Our white paper called Building the Relationship Between Home and School at Back-to-School Time<\/u><\/a> offers a more detailed look at what to communicate to parents.<\/p>\n Parents are bombarded from every direction, especially at back-to-school time. Sports teams, bands, clubs, before-\/after-care, parent groups\u2014there are many organizations and services vying for parents\u2019 attention leading up to the first day.<\/p>\n It can be tempting to provide every detail in every communication, but it\u2019s best to keep it simple to grab attention and link to where parents can find the details relevant to them.<\/p>\n There can be a tendency toward \u201cone and done\u201d posting, meaning you post something once and cross it off your list\u2014but in reality, it often takes multiple views to pique someone\u2019s interest and get a response. There\u2019s also more leeway on social media channels for repeating messages; people are used to seeing the same or similar posts multiple times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Having all of your back-to-school information on one main page makes it easy to share (for those simple messages we mentioned above), and parents will learn that this is the<\/em> page to visit when they have a question. Keep the page easy to skim by breaking it into well-labeled sections, but err on the side of including everything.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are so many tools out there that it can be overwhelming to figure out which ones to try. Start with a streamlined set of tools that will help you effectively manage communication across multiple channels, and reuse content and creative assets as much as possible. Our recommendations for a starting point:<\/p>\n A well-organized content calendar helps you plan what you\u2019ll send and post with enough time to make sure you have the images and any approved text so you\u2019re not scrambling at the last minute. It also makes it easy for someone else to jump in and publish a post when you\u2019re not available.<\/p>\n Pro tip: Include other calendar items relevant to school parents (like tax-free days in your state), and promote it with a back-to-school subject line that highlights how it\u2019ll make shopping easier and more affordable for parents. This extra step will show parents that you care about them, and you\u2019ll gain their appreciation and support before school even starts.<\/p>\n The most efficient way to schedule posts on social channels is to load a batch of them at one time. Use a tool like Hootsuite<\/u><\/a> or Sprout Social<\/u><\/a> and get everything scheduled for the week. What tool is best? There are pros and cons to all of them, and it\u2019s easy to get mired in the analysis. But most of them have pretty good basic functionality, so pick one and get started. When you find that there are things you want to do but can\u2019t, that\u2019s the time to look around and compare.<\/p>\n It\u2019s great to use photos from your schools and events as much as possible, but you\u2019ll probably need to use other stock images, as well. There are many sites with royalty-free images; both Pixabay<\/u><\/a> and Pexels<\/u><\/a> are good options.<\/p>\n Once you have your image, you might want to add some text or design elements to it. There are many online tools and apps; here are a few to start with:<\/p>\n Canva<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Stencil<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Snappa<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n designbold<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Adobe Spark<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Bonus: We have you covered for back-to-school supply list graphics. You can download and use the banners and images we\u2019ve created<\/a> to let your families know their school supply lists are ready.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to get overwhelmed with the constant pings of notifications coming in from various channels. If you\u2019re using a tool to schedule your social posts, it probably has an easy way to see responses so you don\u2019t have to get pinged every time someone responds. Another option is to set notifications to be delivered once a day rather than individually. Of course, if you have a sensitive post or something that needs close attention, you\u2019ll want to change the notification settings for that post.<\/p>\n On the flip side, you want to take advantage of our notification-centric culture and push out important messages to parents so they get noticed. Your EdTech partners can probably help; many of them can send push notifications.<\/p>\n Pro tip: Recommend to parents that they sign up to be notified when your school supply lists are posted. It saves you fielding questions and returning phone calls\u2014we\u2019ll let them know for you!<\/p>\n With cluttered inboxes and busy social feeds, the ability to cut through the noise is more important than ever. And the bar is higher\u2014we have so much information thrown at us daily that the dry and factual messages end up falling by the wayside. Even the algorithms are in on it! Facebook uses engagement (likes and comments) to decide how much attention your carefully crafted post will get, so it\u2019s important to make sure it really sings.<\/p>\n Puns, silly images, and funny memes are all good ways to get attention. Of course, everyone has a different sense of humor, so you\u2019ll want a good mix; you also want to stick to humor that\u2019s G-rated and appropriate for everyone.<\/p>\n Bonus: Download<\/a> and use our funny cartoons to let parents know back-to-school supply lists are ready.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t just tell people what to do\u2014inspire them. Back to school can be a trying time for parents and families, so post inspirational memes, quotations, and other content that convey messages of \u201cwe get it, and we\u2019re with you!\u201d It\u2019s a thoughtful approach that encourages engagement.<\/p>\n Use popular and relevant themes and topics in your communications and posts. National days of recognition are a good source of themes\u2014for example, \u201cDough-nut forget to mark your calendar for our back-to-school welcome event!\u201d would be a fun message to post on National Doughnut Day (the first Friday in June).<\/p>\n Social Media Holiday Planner<\/a><\/p>\n Tap into other topical content\u2014messages with an element of kindness, gratitude, local weather, popular shows, etc. often perform well.<\/p>\n Do you have back-to-school communication tips and tricks to share? Maybe a great Facebook post or winning Instagram story? Share it in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back-to-School Communication Tips: Simple, Streamlined, Sensational Why Is Back-to-School Communication So Important? Communication with schools and parents happens all year, and it\u2019s always important. The reason we call out back-to-school communication is simple. Professionally, it\u2019s your product launch. In more personal terms, it\u2019s like your \u201cfirst date.\u201d And any way you look at it, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4208],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<\/h2>\n
Keep It Simple<\/h2>\n
Cut through the clutter<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"school](\"https:\/\/www.teacherlists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/0220-tl-bts-communication-blog-bus-schedule-1.png\")
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.<\/strong><\/h4>\n![\"back-to-school](\"https:\/\/www.teacherlists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/0220-tl-bts-communication-blog-facebook-example-1.png\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/h2>\n
Create a central hub for all things back to school.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"laptop](\"https:\/\/www.teacherlists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/0220-tl-bts-communication-blog-st-joseph.png\")
<\/a><\/h4>\nStreamline Your Systems!<\/h2>\n
Create and maintain a content calendar<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Schedule and monitor posts<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Create graphics that pop<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Organize alerts and notifications<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"text](\"https:\/\/www.teacherlists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/0220-tl-bts-communication-blog-notification-1.png\")
<\/p>\nGo for Sensational<\/h2>\n
Use humor<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"communication](\"https:\/\/www.teacherlists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/0220-tl-bts-communication-blog-humor-example.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"back](\"https:\/\/www.teacherlists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/0220-tl-bts-communication-blog-cartoon.png\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\nBe inspirational<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"inspirational](\"https:\/\/www.teacherlists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/0220-tl-bts-communication-blog-inspire.png\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\nBe relevant<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"inspirational](\"https:\/\/www.teacherlists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/0220-tl-bts-communication-blog-marie-kondo-example-1.png\")
<\/a><\/h4>\nIt\u2019s Your Turn<\/h2>\n