Which social media should you use to market a language school?
Which social media should you use to market a language school?
Gina Rodriguez Social media is the perfect ally to market your language school or your freelance services. Your prospective students and current students spend a lot of their time on social networks every day. If you are planning to market your language school on social media, then you need to decide which social network you should use to market your language services. This is fundamental to ensure the success of your language school’s marketing.
There are so many social media channels available that it’s normal to feel a bit unsure about which social media channel to use for your language school marketing. Besides, each platform has its own dynamics, style and user types to take into consideration. All you want is to be in the right place with the right message to intersect your ideal students.
Therefore, choosing the right social network(s) is an important step towards making the most of your time and energy to promote your language school. In this article, I won’t tell you which is the best network (and you’ll understand why) for you but I will share some steps, strategies and advice so that you can make a personalized and informed decision that is unique to you.
“Businesses need to be aware of these nuances when deciding to invest in social media marketing on a platform since it could impact how well their marketing efforts do”
Forbes
To get started focus on the following three main points to decide which social network you should use for your language school:
- Your objectives
- Your target student’s profile
- The social networks’ styles
1. Objectives of your language school marketing
Defining your objectives will help you be more focused on the choice and use of the social network. It will also be easier for you to measure the effectiveness of being on social media later.
Your objectives along with other variables will determine whether you go into one social network instead of another. For the sake of illustrating the importance of deciding early on your objectives, imagine that it is like deciding your destination for a trip. If you know where you want to go, then you can choose the best route to get there (your social network) based on the time and resources available.
Some objectives for your language school or freelancer services could be:
- Getting more students for a specific EFL course
- Increasing your visibility online
- Building a good online reputation.
Three different objectives, three different destinations and so three different roads to take.
Whatever the objectives you identify, remember that for each one you will need an outline of the typical student’s profile or “target audience”.
2. Target Student’s profile
Understanding your target student’s profile deeply is paramount. It’s what will put you on the right track toward the choice of the ideal social network. In marketing your target audience profile is called your “buyer personas”. You should think of it as a “fact file” of the type of person that would typically need your language services.
A social media marketing strategist studies those profiles in detail going from age, gender, and habits to also analyzing needs, aspirations, challenges and so on.
For example, if your objective is to enrol more students in your IELTS course, then you need to create your IELTS students’ personas. To do so, you will want to gather as much info as possible about the typical IELTS student. For example:
- How old is he/she?
- Which social network does he/she use the most? What for?
- What challenges does he/she have as a student?
- Why does she/he need IELTS?
- What does getting a good IELTS score mean to him/her?
Sound time-consuming? Actually, the good news is that you probably have most of this information already! My advice is to check that you have a complete picture of your “buyer personas”. If you’re missing some pieces of info then do invest some time to do a thorough outline of your students’ personas. This is very similar to doing a needs analysis when you’re planning a course.
I’d suggest also doing a little research with your current students by having a conversation in class about their social media habits. This simple classroom activity will give you a feel of which network to choose.
Time spent on this phase is an investment that will pay off in the long run.
3. Networks
Most of us are on social networks so you know them already as a user. For a better return on your time and energy, explore them from a marketing perspective. In other words, look at them in more detail and in view of user types, activities and expectations. Here’s a summary to help you:
Used by everyone, predominantly 35- 65+ years old, mostly by men
Used to search for services, get information and for groups.
Good for sharing school’s announcements, reminders and for ads.
Younger users, most of them are women, aged 25-50 year-olds
Highly visual, a dynamic platform used for inspiration, motivation.
Good for school’s storytelling, attracting & engaging with students.
Predominately populated by 25 – 35-year-olds. A social network for your career.
Professional platform used for networking & to learn about market trends.
Good for building relationships and boosting reputation with ELT players.
TikTok
The youngest audience, the average user age is 12 years.
Dance app with video content that can be funny and very creative . Extremely popular.
Good for fun videos for students: study tips, language explanations #LearnOnTikTok
Used by literally every single person of any age. For mobiles but can be used from desktop too.
The most widely used messaging app that integrates well with Facebook and Instagram
Good for FAQs, and faster customer support, to help drive traffic to the website.
How do I choose the right social network?
There are many social networks out there but you don’t need to be on every platform. Each one has its own dynamics, style and user type as you can see here above.
By understanding which age group each platform attracts, what the users are there for and matching this information to your personas you will find out the right social network for your ELT business.
So for our IELTS student who is a 20-year-old man, he’s highly likely to be on Instagram. He might be on TikTok and check it every day. He might also be on Facebook but hardly ever uses it and he will certainly have Whatsapp and check it several times during the day.
Which social media should you choose to market a language school then? Choosing the right social network for your ELT business is very much based on making sure you get your message out to the right student on the right platform. By cross-checking the information you’ve gathered about students’ personas, networks’ dynamics and your objectives you are now ready to choose the right social network(s). The result of this analysis will also help you make better decisions on the type of content you will need to promote your language school. Generating post ideas will be the next step and here you can find a worksheet to help you brainstorm ideas.
At this point, I hope you feel more confident in taking the right steps to choose the right social network for your ELT business. Block some time and go through the analysis to discover the ideal social network(s) for your language services. It’s the route towards exciting results and success!
Would you like to start marketing your ELT Services on the right platform? Contact me for a consultancy session and save hours of trial and error!