Final Social Media Marketing Plan

I’ll be in an interesting position this year at my school, both personally and for social media planning. After having served as an Associate Principal this past year as part of the Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Schools Office/Catholic Schools Foundation Apprentice Principal Leadership Program (that’s a mouthful), and applying to/interviewing at several other schools for principal jobs, I’ll be staying at my school in a newly created role, name to-be-determined. Over the past year, my school has worked to brainstorm ways in which we can re-brand and set ourselves apart from our competitors. After many meetings with our administrative committee and Board, we have decided to move forward with the concept of experiential learning as our new identity, which will enhance the good things we are already doing as a school while taking strategic advantage of our location (Cambridge, MA) and business/higher education connections. I will be the coordinator of these changes, and so while I won’t be the primary person responsible for social media at our school, I will be working with our staff to engage our constituents and sell our “new” identity.

As I discussed in my social media marketing plan a few weeks ago, a key component of my strategy to improve our social media use will be to form a committee to discuss our goals and challenges. We do have a full-time Communications and Events Director already, who along with a few other staff members such as our Chief Advancement Officer and Admissions Director manages our social media accounts and our marketing strategy more broadly. In my new role, I will be working closely with her and them to incorporate my portion of school administration into our overall vision. Part of my implementation plan will be for us three (plus maybe our Headmaster) to meet as a social media/marketing sub-committee. In preparation for the upcoming school year, I hope to meet with this group starting in August, and lay out a timeline for our objectives to showcase our school’s shift to a different educational model. These will include 1) producing content that reflects these changes, including high-quality videos, graphics w/ program information and statistics, photos of our students and alumni, and appeals to donors; 2) plans for posting to our different accounts (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter being the big 3); 3) figuring out a good balance of highlighting our current school along with plugging our new programs; and 4) figuring out how best to communicate with potential students and their families, in order to driven increased applications and enrollment. This sub-committee will also be responsible for creating marketing materials that go out as part of our fall admissions cycle, which is key as we hope to roll out our first programmatic changes in 2020-21.

In addition to this working group sub-committee, I also want to form a larger general committee that will bring in a number of different voices from across the school. This will include the sub-committee members along with school admin (Principal, Guidance Director, etc.), key teacher leaders, our International Program Director, our Campus Minister, our Athletic Director, and possibly parents, students, and alumni where appropriate. I envision this committee as a place to brainstorm, gather multiple perspectives (both positive and critical), and think big-picture. It can also act as a check on my/the sub-committee’s work, to ensure that what we’re doing is on track. I hope to convene this larger group in the early fall (10/15 at the latest — beginning of school can be a bit crazy). I want to send out a series of surveys to our constituents throughout the year around our school changes, and this committee would be great to review the data. I also believe that this group, as it will include a cross-section of every facet of the school, can be helpful in shifting our mindset around social media and digital technology use within the school. We will need the entire community to embrace these changes and work to support them in each member’s own way — teachers can showcase their classrooms and lessons, administrators can provide resources for faculty and staff to grow in their tech skills and comfort level, guidance can work with me to identify personalized learning software and higher ed opportunities — so that we can relay our new curriculum and identity to our constituents in a meaningful way.

I’ll certainly be leaning heavily on our Communications Director this year (sorry Tori!), but I’m sure that what I’ve learned throughout the course along with all resources (here’s a succinct favorite I’ve come across) we’ve shared will come in handy as we build this new part of our school.