When it comes to creating smart social content that will engage prospective students while keeping current students talking about your school, you might be surprised how much leverage your academic calendar will give you.

1. Creating Social Content Around your Academic
Calendar
Slide 1
Creating Social Content Around your
Academic Calendar

2. Creating Social Content Around your Academic
Calendar
Slide 2
1) Academic Calendars
2) Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate
3) Hashing out the Hashtag
4) The Right Time
Overview
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Creating Social Content Around your Academic Calendar

3. Creating Social Content Around your Academic
Calendar
Slide 3
 The average academic calendar contains dozens of events
throughout the year that can easily spark a discussion on
social media platforms, as well as specific ideas that could
be used as a springboard for marketing campaigns and
initiatives.
 Using your academic calendar as a sort of blueprint for your
social media engagement is not only a great way to get
students and prospective students talking, but to bring
attention to programs, special events and faculty.
 However, a staggering amount of schools don’t utilize their
academic calendars to their full potential in the realm of
social media marketing and engagement.
1. Academic Calendars
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Creating Social Content Around your Academic Calendar

4. Creating Social Content Around your Academic
Calendar
Slide 4
 Your academic calendar and social media editorial calendar
go together as intuitively as peanut butter and chocolate.
 Since students are naturally more drawn toward certain behaviour
and interests at different points of the calendar, your social content
will benefit from leveraging this visibility.
 For example, posting relevant advice or asking students to submit
their study tips when it’s exam season is bound to get more
responses and traction than doing so during vacation.
 Decide on publishing frequency and general scope of subject matter
to develop an editorial calendar, using your blog as a base for
repurposing content and considering the best tone and post type to
use for each social channel.
 Recent surveys are showing that students are most interested in
interacting with colleges and universities on YouTube and Instagram,
so ensure that videos, original and curated images and infographics
are part of your content strategy and development.
2. Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Creating Social Content Around your Academic Calendar

5. Creating Social Content Around your Academic
Calendar
Slide 5
 The hashtag isn’t just for Twitter anymore – Facebook,
Instagram, Google+ and many other social networking sites
now use the hashtag in posts.
 It’s a great way for creating buzz around an event.
 It gives people a common idea with which to tag their posts,
and it also makes searching for content revolving around
your event or announcement much easier.
 Uniting posts with a shared hashtag makes students feel
included and can help foster a sense of school spirit and
community.
 Whether it’s #countdowntofinals or #midtermmadness, the
use of a clever or specific hashtag on social media can turn
your event into a phenomenon.
3. Hashing out the Hashtag
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Creating Social Content Around your Academic Calendar

6. Creating Social Content Around your Academic
Calendar
Slide 6
 Use your academic calendar to your advantage when you’re
promoting specific programs or courses to students on social
media.
 Getting students to engage in a post about a new course in the
summertime is probably not the best idea, as most students aren’t
enrolled in the summer and will probably not be checking your pages
frequently.
 Likewise, if you’d like to run a photo contest, don’t schedule
it around a time like finals or midterms when students are
likely to be busy and stressed out.
 Chances are, they won’t have the time to really engage with your
Facebook photo contest and you’ll get a less than desirable turnout.
 Keeping a close eye on the academic calendar ensures that you’re
not wasting effort, and that you get the most mileage out of your
posts.
4. The Right Time
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Creating Social Content Around your Academic Calendar

7. Creating Social Content Around your Academic
Calendar
Slide 7
 If you’ve got a great new course that will be offered next
semester, start advertising it around the timeframe where
students are registering for next semester.
 Doing it sooner means people are going to forget by the time
registration rolls around, while later doesn’t do much good because
they’re unable to take action.
 Herzing College in Toronto tweeted about mock trials being
one of the many ways in which their Paralegal students get
hands-on training in March, around the time that applications
are being filled out by prospective students.
 This is a great way to give a little more information about your
program at a time where it’s going to be most considered.
 If a student is on the fence about where they want to attend school, a
well-timed tweet touting the benefits of your programs could be very
influential on their decision.
4. The Right Time
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Creating Social Content Around your Academic Calendar

8. Creating Social Content Around your Academic
Calendar
Slide 8
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