School Social Media Accounts

[kenney]

We have just be asked about setting a school Tiktok account for a department so that they can post videos with exam revision. Something about this seams wrong to us, given the other content of the platform is not always age appropriate.

 

So it has got us thinking what Social Media platforms do other schools activity promote for their students, if any at all?

[Cazab]

We have most primary schools in the Trust communicating with Parents through social media - namely Instagram & Facebook.

Another one only uses Twitter.

However this is only ever public communication to the community and/or Parents.

 

This is grossly inappropriate if staff are trying to use Social Media to communicate with students.

[synaesthesia]

Stay well clear of tiktok, but do make an account to "secure" your school name if possible. Stick to the usuals - twitter, facebook, instagram and linkedin but market appropriately - what works for one platform may not be appropriate for another.

[Garacesh]

Something about this seams wrong to us, given the other content of the platform is not always age appropriate.

 

Does the school have Twitter accounts?

The amount of NSFW artists and onlyfans-promoters on Twitter, it's the same deal.

There should definitely be policies in place for how any school social media accounts are used, though. Preferably some kind of vetting and logging process.

 

As for promoting, we don't actively promote any. That's not our place. Kids will use what they want to use (and will probably not use whatever we tell them to because now it's lame, 'How do you do, fellow kids?' etc), we just have to keep up.

For a while we did have advice posters around the building on how to block/make your account private/etc on social apps, facebook, snapchat, tiktok, etc.

 

Personally I don't think any kids should be using any social media. Facebook is full of right-wing ravings, disinformation and conspiracy nuts; instagram takes your body confidence through the wringer with all its airbrushed models and pro-eating disorder content; twitter, tiktok, and discord allow 18+ content; tumblr - like instagram - doesn't have the porn any more but last I knew of also had a lot of pro-eating disorder content; and snapchat for obvious reasons.

 

However I do want to add an obvious caveat that I think they shouldn't use them in their current forms. A lot of these apps could be made so much safer for children if their owners just put the work in. But they don't. And unless you're particularly savvy enough to go spelunking through the settings (and lots of settings, with some of them..) the default settings are wildly unsafe a lot of the time. Plus the obvious one that kids often don't understand the safety concerns that might make you or I change certain settings. However, we can't pretend they don't have any benefits. Obvious example being there's a lot of LGBT+-positive stuff - especially on Tumblr and Instagram.

Edited March 30, 2022 by Garacesh

[jthompson]

Our school uses Facebook and Instagram. Responsibility for managing the accounts is formalised as part of somebody's role. Not left to IT, thankfully.

 

Personally, I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't be touching these things with a bargepole, but then I'm not in posession of a 'normal' attitude to social media and big tech. The truth is that the people schools need to reach are already normalised to using those platforms and expecting organisations to have presence on them, so you kinda have to engage with it to some degree.

[DrCheese]

We use Twitter, Instagram & Facebook.

We (as in IT) take ownership of *all* social media accounts in school. Facebook we use the business manager suite to deligate access rights down to other staff. Instagram/twitter have protected with 2fa with the codes stored in our 1password & we log staff on who need it when they need it.

It's on our staff AUP that no one can create a social media account relating to the school unless IT have ownership of it

 

It's in our job descriptions also that we look after this - But then we look after the branding of the school as a whole hense why we do it. I don't see how a school can't have social media accounts in this day and age, it's one of the primary methods of communicating with our parents.

 

Tik Tok we don't use, but we do have some fake accounts the students have created - We are tempted to make an offical one just to hog the name and slap the fake ones with copyright claims, but it's like getting blood out of a stone to get the social media giants to take it down.

[hardtailstar]

We have just be asked about setting a school Tiktok account for a department so that they can post videos with exam revision. Something about this seams wrong to us, given the other content of the platform is not always age appropriate.

 

So it has got us thinking what Social Media platforms do other schools activity promote for their students, if any at all?

 

Youtube?

[kenney]

We have a school YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook/Meta/Instagram account but these are solely for the purpose of the school communicating with Parents.

[mikes]

We have a school YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook/Meta/Instagram account but these are solely for the purpose of the school communicating with Parents.

 

Same here, Twitter is basically a newsfeed for posting pictures of classwork / "feelgood" stuff. Youtube can be used to host videos the Drama club etc have made. (all vetted and cleared by SMT). We have a facebook account but its placeholder account that isn't really used. We do not communicate with parents with any social media, all comments are disabled, so the school would never communicate or answer any question from a parent on Twitter for example. In todays culture where you can get blasted for saying the wrong word, it just isn't worth it, all communications done with parents is in private via e-mail or letter; social media is purely a news bulletin for us. If a parent commented on Twitter about say their child being bullied, it wouldn't be appropriate for the school to reply to that parent on Twitter for everyone to see, especially when there might infact be a feud between another pupil who attends the school and their parent.

 

It's basically so parents in our local area, they might see an item from a local business pop up in their feed, then they might see an item about year 8's doing fancy homework modelling castles come up on their feed. If a teacher has something good they want to show off they'll e-mail the business manager who will put it on the twitter. If we left comments enabled, the pupils would just post memes as a reply. The school learned that when the headmaster posted a short photo and message, only for a pupil (using their own name) to reply with a photoshopped in alteration with "snoop dogg" sunglasses and a particular kind of roll up cigarette in their mouth as a reply.

 

Not sure about TikTok, I've never used it, I've seen a lot of innocent cute videos on there (pet rats) but from what I've seen of what the pupils use of it, they mostly use it to show fights, or booty shaking, so I'm a bit dubious about using TikTok to post exams revision. Imagine a Year 8 who doesn't really use social media, is a bit innocent and sheltered, and the school directs them to go onto TikTok to get their exam revision. They then scroll across a few videos after the exam revision is done and they see booty shaking. At least with Youtube you can set it so your page will only show what you have put there and there is a Youtube Kids mode as well.

Edited April 2, 2022 by mikes

[Guest Guest]

To be honest, I think you'd have more luck with posting revision videos on your VLE (if you have one).

 

I'm in my 20's so my opinion on TikTok is perhaps bias; but I do find it to be a viable resource for promotion & marketing. For schools tho, it can be hit or miss. Kids these days look to TikTok for funny, entertaining videos. You get a fair number of young adults using it to promote "accountancy" as they call it (aka adult entertainment). However, due to OnlyFans' recent changes (requiring a verified debit card/18+ age verification via a photograph) to sign-up, the material on TikTok still has to be age-appropriate (13 & above). The moderation team are great at suspending accounts that fall foul of the guidelines. It'd recommend securing your school name on TikTok as a bare minimum just incase any parody accounts appear.

 

Twitter is a far more "damaging" platform than TikTok (if you're concerned about access to "inappropriate" content). However, by Year 8 - hormones are in full swing anyway; so if they're looking for "that" kind of content, they'll always know where to find it...

 

Your best bet as a halfway house would be to use TikTok to post encouraging, motivational stuff for Students (along with other School showcase/marketing stuff). Longer videos don't really do well on the platform anyway so those would still be better suited on a VLE.

 

Hope this helps.

[mthomas08]

Our school uses Facebook and 2x Twitter accounts and a YouTube channel.

 

1 Twitter account is managed by the librarians. The other 3 are managed by the executive assistant/marketing lead.

 

I am pro social media but done properly:

-used to promote the school

-advertise school subjects

-celebrate any positive school news

-managed by someone that knows how to use it correctly (plus grammar etc)

-not something that is forgotten after 6 months

 

Considering how many letters + texts we send every year, why not use social media or email systems to send out this info.