Capturing and using great visuals for your school or district’s social media plays a key role in stopping the scroll and engaging your audience. After our recent webinar, Better Photos & Videos for School Social Media, we compiled questions from across the sector about creating and sourcing high-quality visuals for social media. Here are a few frequently asked questions and answers to help empower your content team by boosting their photo and video skills.
What’s the easiest way to share photos across iOS and Android without losing quality?
The best way to ensure quality when sending media between iOS and Android is to upload media to a cloud storage service. Class Intercom can also act as a cloud storage tool and will maintain the quality of your media. Simply have your team members start at the Compose button, upload their media into Class Intercom, and assign the draft to the proper moderator(s) within the platform for review. Need a hand of have questions? Contact our in-house support team.
The Wenatchee High School Girls’ Varsity Volleyball Team takes a selfie at the state capitol while being honored for their win at the 4A state championship. Photo courtesy of Wenatchee School District 246.
What’s the best content to be posting?
Content that authentically tells your school’s story is ideal. Look for ways to highlight the learning experiences, programs, and activities students are coordinating and participating in. Think about groups or topics that are underrepresented on your school’s page and find ways to include them. Consider that photos of humans should outweigh graphics; aim to post more photos and videos and think about what your community is interested in seeing to boost engagement.
Should schools follow social media trends?
Social media can be fun—even for educational and professional accounts and trends can be a useful way to engage your students and school community, but that doesn’t mean you have to jump on every single one. When deciding if a trend is right for your school, consider if it will resonate with your audience and stay true to your brand. The best resource for discovering trends? Students! Social media is a huge part of your students’ lives; chances are they’re plugged into what is/isn’t trending. Here’s a recent trend that performed well on our pages. Keep in mind that trends are typically short-lived, so jump on board as soon as possible to avoid missing the mark!
Any tips to help small teams plan social content?
Operating as a solo act—or even a one-person show—can be challenging, especially if you’re responsible for overseeing all content across a larger district. While you can’t be everywhere simultaneously, other representatives from your school or district can help. Enlist a team of content creators to help you capture content from across departments, athletics and activities, clubs, extracurriculars, and other areas of your school or district. A collaborative school social media management platform, like Class Intercom, can make collaborating on content easier and allow you to schedule it far in advance.
How do I capture photos in classrooms and among students with minimal distraction?
It’s important that content contributes to learning environments without taking away from them. To capture photos in the classroom or in focused academic settings with minimal distraction, use these tips:
- Use silent/quiet mode on a camera or device to avoid drawing attention
- Capture natural moments without interrupting or posing subjects
- Rely on editing after the fact to perfect your images, rather than striving for the perfect shot on the spot.
- Leverage different points of view. Get on the students’ level!
- Empower staff and students who are part of the action to capture content.
Kindergarten and 4th grade students at John R. Tibbott school work together to count pumpkin seeds. Photo courtesy of Valley View School District.
How do I get students more involved in content creation?
There are a plethora of ways to get students more involved in content creation. Whether it be through a club, class, or even just by individual invitation, one thing is certain: Students have unique perspectives and creative ideas when it comes to creating content and many are eager to get involved. Consider recruiting students into a student internship via a content team application process, working with educators and administrators to incorporate student generated content into existing classes, or assembling an after-school media club devoted to collecting social media content.
What is the best way for schools to organize, manage, and store photos?
A good organization system is key when it comes to photo management. Schools need a central, secure, and district-approved platform. Keep in mind that Class Intercom’s built-in archival solution can be used to upload any files, including images, to the platform. Once uploaded, create labels that help organize the photos for future use.
Teachers at Crandall ISD pump up their students at the middle school pep rally. Photo courtesy of Crandall ISD.
What is ALT text and do our school social media photos need it?
ALT text is particularly important for ensuring your content is accessible. Think of ALT text less as a caption, and more as a literal description of the image. What is the image showing? What is happening in the background? What colors are in the image? Is there text on the image you could include for your audience? Consider the essential information your audience needs to fully understand the post without an image and look to make it a practice to include ALT text in all posts with visuals.
Interested in learning more about how Class Intercom is helping schools and districts better source, manage, and utilize photos and videos across social media? Class Intercom can help. Follow the link below to learn more.
