Visit your own ‘About’ page. Now.

When was the last time you looked at your website’s “About” page? For me, it was today. And I cringed, and updated it. ‘Why?’ I hear you asking. Well…

1. It started “Bloxham Marketing commenced business in 2009 with just one client…” – yuk yuk yuk! Where was the active voice? Where was the personality? If people wanted to connect with *me*, this certainly wasn’t the place to do it!

2. It wasn’t current. Information was outdated, and needed to be corrected. If someone was looking for information about who Bloxham Marketing is / what we do, then this wasn’t the place where they could get accurate facts!

3. It read like my LinkedIn profile. It was a online resume listing a whole heap of specifics and particulars which – when I originally wrote the page – was meant to be rather impressive, but which, when I think about it now, just gave off a ‘I try too hard’ stench of inexperience. Whoops!

No matter. I’ve changed it now. And I’m planning on revisiting this again in the next six months or so, just to check again that it’s saying what I want it to say.

How about you? Checked *your* ‘About’ page recently?

Digital marketing for schools – part 4

Well, this post marks the fourth and final in this series on ‘Digital marketing for Schools’. As the last one was a ‘narrative of best practice’, then (as you’d expect!) this is a ‘narrative of worst practice’. So… let’s jump straight in!

As could be expected, there is, generally speaking, a spectrum. At the ‘worst case scenario’ end, there are the schools which have taken a ‘denial’ approach, and refuse to look at their digital footprint. This is ludicrous in my opinion, as no one is monitoring what is being said. I know of one school, with zero official digital presence, that had not one or two, but three ‘hate’ groups on Facebook, filled with the most negative opinions and expressed in the filthiest language that teenagers can provide. No one knew.

A slightly better, but not by much, scenario, is where the school has created official social networking accounts, but then let them lapse. These quickly fill with spam at best, and have the potential to generate negativity towards the school. Not good. Of equal slackness is the lapsed monitoring of generalized information such as Wikipedia pages. Even big schools fall prone to this, and would probably be embarrassed to learn what their wikipedia page has on it.

Finally, having a website which no one visits, or other accounts which have little to zero ROI, are rather a waste of time.

When it comes to digitally marketing your school, it’s no good to just ‘hope for the best’, or worse, sit on your hands. You need to be actively involved if you want digital marketing to be effective!

So where does your school fit? At the ‘best practice end’? Or sliding down the scale a little bit? If so, feel free to contact me – I can offer suggestions, help out, or even do some of the work for you, if you like?!

CC Image courtesy comedy_nose at http://www.flickr.com/photos/comedynose/3856524294/

Digital marketing for schools – part 3

So this is Part 3 in the ‘Digital Marketing for Schools’ series. Today we’re looking at a ‘Narrative of Best Practice’…

A school using best practice has a dynamic website that meets the needs of both current and future parents. It is the place of choice for the most comprehensive information about your school. It is easily navigable, with dozens, if not hundreds of excellent images, embedded videos, and a password protected portal for the student and parent bodies, where they can access the digital component of their studies.

The school’s Facebook page is updated daily, reminding parents of events, fundraiser deadlines, and reporting on school activities. It showcases great photos of school events (and every photo only contains students whose parents have given permission for their child’s photo to be used in marketing / promotional activities!) The school’s twitter account is used in a similar manner, but also contains links to a wide variety of further reading, in the fields of education, technological developments, or even parenting tidbits. Together with the school twitter account, it is the place parents can turn to in times when up-to-the-minute information is needed, for example when floods cause bus services to cease operating, and road (or even school) closures.

The school’s YouTube channel has a variety of videos, each of which is also embedded into the school website. These range from school events such as grandparent’s days, sports carnivals, cultural events, and camps, to classroom activities, interviews with staff, parents and students, to maybe even a school tour. A new video is added every month or so,and these videos are of a high quality.

The school also engages with its community via email, and SMS where appropriate.

The school features in online school directories, and these contain the same information that is in the school’s Wikipedia page and any other online account. The school is also discoverable via google maps, where several reviews rate it as a very good place to educate children, and also through articles in online newspapers.

In general, a school using best practice is active in both its maintenance and its monitoring of, its digital presence, ensuring that it is an accurate reflection of the school, and is consistent with its marketing campaign using traditional media.

So – over to you! Can your school check all these boxes? The next post is the final in this ‘Digital Marketing for Schools’ series. As you can expect, it’s looking at the opposite end of the spectrum; the ‘narratives of worst practice’. Stay tuned!

CC image courtesy PNASH at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnash/5227436224/

Digital marketing for schools – part 2

In part one of this series on ‘Digital Marketing for Schools’, I looked at what digital marketing actually *is*. So this post discusses ‘why is it powerful’? In other words, what are its strengths and weaknesses? Why should we / shouldn’t we use it?

It is powerful simply because we now live in a digital society. I would imagine that a large majority of your school community has a Facebook account which they use more than once a week. Both staff and parents – perhaps also your older students. Because other social networking sites, such as twitter, YouTube, four square, Flickr and many many many more, are also growing exponentially. And with smartphones now making this digital world so easily accessible, digital marketing has more power in 2012 than it has ever had in the past, and this power is only set to increase over the coming weeks, months, and years.

Digital marketing undoubtedly has its strengths. It also, however, has significant weaknesses, which every business would do well to consider prior to creating and implementing a digital marketing campaign. Its strengths lie in its wide reach and the currency and timeliness of the information you can provide to your customers. Its weaknesses lie in its vulnerability and its potentially time-consuming nature.

Should you use it? In my opinion, yes. You will lose valuable business to your competitors, should you choose to not employ digital marketing as part of your overall promotional campaign.

Shouldn’t you use it? Also yes, but this one is should be qualified further. There are as many ways to use digital marketing as there are available channels. To use all would blow your budget both financially and time-wise, and you would not see the return on investment (ROI) you are seeking. Thus your digital marketing strategy needs to be carefully considered prior to, and throughout, its implementation.

So – now it’s over to you. What are *your* thoughts on the uses  and misuses of Digital Marketing in schools?

CC Image courtesy Jenn and Tony Bot at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ittybittiesforyou/4809306365/

Digital marketing for schools – part 1

Digital marketing is marketing done online, as opposed to promotion of your business using traditional media – newspaper ads, radio ads, TV if you can afford it. Also billboards, posters, flyers, and even the humble newsletter.

Digital marketing, on the other hand, occurs through the screen. Information that you send ‘out’, such as via your website, or emails to your subscriber lists, is classified as ‘outbound marketing’ and is used to maintain relationship with existing clients. In 2012, outbound marketing channels should include engaging with your school community through Facebook, twitter, and maybe even YouTube, Flickr, or your own school’s smartphone app.  However, the true power of digital marketing lies in ‘inbound marketing’ – literally, where potential customers discover your existence through the many and varied channels that they stumble across you, online. Perhaps they are on YouTube and one of the videos from your channel appears on their sidebar of suggested videos to watch. maybe they’re on Wikipedia, and the link to your school’s Wikipedia page is in the related article that they are reading. Or they are on google maps and notice your school’s name and a great photo appears on their page. All of these examples are the reason why a school should be strongly considering what type of digital footprint is out there for their school.

So a quick question then – what sort of digital marketing efforts is your school doing?

(Image made using tagzedo.com. Cool, hey!)