username” and choose a username of more than five and less than 50 characters. The username can contain alphanumeric characters and periods only—no spaces or other special characters.

#6 Create Eye-Catching Graphics

Visual elements are a big part of online marketing. Integrating eye-appealing graphics into your Facebook account can drive more traffic to the Page and increase brand engagement. As for everything else, there are a few rules here. First and foremost, include relevant graphics that align with the school’s voice and image.

Then consider using images with the right size to improve visibility in the Facebook news feed and on mobile devices. If you don’t want to end up with awkward cropping or pixelated images, adjust all images to the recommended image sizes:

Facebook profile image size: 170 x 170 pixels
Facebook cover photo image size: 820 x 462 pixels

You can even add your logo, website URL, phone number, or call-to-action to your images and help people find you.

Templates are an excellent way to save time and perfectly fit the content and images together. Once your content publication timeline is set, build a rich template gallery consisting of special designs for various content types and visual styles.

One of the best ways to increase student engagement, create an active follower base, and get relevant content, is by using User Generate Content. All you need to do is ask students and teachers to share their experiences in short blog posts, videos, or podcasts.

User-generated content signals credibility and authenticity. This method helps you establish greater trust between the school and the students. Plus, in most cases, the user-generated content doesn’t require any editing and polishing. That real, raw, and honest content makes it easier for prospective parents to believe in the quality of the services your school provides.

#8 Use Facebook Videos

Video content is gradually dominating many social media platforms. Some experts believe that in the near future, the video will constitute the majority of the content on Facebook. Video marketing may sound difficult and expensive, but it’s not. You can use your smartphone and free editing apps and generate quality content.

Video marketing is also very effective in encouraging viewer engagement. Compared to other types of content, watching videos is more enjoyable and requires less effort. And people can easily share them on their Page.

#9 Use Facebook Live Features

Facebook Live is a handy feature that lets you broadcast real-time video on your Page. You can use this content to engage students and parents during important and unforgettable school events. Going live provides real-time engagement, increases your online visibility and exposure, and builds a more interactive environment around you.

There are many creative ideas for Facebook Live. You can use it for events, inside looks, Q&As, student graduation ceremonies, family gatherings, etc. To enable this feature, go to your Page, click “What’s on your mind,” and then click “Live video” in the post options.

#10 Gather Insights and Review Your Performance

Perfection results from gradual improvement. Running a school is difficult; sometimes, it may sound impossible to get everything right. But practicing with data analytics and performance evaluation tools can provide you valuable insights to make that happen.

To start off, use the Facebook Analytics tool to collect all the information on your pages, pixels, and apps. Facebook Analytics gives you the full picture of user interaction patterns and behavioral changes over time.

Facebook Analytics is especially useful for school marketing because it tracks organic and paid ads across multiple devices and sessions. This way, you can see and monitor every strategy in practice, evaluate its effectiveness and improve your Facebook marketing campaigns.

But keep in mind that Facebook Insights and Facebook Analytics are completely different tools. You can find Facebook Insights on your school page. But analytics is primarily used for paid ads and is only accessible on your Facebook ad account.

School Facebook Page Templates

Templates are highly efficient tools for optimizing your Facebook Page and achieving your online goals. You can find some of the best school page templates below.

All templates are fully customizable, and you can share and publish them on various social media accounts and add pictures, icons, graphics, and other visual elements.