Sharing content, getting likes, boosting your enrollment numbers: It seems like it should be so easy. But, for some reason, your Facebook page is languishing, and you are not getting the kind of online engagement you want from prospective students. So, how can you write better content for your school’s social media pages? Why is not the content you are posting already getting the kind of engagement you want? You need a content marketing strategy for your school that includes good social media copy. 

Shareable content

Your school should post content that is not just immediately engaging. It should also be widely shareable. The most highly shareable written content is long-form, which means it’s over a thousand words long.

People prefer to share things that they find helpful and emotionally resonant. Post the links to long articles and blogs, which by their very nature are more likely to be helpful and contain compelling narrative elements. That is why they are far more shareable than short posts.

Well-written content

At some point, your professors will be grading students on their writing. It looks pretty bad if your institution’s publicly-shared content would be earning a ‘C+’ grade. That’s why it is important that the articles you share and the posts that you write are stylistically unimpeachable.

Of course, writing well also matters because good writing is far more likely to be helpful, compelling, and interesting than bad writing. But, as an academic institution, to earn trust, you have to maintain a certain level of excellence – even on Facebook.

Visual elements

A picture is worth a thousand words, and an infographic is easily worth three thousand. Rich media elements can tell your story or make your argument for you. Graphs, videos, and high-quality photos attract attention and likes on social media.

This does not mean that you should load up your feeds with stock images. A good picture of a real student will be much more compelling than a generic photo of a school campus. Prospective students are much more interested in seeing people like themselves represented on your social media page.

Leave some whitespace

Eyes need room to rest. That means your sentences should be short. Do not use too many conjunctions or clauses, cramming your words into one long line. Keep paragraphs short, too. Ideally, they will not be more than three lines long.

This is even more important now that everyone reads content on their phones. The small screens make long paragraphs look even longer. Without enough white space, your readers won’t be able to scan the text comfortably.

Address the reader

Listen to the difference between these sentences. First, here is a typical academic platitude: “University X is a leader in innovation and research, nationally acclaimed for its approach to education.” Second, a reader-focused sentence full of direct pronouns: “At University X, you are the author of your own story”.

Especially on social media, you should always address your audience directly. It is not surprising that the second type of sentence earns a much higher engagement rate from people browsing online. It especially appeals to younger audiences. Gen Z prefers a personal approach.

Be responsive

Your school has an online presence, which means that students and prospective students will be engaging with you online. You probably do not have the marketing personnel to monitor every single post. Still, you should respond.

If you receive a message or a comment, take the time to write back. Public comments especially matter since other people see how quickly you handle the questions and complaints. Make sure that your online engagement is prompt and professional.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog post on how to write good social media copy for your school. At faethe.marketing we have been helping schools with their social media efforts and get more students. So if you are looking to recruit more students for your programmes with minimal cost and effort, feel free to reach out to us.