Class doesn't have to be in session for your prospective and current families to experience what makes your school special. You can use your digital campus — and that includes social media — to keep families engaged with your school, faculty, and one another.

Social media provides school and district communicators an opportunity to create a sense of normalcy and community with families and their target audiences by sharing personal, candid, and uplifting content — all while allowing human connections to take place.

Best Practices for Summer Social Media Content

While we’ve curated a full social media calendar to fuel your content strategy for July—September, we wanted to share some key best practices to keep in mind as you build a calendar and strategy tailored for your school or district.

1. Come up with a branded hashtag — and encourage your community to use it!

Schools and districts have been very creative with branded hashtags, and during the summer, it’s important to keep the momentum going. Come up with a new branded hashtag for summer (or use your standard branded hashtag you use all year long).

For example, Choate Rosemary Hall uses the #ChoateSummer2023 hashtag during the summer months to share their summer experiences and on-campus summer programs.

2. Integrate social media into your website

If you want to increase the chance of your content being seen by your prospective and current families — add it to your website! Adding a social media feed to your homepage is a great way to share content with your community — as The Saint Paul's Schools in Maryland does. 

It’s also a great way to showcase what’s happening in your community with new families and to garner engagement and support from alumni and donors.

Use a social media integration tool like Finalsite Feeds to aggregate content from all your social media networks and/or hashtags into a centralized location.

3. Make it easy for families to submit photos

While you may be concerned about families “checking out” during the summer, you will still have a portion of your community that is actively sharing content. This presents a great opportunity to crowdsource content, but it’s important to make it easy to do so. 

If you haven’t done so already, set up a distribution list — such as photos@yourschool.org — for parents to easily submit photos. Branded hashtags also make it easy for families to share their content, but keep in mind that if their profiles are private, you won’t be able to see them.

4. Follow social media posting best practices

Did you know that you only need to post once per day on Facebook and Instagram to achieve maximum engagement?

The recommended maximum posting for each social media channel is as follows:

• 1-2 times per day on Facebook and LinkedIn
• 1 time per day on Instagram
• 5+ times per day on Twitter (think of this platform as your school district's newsroom)

So, if you were concerned about “not having enough content,” rest assured that you don’t need a lot to stay active and to adhere to platform best practices! 

5. Create a social media calendar

You likely have regular events and campaigns you promote in the summer, so create a social media calendar that takes those key dates into consideration. Get input from other teams — such as athletics, development, and academics — about content they may want to share as well.

Further reading: 

• How To Create A School Social Media Calendar In 5 Easy Steps
• Creating Your School's Social Media Plan: A 10 Step Guide
• How To Create A School Social Media Policy: Your 5-Step Guide

Summer Social Media Content Ideas for Schools and Districts

While we’ve created an entire week-by-week calendar of social media content ideas, there are some ideas that can help improve your overall social media presence as we look beyond the summer months.

1. Optimize one channel per week

Is your school or district taking advantage of every feature available on each social media platform? Dedicate thirty minutes each week to optimizing your profile. Here are tips for optimizing your profiles:

Facebook

• Update the cover photo to represent summer and include your summer hashtag
• Be sure the button under the hero image links to your website
• Make sure the “Our Story” section reflects your value proposition and efforts made for distance learning

Instagram

• Make sure your profile picture is your school/district logo
• Create Story highlights
• Add your branded hashtags to your bio
• Sign up for a “link in bio” service like Later.com

Twitter

• Make sure your profile picture is your school/district logo
• Add a link to your website
• Add branded hashtags to your bio
• Refresh the About section

LinkedIn

• Connect with all faculty members
• Make sure your profile picture is your school/district logo
• Be sure you link to your website

Looking for more tips on optimizing your social media channels? Grab a free copy of our ultimate social media marketing guide.

2. Re-share content from other sources

When you’re running out of steam, there’s no need to create something new. Some social media experts suggest that as much as one-third of social media content should be shared from other sources. 

Instead of feeling the pressure to come up with new content, you can share content from:

• Other local businesses that may be offering tips and virtual experiences for families during the summer
• Local news outlets
• Associations — such as NAIS, TABS, ISACS, NSPRA, TSPRA, etc.
• Magazines and national newspapers

3. Celebrate National Ice Cream Sandwich Day (and everything in between)

It seems like there is a holiday for just about everything nowadays — and you can scope out a full list of those national holidays here. This is a great way to get your community involved, grab some photos from the archives, create a fun video to share, or even host a virtual get-together.

4. Do a back-to-school countdown

Every school and district across the globe may have a completely different “returning to school” scenario, and you can use social media to educate your community on what that might look like and provide tips and best practices for making the most of it through a back-to-school summer countdown.

5. Create a Facebook Group

If you haven't already, create a Facebook Group, moderated by a few faculty members, to give your community a place to come together and share ideas, pictures, videos, and experiences while they’re apart. Facebook Groups are proven to have more engagement than pages, so it’s a great place to share the important information you need your community to see, without bogging down your public-facing pages.

6. Share news and blog content regularly

If you already have a blog, post a relevant blog once a week (even if you’ve shared it before). Keeping your community engaged through evergreen content — such as tips for learning from home during summer and planning for back-to-school — builds trust and thought leadership.

In addition to blogs, as you create news content, share that on social media as well.

7. Don’t be afraid to re-use old content

During the school year proms, graduations, spring events, performances, and sporting events keep the content on school and district social media accounts feeling fresh and new. With less content from those lively events during the summer, you might feel a bit uninspired.

But you don’t actually need new content to build an engaging social media presence. Repurposing content can lead to a 62 percent increase in engagement — meaning content you’ve already created and shared on social media (or on other channels) can actually help increase engagement. 

Consider how you can repurpose:

• User-generated content from distance learning
• Faculty and student pictures and profiles
• Throwbacks “from the archives”
• Blog content from your school or district’s blog
• News articles from your school or district’s news archive
• Outtakes from previous photoshoots
• Additional crowdsourced content from your community

Key Takeaway

Summer schedules are different, which means your social media strategy will be too. Use this time to create a compelling social media presence that focuses on content, storytelling, and building connections.