Telling Your School's Story in the Digital Age
One of the first things I learned as a high school principal is that leading a school goes far beyond managing day-to-day operations—it also requires communication in various forms. In today’s digital age, having a strong visual and online presence isn’t optional. It’s essential. As I stepped into my role at Helena High School five years ago, I quickly noticed that our school’s digital presence was limited primarily to athletics. While those accomplishments are important and worth celebrating, they represented only a fraction of what made our school excellent. That realization prompted me to try to get a better understanding of what was lacking and then form a plan for how to tell our story better.
According to the Digital Writing (2022) text and scholars like Chan, Chen, and Leung (2023), building a digital community requires much more than simply posting content sporadically. It requires commitment, a consistent presence, and a clear message. Initially, I took on the responsibility of curating our school’s story through social media, but it became clear that I couldn’t keep up with everything alone. I decided to delegate the task to an assistant principal, and over time, the responsibility grew to include multiple staff members. Today, it’s a building-wide initiative. Teachers and staff across departments regularly submit photos and highlights of the incredible things happening in classrooms and around the school.
What began as a way to keep parents informed evolved into something more meaningful. As our posts became more frequent and varied, engagement rose. Students began looking to our platforms not only for recognition but also for practical updates. As Lawrence (2022, p. 41) discusses, effective digital writing involves engaging real audiences in meaningful ways—when content aligns with their interests, it prompts deeper interaction and investment. What once felt like a one-way communication became a space where our community could see themselves as part ot our story.
Yet, as Chan, Chen, and Leung (2023) pointed out, more is not always better. At one point, we were posting a lot, but we didn't have clear guidelines on what or how to post. That’s when we began working closely with our district’s technology department to refine our branding. We developed clear visuals and determined consistent messaging for both academic and athletic platforms. This decision helped strengthen our school’s brand identity and ensured our posts were immediately recognizable no matter where you looked.
We also took inspiration from other schools' social media posts and started applying things we liked to ours. As Kayle Larkin (2022) emphasizes, engaging content often includes multimedia elements. We’ve since added videos hosted on YouTube, embedded links for additional information, and started cross-posting on multiple platforms to extend our reach. These things have helped move our content from basic updates to engaging, informative posts that reinforce school pride.
Ultimately, telling your school’s story in a digital space isn’t just about posting pretty pictures—it’s about creating a brand, telling stories that celebrate students and teachers, inform stakeholders, and strengthen your school’s story. This is not a thing that happened overnight for us. As you can see, this is something that took years to get to a place where we were happy with what we post. We still talk regularly about what we can improve, but we have a much larger presence than we did five years ago.
Resources
Chan, I., Chen, Z. & Leung, D. (2023). The more the better? Strategizing visual elements in social media marketing. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2022.11.007
Larkin, K. (2022, July 9). 13 must‑have elements of an exceptional blog post. Search Engine Journal. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/blog-content-quick-easy-tips/337461/
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press
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ReplyDeleteAshley, thank you for sharing your school’s journey in building a meaningful digital presence on social media. As you pointed out, effective digital content is all about creating meaningful connections with your audience, and for public schools, that audience is the public. More than ever, the community recognizes its ownership of public education, even beyond parents and students (Fiore, 2022). As educators and administrators, we’re becoming increasingly aware of how we communicate, how we present ourselves, and how we are perceived. Public opinion matters deeply, and in the information age, our ability to connect and build trust through digital platforms is not optional—it’s essential (Fiore, 2022).
ReplyDeleteYour reflection reminded me of Lawrence’s (2022) discussion on the reality of producing of digital content, even when we do everything right and in complete earnest, audiences can react in unexpected ways. Since I am on social media so often professionally, I often say that we have to constantly reflect on what we are putting out there, and I just want to commend you for modeling how you have done that. While social media has wrought much frustration in the modern world, it also holds incredible power when used well; HHS’s social presence not only communicates effectively but ultimately strengthens community connection too! (I know, because I follow it! Fun fact: my husband designed the very first Husky logo back in 2012, I believe. We lived in Hillsboro for years, and he was the youth pastor at Church at Cahaba Bend, where, if I’m not mistaken, our dear friend Dale Massey now serves in that role :)
References
Fiore, D. J. (2022). School-community relations. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for the web. Connected Learning.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI loved reading about the evolution of social media use at your school! One change that stood out is that the social media platforms began to be used not just for celebrations or recognition, but also for information about school-related events. When building school-community relationships, it is important to keep students and their families “informed about the different involvement opportunities, policies, and programs, while making sure they understand that participation is inclusive” (UNESCO, 2022, para. 11).
I also appreciate that while you continue to recognize the successes of school athletes, you have prioritized better representation of the student body. It is easy to let athletics dominate school news, but there is much more happening! As noted by Lawrence (2022), your audience—in this case school stakeholders—are “people [who] come from different social and economic experiences, with varying education levels and different understandings of the world” (p. 13). It’s important that all audience members see themselves represented in the school’s social media posts, not just one subset of the group.
References
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.
UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning. (2022, July 29). School community relationship. IIEP Policy Toolbox. https://policytoolbox.iiep.unesco.org/policy-option/school-community-relationship/