Education program targets parents through well thought-out Facebook page

Prior to creating a social media plan, School A to Z knew that forming communities and community building was crucial to its success. It understood that to reach parents, it had to become a part of the social space.

The resulting program won top honors in the 2011 Ragan Employee Communications Awards for Best Social Media Customer Relations Program.

School A to Z is a part of NSW Department of Education and Communities, an Australian-based program that offers parents educational resources.

School A to Z approached social media with the intention of using a personable, non-judgmental tone and a customer service-oriented attitude. The desire to offer practical advice to parents was something it hoped to provide on social networks.

It began the project with an understanding that engagement was key to its success. The goal of positioning School A to Z as a “go-to source of parent-friendly information about child learning, development and technology use” was also identified as crucial criteria for success.

To achieve these goals, School A to Z began listening. It monitored a number of diverse parent communities before a soft-launch of the Facebook page in 2011.

Posts were informed by discussions taking place in the education community. School A to Z implemented a team to observe and respond to questions promptly. A seven-day roster was adopted and team members resolved to respond to any questions/comments within 12 hours at the latest. It also made the smart decision of moving any contentious or more serious conversations offline.

School A to Z interacts with its audience through polls, links to timely information, resources, parent-related information from government agencies, and more. Site analytics show a rapid growth in its Facebook community and positive audience sentiment. School A to Z has also noticed increasing levels of community involvement and participation from members of its community.

To view the winning work please click here.