DATA ALLOW US to measure more than academic success in our classrooms. It also allows us to measure how we engage with our students, parents, teachers and community on social media.

Monitoring data behind our various social platforms shows us who we’re connecting with, where we’re connecting with them, when we’re connecting and what content they’re engaging with. We can take this data to build our brand and improve our relationships, resulting in a community that feels a deep sense of connection to and pride for their school district.

Over the last two years in Community High School District 155, located 45 miles northwest of Chicago, we have significantly increased our followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram after spending time researching our audience and strategically creating content to engage those particular stakeholders.

Tallying Audience

On a weekly basis, we use Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics and Instagram Insights to track our audience, including the number of posts or tweets we publish, the number of likes or mentions, the number of page views and when content is most viewed.

Many of us recognize that our parents and community members tend to be on Facebook, staff mostly use Twitter and our students are on Instagram. Knowing your audience on each channel can help you customize content for that specific audience.

When you begin to analyze your data, it’s important to pay close attention to when your audience engages with your content. This will allow you to strategically plan when to publish content to reach more people and have them engage.

Authentic Content

Creating authentic content will engage your audience to interact with your posts. The objective is to produce specific content for each group. When you post photos and videos of students, their parents and grandparents will comment on Facebook and tag relatives. On Twitter, staff often retweet and reply, and on Instagram our students interact with our stories, participate in polls and respond to questions.

Understanding our data formed the basis for creating a campaign to highlight our district’s summer construction projects. In 2018, when our board of education approved $14 million in summer projects, Superintendent Steve Olson came up with the idea to share videos of the progress throughout the summer so community members could see how their tax dollars were being spent.

To be even more transparent, the superintendent, operations department and communications team worked collaboratively to film, edit and publish short videos on the district’s social media channels and website.

The communications department closely analyzed data trends to modify each video to engage a larger audience. For example, data showed the audience interacted and watched shorter videos that included text. Each video was one minute or less and some included a voiceover with text.

Across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, this campaign resulted in more than 14,200 views, totaling more than 56 hours watched and 228 new followers. It also resulted in three articles in our local newspapers.

Data from the campaign proved we needed to continue to prioritize documenting summer projects as part of our district’s strategic communications plan because our audience watches and engages with the content. In 2019, we increased views to more than 24,000 and totaled more than 79 hours watched.

Applying Knowledge

How could we apply this new knowledge to impact viewership and engagement?

It’s not just about increasing your followers, which is important, but also ensuring the content you’re sharing engages your audience. It’s not about creating viral content but about creating authentic content that tells your district’s story on a consistent basis. You want your audience to comment, like and share, and when you analyze the data, you will find trends that help you connect with your audience.