Using a mini social media video to target families in your area.

Are you making a school promo video this year? Then you’ll already have the footage to create short social media versions. Repurposing your video on social media will help you to get more ROI from your video project and make your social accounts easier to run.

66% of the UK population use social media. That means your prospective students and parents (and teachers) are all already there. Across platforms, video attracts more engagement than any other type of post.

Short videos attract the most attention of all. If a video is less than 60 seconds, over two-thirds (68%) of viewers will keep watching until the end. If a video is over 20 minutes long, only 25% of viewers will finish it.

Find out more about the social media options for video. And how to drive traffic from social media to your school website:

Across platforms, video attracts more engagement
than any other type of post.

Short videos attract the most attention of all.

Facebook.

59% of Facebook users are aged 25-55. That makes it perfect for engaging with prospective parents. Only 4.7% of users are 13-17 years old though, so unsurprisingly your students won’t hang out here.

Facebook offers lots of ways to get your video message out. Standard posts appear on your timeline and the newsfeed of your followers. Stories only last for 24 hours, but are more prominent. You can add a featured video to your profile. And there are lots of ad formats, of course.

The platform is less keen for you to entice viewers to other sites though. Unless you’re paying for adverts, it’s become more difficult to embed a link. For ‘organic’ traffic (i.e. not ads), make sure you feature your website on your profile and also put it in text captions. In your video’s call to action, it may be worth displaying your URL on-screen.

Instagram.

Instagram’s audience is skewed towards the younger generation. 60% of users are still aged 25-55. 7.7% are 13-17 years old, but half of all users are under 35 years old.

While Facebook started out as text-only and added video features later, Instagram is designed to be visual. It also offers video posts, stories and ads. You can save stories to your profile. Instagram Reels is a new video format released this year and IGTV is available for longer videos.

Like Facebook, Instagram is keen for viewers to stay on the app. To drive traffic to your site, make sure your profile is up-to-date and include your URL in your post and on-screen captions too. (Unless you’re paying for ads, in which case you have more options.)

Twitter.

63% of Twitter users are aged 35-65, making it a good choice for targeting prospective parents. It also started out as text-only and has added video functions in recent years.

Functionality is limited to posts and ads, but the social network is testing a Twitter stories feature this year. (They’ll be called ‘fleets’.) What’s great about Twitter is that you can embed a link from your video post directly to your site, even for standard posts.

For all social networks, make sure you’re following the right video specs. Or give us a shout, if you need a hand.

Final Thoughts.

Social media is a great way to reach families in your area. Choosing a school for your child is a big deal and most parents do a lot of research. Early on in the process, video helps to build positive perceptions and to secure a place on the parents’ schools shortlist.

Closer to the deadline, you can answer questions and provide reassurances. As well as supplying all the information families need to complete their applications.

If you want to get more from your school marketing budget, please get in touch. At Blue Apple Education, we can offer support with all aspects of film-making, from the initial plan through to the final edit. Including a plan to maximise re-use of the footage on social media.

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Learn more about a Blue Apple Education video for your school

 

We are here to support schools so if you have a question or just need some advice, arrange a completely free and no-obligation chat with one of our experts

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