In school marketing, or corporate marketing, we understand the importance of consistent branding. Brochures, ads and other publications should all look the same, pushing our tagline and our current marketing goals. How many of us are doing this with our social media sites?
Here’s a challenge: look at your institution’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and any other social media sites, one right after the other. Do they all look similar? If a prospective or current parent stopped by any of them, could he or she quickly identify that as a site from your school? Where’s the common thread between them all?
Consistent branding isn’t hard to do, especially the baby steps. Consider:
- Using your logo and your school colors. Twitter and YouTube allow you to change the background. Use your school colors for the background then the school logo for the profile picture for these sites and for Facebook. Simple.
- Mimic your viewbook or ad campaign online. Hillel Community Day School uses a landing page to individualize its Facebook presence. Sewickley Academy’s Twitter and Facebook as well as Harker School’s Twitter and Facebook pages all feel consistent and highly customized to those schools.
While there are a few third party applications like http://www.involver.com that will help you build Facebook landing pages for example, these are often site-specific. I foresee apps being built that will help, for a fee, integrate your look and feel for you across ALL the major social media sites with minimal time/resources on your end. Why wait or why spend the money however, when simple fixes now can yield the image your school deserves?
How are you branding across social media sites?
–Lorrie J
