School websites & social media

[synaesthesia]

My NM checked out our google analytics for the site today with some interesting findings. The part of our website most commonly accessed was our job vacancies page, and the majority of the more popular pages are sites that our own students found interesting or useful links to. However our social media presence is increasing tenfold and we are reaching many, many times more people that way. Whilst any content that goes on SM generally goes onto the website too, it's becoming obvious that perhaps day to day announcements etc are probably better suited to social media.

 

What sort of split does everyone else get with their traffic? Is the website becoming more of a static placeholder for contact information and OFSTED's requirements rather than the place of general info it used to be?

[Sylv3r]

I must admit, we put info on both but 99% of the time if we want people to see something urgently it's read on SM. Nobody really bothers with the website these days unless looking for something specific. It's not on parents / students list of priorities to check the school site each day whereas they probably sit on facebook for hours.

[mavhc]

Use OneSignal to add push notifications to your website. What percentage of people a post on Facebook reaches depends too much on how much you pay Facebook

[CAM]

Back when I was designing a parent gateway for the LA, we discussed the topic of getting information to parents from schools. People are lazy, they won't go and fetch details for themselves so you have to push it to them, preferably with a notification to make people take notice.

 

Social media is ideal for that as you are injecting announcements straight into their feed and it provides a means of them contacting you (which can be a good and bad thing...). Whoever does it must be trained though, one wrong comment on something seemingly innocent can blow up in your face. You have to be aware of the various groups on multiple social media platforms and aware of political and social climates to make sure you don't say something wrong. You also need to engage on social media to to build a community and encourage people to pay attention, otherwise you are just an RSS feed that dumps an annoying link on a timeline now and then. You also need to secure the accounts against unauthorized access and not just let anyone post on it.

 

Also some people have Twitter, some have Facebook, some even cling to G+ (why???). So you need to have a presence on multiple networks and treat each one equally.

[mavhc]

Could just email people.

 

People use G+ because most people don't use G+, therefore the quality of people there is better

[hardtailstar]

Could just email people.

 

People use G+ because most people don't use G+, therefore the quality of people there is better

 

Exactly what I was going to say.

 

none of this

"I cnt believe wot happend"

followed by "U k hun?"

followed by "inbx me babe"

 

followed by OP "yh im k, inbxd u both"

[mthomas08]

What sort of split does everyone else get with their traffic? Is the website becoming more of a static placeholder for contact information and OFSTED's requirements rather than the place of general info it used to be?

 

Ofsted requirements and to cover your backs. In many years it's not often I hear "I knew that" instead it's "I didn't know that" even though it's on the website.

 

Doesn't help that we've gone from sharing important information with a few tabs to showing tons of info with loads of tabs. Menus upon menus, lists of menus.. it goes on and on. Even the most tidiest of school websites can still be confusing for a parent who wants one piece of info.

 

Social media - especially Twitter is short to the point and I like that. People would rather quick browse down a list instead of spending ages looking through menus which require endless clicking to find the one answer.

[mavhc]

Isn't that what the search button is for?

[Hokalus]

It seems for the majority of our parents that if it isn't on Facebook it doesn't exist.

 

Unless it's term dates, then they'll believe the idiotic 'School Holidays' site over the Local Council's website, Our website, Facebook & Twitter. Then ring and complain when it's wrong.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Hokalus

[mavhc]

It seems for the majority of our parents that if it isn't on Facebook it doesn't exist.

 

Unless it's term dates, then they'll believe the idiotic 'School Holidays' site over the Local Council's website, Our website, Facebook & Twitter. Then ring and complain when it's wrong.

 

Can't you just tell the school holidays sites it's wrong?

 

I tell them to add our ical feed to their calendar

[Hokalus]

Can't you just tell the school holidays sites it's wrong?

 

I tell them to add our ical feed to their calendar

 

We did when we knew the site existed. No idea where they got their information from as it was completely wrong

[Gibbo]

Is the website becoming more of a static placeholder for contact information and OFSTED's requirements rather than the place of general info it used to be?

 

Very much so.

 

We get around 900-1000 views of a FB post in 24 hours, the parents love getting "instant" news delivered to them rather than having to check a website. It also allows them to chat and converse about things.

 

Only downside is that parents will message via FB instead of going through the proper channels, then moan when its not acted upon instantly.

[mavhc]

Very much so.

 

We get around 900-1000 views of a FB post in 24 hours, the parents love getting "instant" news delivered to them rather than having to check a website. It also allows them to chat and converse about things.

 

Only downside is that parents will message via FB instead of going through the proper channels, then moan when its not acted upon instantly.

 

People who click to sign up for notifications on my school website get instant notifications, no need for a 3rd party who wants you to pay to get your news out to everyone

 

https://onesignal.com/

[spacebar]

The problem we have, is that staff find it hard to use the website system to update, whereas the social media, they know how it works. Social media is far easier and reachers more people directly.

[DrCheese]

The problem we have, is that staff find it hard to use the website system to update, whereas the social media, they know how it works. Social media is far easier and reachers more people directly.

 

Is for this reason we intergrated our facebook newsfeed with our website. Now we don't need to remember to update it as well as, it simply does. Likewise with twitter

[mavhc]

Do you know what percentage of people who liked your facebook page facebook deemed to show them to for free?

 

You can email your wordpress site new posts, so it's not that hard.

[DrCheese]

No idea - I've been saying to the powers that be that we need an ongoing budget nowadays to boost some of our facebook posts to our "likers" :/ They're on board with it, but it's rather annoying we may have to go down that route!

[synaesthesia]

We're just doing the same. We've got the thumbs up from finance as it'll come under our preexisting "PR" budget. great for open evenings and the likes.

[mavhc]

That's my point though, you don't, we have web notifications now, spend your money getting people to use a system you control