The leader of a news organization proposed recently that we have moved into a “post-social media era.”
It’s an apt phrase when Facebook, Instagram and even LinkedIn prioritize “sponsored content” over accounts their users asked to see. TikTok’s business practices and Meta’s willing blindness to the harm its products cause children are so controversial that even hidebound Congress has gotten involved. And, of course, there’s Twitter’s implosion as it transformed into X.
While the social media business may still be very good — Meta made $39 billion in 2023 from its timeline ads — the promise of social media for its users has definitely soured over the past decade.
Still, have independent schools recognized this new era? More importantly, are they responding?
As social media gained influence, schools invested in it meaningfully. The most recent InspirED School Marketers survey, in 2022, found that nearly every independent school has Facebook and Instagram accounts, with many maintaining Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Snapchat and TikTok accounts, too. No wonder, given all these, that nearly a fifth of schools have a full-time social media manager (significantly up from two years earlier).
The legend of posting daily
What drove this investment? Two assumptions by school leaders were key:
- Followers would expect to see daily posts from the school on their preferred social channel (even Pinterest in some cases!)
- Fulfilling this expectation would add jet fuel to the school’s admission and retention efforts
Both sounded logical, but years later, the suppositions seem less sturdy.
At Fine Point Communications, we are aware of no research showing that independent school families highly value daily posts from their children’s school. Nor have we seen any reliable study establishing causation between daily posts and enrollment outcomes. Schools are still relying on old hunches and shibboleths more than on hard data.
Meanwhile, algorithm changes have made it far less likely that even loyal followers of schools will see the work of social media managers in a timely way. Posts that link off a platform are particularly vulnerable to becoming invisible. And the social media companies have throttled the network effect of their timelines in favor of advertising.
Remember back when a snow-day announcement video could go viral on social media, collect 4 million views and become national news?
With the broken network effects, virality is now beyond the reach of an independent school. Except, that is, in the worst case — when a malicious account misrepresents your school and prompts clicks of outrage. Then you’re suddenly in a conversation you never expected and certainly don’t want to play out in public.
Another old engagement technique — inviting your audience to comment on posts — is also a dead letter.
If the legends around social media management ever worked, they simply don’t anymore, not after companies changed their end of the bargain.
‘Annoying afterthought’
So schools are overdue to take a skeptical look at online customs established years ago — a different era in internet time.
Communications professionals have long recognized the deep flaws in social media. In InspirED surveys stretching back to 2018, these folks consistently described their website as more effective than social media in enrollment marketing. (In fact, websites are seen now as the most effective digital tool.) But how many schools have dedicated a website manager to writing and posting daily updates?
These pros called Instagram and Facebook the most effective social channels yet stopped short of describing them as “highly effective.”
Longtime media watcher Dan Kennedy validates this tepid view, writing, “Social is no longer working for self-published news.” He adds, “Social media has become an annoying afterthought, rather than a primary means by which we distribute our work.”
But what then? Where can schools turn, if not to social media, for marketing themselves online?
Regular website updates are definitely worth considering. But Justin Smith, the CEO at Semafor and the man whose comment kicked off this issue, advises a different choice: Get personal with your community.
“The new battle is for conversations,” rather than likes or comments, he writes.
A new model for reaching people
For Smith’s company, the humble email inbox is the new place to be. That’s an interesting idea for schools, too.
Newsletters would allow schools to collect, curate and share the information currently pushed into social media. From there, word of mouth — consistently the most effective marketing tool our institutions have — can establish a new network effect, spreading the news to other parents and community members.
This shift, though, may require a new paradigm in communications offices. Would your school create a newsletter that could go to anyone who subscribes, rather than to just your enrolled families? Would you be willing to, say, buy ads to promote the newsletter far and wide so people can learn about your school?
As an enrollment marketing tool, Smith’s idea makes sense: Newsletters allow you to share good-news stories that deserve more attention, and they provide a positive, consistent touch with people interested in your school. Along the way, you cultivate potential customers and affirm your existing ones. At the very least, you build stronger community relations.
A newsletter also allows your school to become its own reporter, a principle Fine Point Communications has long encouraged. And it gives you control — more control than Facebook or Instagram ever would allow — over sharing the information you deem essential for people to know.
Justin Smith, Dan Kennedy and the rest of the news business learned the hard way: Relying on Big Tech to advance the interests of journalism was a bad bet that cost lots of money and people’s livelihoods.
Independent schools should note the outcome of that strategy. Then they should ask themselves, What could digital marketing without social media look like?
This post is adapted from the March 2024 issue of Refill, a newsletter published by Fine Point Communications.
