The way that schools communicate is changing. Sending a newsletter home with a student is no longer enough to keep everyone informed. Parents expect more communication, as does the community. Attracting enrollments requires a robust approach focused on building trust, awareness, and creating preference for your school. Add to this, loud opinions online, amongst communities and in the media can either boost or devastate a school, meaning that you need a strong PR strategy that fosters good public relationships and protects your reputation. This includes positive media coverage, a carefully curated social media presence, and credibility from industry leaders and those with influence in the education sector to develop brand awareness and advance your school’s mission. We’re so confident in our ability to help your school, that we offer a media coverage guarantee or we work for free. Here’s everything you need to know about creating a public relations plan for schools.
The Importance of PR Within Schools
Public relations is not just for politicians and businesses. Public relations, in particular media relations, is a tool that can help the education sector earn (and rebuild) the trust and attention it deserves. The key to an effective PR campaign for schools is underpinned by strong reputation management coupled with positive PR to become an institution people know, like, and trust. When you’ve nailed your public relations strategy, you can achieve:
Differentiation
With many schools in competition, it’s important to outline what makes your school different. What does the school or college want to be known for? Its superior sporting facilities and achievements? Its pastoral care? Its award-winning STEM programs? Its diverse and inclusive faculty and student body? Make your PR and branding relevant to that focus.
Connection
It’s easy to share communications with students, parents and teachers but what about other key influencers? A great public relations plan will reach a broad range of major and minor stakeholders including those within your school and the wider community. even those who don’t have a stake in the school, building a larger community of support.
Credibility
A strong public image relies on credibility and trust. An effective public relations strategy will reach out to credible third-party sources to build your reputation and increase brand awareness. Sharing events, inspiring stories, profiling your leadership and skilled teaching staff, and more can showcase the success of your school, and build credibility and trust within your community.
Planning Crisis Communications
You cannot always prevent a crisis from occurring, but you can ensure that you are prepared for when it strikes. It’s critical that schools remain one step ahead and are able to very quickly decide which information is going to be shared publicly, and which should be kept internally. Whether internal or external crises, you’re almost guaranteed to be faced with challenges and you need to manage public relations carefully. With a crisis communications plan, you can get ahead of the game and be ready for when an issue or reputational threat strikes. Protect the reputation and public image of your school, and encourage calm and cooperation by following a carefully laid out crisis plan instead of acting under pressure.
Developing an Effective PR Plan for Schools
There are several steps involved in creating a PR plan for schools that can help you weather challenging times and celebrate great ones.
- Define your school’s mission ensuring that it is aligned with the values that your school stands for
- Select your initial goals ensuring that they are realistic and quantifiable
- Develop your campaigns considering your objectives, target audience and key messages
- Set achievable deadlines considering any synergies that you could take advantage of
- Pick the case studies from teachers to community members, parents and students
Work With Public Relations Experts
PR should be part of your toolbox when you reach out to the wider community. Reputation is not bought, it is earned, so start as early as possible to ensure you can be the author of your own story. Done right, PR allows you to share that narrative to ensure people know, like and trust you. An experienced PR firm in Australia will have the skills, expertise and experience needed to establish a public relations plan for schools that guarantees results. From brand awareness to reputation management, communications strategies to issues management, they’ll help you focus on achieving your goals. We’re so confident in our ability to help your school that we guarantee media coverage or we work for free.
For more information, get in touch with Pure Public Relations today. Ensure that your school reaches its optimal potential with our team of experts by your side.
