Introduced in July 2023 by Meta, Threads has created a buzz – leaving people questioning whether this is the end for Twitter.
But what is all this buzz about?
As a school marketeer, you might be wondering how your School will benefit from a Threads account.
In this article, we will explore what Threads is, why it’s popular and why your School should consider joining the platform.
What is Threads and what does having a Threads Account mean for my School?
Threads is a new platform for enabling public discussion with your audience. What Threads offers that Twitter doesn’t, is that it can be connected with your Instagram account. This means that you can add your existing Instagram and Facebook followers to Threads after joining the app and linking your account. You don’t have to start from scratch to build a social media presence for your School on Threads.
You can also reply and repost as you do on Twitter. Threads posts can be up to 500 characters long and you can include photos and videos that last no longer than 5 minutes. You can also share your Threads posts in your Instagram stories, or share the link of your Threads on other platforms.
How can my School use Threads to attract new students?
Make use of the 80/20 Rule
Spend 80% of your time educating and engaging with parents and students and 20% of your time promoting your School. The high character limit allows you to copy and paste previous content. Plus, you can get creative and post new content without restricting yourself to short-form content formats.
Build a Two-Way Communication with Parents and Students
How many times did you post on your School’s Instagram account and leave comments with no response?
This can damage your reputation and it doesn’t reflect the caring environment that your School has nurtured for its students.
This will cost you the time spent on creating a great piece of content while ignoring all the small details that make a difference.
This is why your School needs to be on Threads. There’s no DM feature. Nothing remains secret. Your audience having joined threads is open to starting conversations with your School. All you have to do is to create engaging content that will spark the interest of parents and students to start conversation with your School. In the long term this will increase your enquiries.
Repurpose your IG content
If you’ve posted a carousel on Instagram, you can turn each slide into a series of Threads posts. Let’s say that you posted on Instagram about initiatives that empower your students to develop different skills.
Start explaining the different photos of the carousel on Threads and provide more details on the initiative and the positive results it had on your students.
As your Threads account is connected to your Instagram account, parents and students can always get back to your Instagram post.
Follow the algorithm and see how it works
Threads posts don’t appear in chronological order – where the most recent post appears first. Your content won’t be displayed to all of your followers. It goes to the algorithm inventory, which means that your post will appear to the accounts that will most likely engage with your content.
With Elon Musk suggesting that all the users of X, formerly known as Twitter, need to pay to have access to the platform, joining Threads presents a good alternative.
It offers lots of opportunities for your School to build a more interactive community with prospective students and parents.
As Threads is in its early days, it’s always good for you and your school marketing team to stay alert to any new developments and experiment on the platform.
Just remember that the goal of building a social media presence on any platform is lead nurturing with interactive engagement that will increase your admissions.
If it seems that you get a lot of interactions with prospective families on Threads, then keep adding value for them and attract them to your School!
Want to learn how you can make the best use of Threads? Let Digithrive For Schools teach you the best practices of social media for Schools. Book a free consultation here