Campus Facebook pages offer schools less payoff, but are still a must-have … for now

There’s one big question you should ask yourself if you’re on the fence about whether campus-specific Facebook Pages are right for your schools.

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An interesting question was posed earlier this week in a group email sent to school public relations professionals from around my region.

The sender wanted the group’s opinion on whether it was a good idea to create Facebook Pages for each campus within his district, or stick strictly to Twitter.

The question floored me. This was no small town district, but one of the largest school districts in the state. And in the year 2019, they still had not created Facebook Pages for each campus? Shame the devil!

But the more I thought about the question and considered what value Facebook truly offered for PreK-Grade 12 schools, the answer became less cut and dry.

Did individual Facebook Pages provide campuses a great value? Definitely five years ago.

But as Facebook has continued to tinker with its algorithms, fundamentally changing not only what your followers see but when they see it, the value of Facebook as a way to keep your community informed about what’s happening at your school is greatly diminished. Meanwhile, the liability of having the wrong post taken in the wrong context still remains, as does the burden of keeping the Page properly updated.

Despite those downsides, my answer is a less-enthusiastic-than-2014-me “still yes” for a few key reasons.

It’s Where Your Audience Is

The number one factor when considering a campus Facebook Page, e-newsletter, district magazine, school-sponsored carrier pigeon, or any other form of message delivery should always be “is this where my audience wants to be engaged.”

In the case of Facebook, the answer is a firm yes. Omnicore data shows that about 84 percent of adults between the ages of 30-49 are on Facebook, making it a prime place to make connections with parents and keep them informed with what’s going on at your school.

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What’s more, while many parents may not have the time for a lengthy chat with their school’s principal or to attend a PTO meeting, they’re finding the time for Facebook, where the average visit time is a whopping 35 minutes.

The trend toward more users of parenting age is only expected to increase in the coming years as more users of “the Facebook age” grow older, while younger users flock instead to sites like Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media sites that I’m too old and unhip to know about. At that point, Facebook may “age out” as the prime place to connect with parents, but that’s still likely years down the line.

For now, the face of Facebook is a parent.

It’s Where You Build a Community

When parents want to be informed, they pick up the phone, send a school email, or check out the school’s website.

When they want to be connected, they follow it on Facebook.

On Facebook, parents don’t just find out what’s happening at your school, but they connect and communicate with other parents, share photos, provide valuable campus feedback, and plan their family social calendar – all possibly within the span of a single post comment.

There is no other medium – online or off – that can provide that depth of connection.

Facebook Events

One of my personal grievances against Facebook’s many algorithm changes is the lag time between when a Page creates a post and when any given Page follower will actually see it.

Imagine how frustrating it might be when, in my former career as a breaking news editor at a daily newspaper, our web team would post a breaking news story to Facebook on Tuesday morning but Facebook’s algorithm wouldn’t show it to many of our followers until Wednesday afternoon or later.

The frustration was only made worse by users who first saw the post days after the actual news event and thought our news team was actually late to the story.

So much for getting the scoop, Facebook.

However, one area where Facebook excels at both timely communication and widespread post distribution is with their Events feature.

When Pages or users create events, Facebook takes advantage of multiple avenues for getting the event in front of Followers eyeballs.

Of course, there’s the traditional Feed posting and Event tab on the right side of the interface (or under the main menu on mobile). Then the event also reappears whenever a user’s friend selects they are “Going” or “Maybe” going.

For those who say they’re “Going,” Facebook follows up prior to the event with a reminder that it’s coming up.

Users can also see which of their friends have elected to go, so they can potentially connect at the event.

This provides a valuable tool for not only informing parents about your school events, but using them as another opportunity to build a community and school culture around them.

Even Non-Facebook Users Expect It to Be an Information Source

Whenever you Google any organization, the first two links that almost always appear at the top of the results are the organization’s website and its Facebook page.

Even non-Facebook users have come to expect it as a valuable way to scope out the way an organization does business and what others think of it, the same way they might use Yelp before trying a new restaurant or check hotel reviews on multiple travel sites before booking a reservation.

 If you’re not on Facebook, you’re missing a valuable opportunity to tell your school’s story to these causal browsers. So make sure your Page not only exists, but that it reflects your school’s culture and contains the vital information needed for further connection.

Facebook Reviews Scores Show in Google Searches

If you’ve never checked the info contained in your Google Business listing – it’s that little box on the right side of the screen whenever you search a business name – it’s definitely worth inspecting.

In addition to your campus basics – like address, phone number, and maybe a Streetview photo – the listing likely contains ratings from Google itself; possibly Niche and GreatSchools; and, if available, Facebook.

If you don’t have a Facebook page, no Facebook Reviews score shows, obviously.

That itself isn’t a huge problem.

However, it could be a huge missed opportunity if you have a positive school culture and the kind of engaged parent base that likely would have resulted in a high review score.

Positive scores don’t only make the school look good and reassure parents about the education their child is receiving, but they can be a valuable tool in recruiting and retaining teachers and other staff members. If you’re an experienced, competent professional in any line of work, would you rather spend your days at 4.8 (out of 5) job, or a 2.4 job?

Anecdotally, I’ve also found Facebook Reviews scores generally skew higher than actual Google Reviews scores. I attribute that to the fact that Facebook users tend to be parents who were engaged enough to follow the school in the first place and are posting the review under their own name with likely their own photo.

Google Reviews, on the other hand, can be made anonymously by anyone of any age – including by students in your computer lab unhappy because lunch didn’t taste good earlier today. So scores tend to be lower and comments often a little pettier and more personal.

So if you have a lower Google Reviews score, definitely put in the work to bring it up, but getting your Facebook Reviews built up can be another positive way to offset the negative things Google has to saw.

(More on how to claim your Google Business page, perfect your listing, and successfully moderate anonymous commenters is another post for another day – I promise.)

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Finally, a final thought on Facebook Pages for campuses.

Earlier, I said the number one question to consider when starting a new communication method should always be “is this where my audience wants to be engaged?”

Realistically, I think No. 2 then has to be “can we actually pull this off?”

Creating campus-level Facebook Pages can have a huge positive impact on parent engagement and school culture if done correctly.

If not, they just become one more thing to do and a potential liability.

So make sure the team members you pick to run your Facebook Pages understand your social media policy, have a sense of appropriate tone, and are equipped with solid writing skills (you don’t want to undermine the work your RELA teachers are doing in the elementary schools with a bunch of posts filled with typos and grammatically incorrect sentences).

Just as importantly, make sure they have the time to perform the task well. If your district blocks access to Facebook from campuses, talk to your IT team about possible solutions for these specific team members, or work out some kind of flexible off-location time where your Facebook team can update the pages.

When campus Facebook Pages are done well, the result will be something everyone in your school can ‘Like.’

Do you have another take on Facebook for schools? Let us know in the comments below.