4 Simple Ways to Elevate Your School’s Social Listening Strategy

Digital conversations are happening constantly – on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and more. It can feel like noise when your plate is already so full, but these conversations can offer invaluable insight to help you better understand your audience, analyze your marketing efforts and adjust your strategy to stand out from your competitors.

In our NAIS survey, we found that just over half of school respondents credited social media as one of the digital marketing channels most effective at driving new student leads during the year prior – and social listening is an important starting point.

So how do you stay on top of everything and translate the noise into insight for your private school marketing strategies? Let’s get into it.

What is Social Listening?

Social Listening is the practice of monitoring and analyzing social media content that’s relevant or related to your school. Though you do want to track mentions, you really want to understand the conversations around your institution and its ecosystem. Doing so will help you gain deeper insights into how your school is perceived (the good, the bad, the quirky), what people are saying about your competitors, and how you can stay ahead of hot topics.

How to Incorporate Social Listening

Social listening isn’t a one-and-done task. You’ll get the most out of it if you weave it into your regular tasks. This means checking in on conversations, tracking trends, monitoring campaign performance, and staying aware of what’s happening in your competitive landscape.

That being said, we know it’s not an easy task when your to-do list is a mile high. Here’s how you can incorporate social listening into your daily tasks so it boosts performance without derailing your work day.

1. Set Up Alerts: Google Alerts and social management platforms like Hootsuite and Sprout Social are helpful tools that can track mentions of your school, competitors or specific keywords. They’re handy for keeping you informed without the need to constantly check in. You’ll receive automatic notifications whenever relevant conversations are happening so you can jump in.
2. Schedule Check-ins: Social listening doesn’t need to be time-consuming. Set aside 10 to 15 minutes in your day to quickly scan mentions, review comments and messages and check for trending topics in education and your community.
3. Identify Trends and Relevant Conversations: As you monitor regularly, you’ll start to notice trends. Is your audience asking about tuition frequently? Are they celebrating or criticizing certain aspects of education? Is there breaking news or a policy change they’re concerned about? Use your insights to shape your school’s messaging or adjust your offerings.
4. Join the Conversation: Don’t just observe: engage with your audience. Most people (69%) expect brands to respond within 24 hours on social media. This is an opportunity to respond to positive mentions or handle criticism in a timely and thoughtful way. This can turn a potential problem into an opportunity to show that your school cares.

Learn more: How to Ace it as a One Person Marketing Team

When You’ll Need to Do a Deeper Dive

Some circumstances will require a more in-depth look into social listening:

• If a new competitor enters the market, look into how people are responding to their messaging and set up alerts for competitor keywords to stay informed.
• If your school makes the news for any reason, it’s crucial to understand how the public is reacting to it so you can address any issues or leverage the positive momentum.
• If a relevant educational trend is blowing up, find ways to participate or respond so your school isn’t left behind in the conversation.

Where to Look

Start social listening on platforms you’re already actively using – whether that’s Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. Once you have a good routine in place, you can expand your reach to other places your audience may be, such as review sites, news, forums and other online platforms like blogs.

You can also use online tools to streamline the monitoring process. Here are a few to try:

• Hootsuite
• Sprout Social
• Lately
• HubSpot
• Google Alerts

Learn more: The Data Everyone Should Care About

With the right routine and helpful tools, you can seamlessly and effectively integrate social listening into your marketing efforts to enhance your messaging without getting overwhelmed. If you need help developing a strategy that resonates with your audience, we’d love to help.

At Metric Marketing, we develop measurable and practical strategies to help private and independent schools like yours to make the most of your marketing efforts. We'd love to discuss your private school's marketing requirements with you. Contact us today to speak with our marketing professionals or use the form below to sign up and receive more marketing tips in your inbox.