The United States has 130,930 K-12 schools alone as of 2020. Learning about reputation management for schools now will help you avoid trouble later on.
There is an average of 2,618 schools per state. Offering a quality education is always important, but so is maintaining a positive reputation.
A school’s reputation plays a major role in its success. How you manage a school’s reputation makes or breaks that success.
Here are the four elements of reputation management for schools:
- Public Image and Perception
Public image is the school equivalent of brand image in business. The public’s perception of a school significantly influences a school’s public image.
The media also shapes a school’s public image. How the media affects your school depends on the nature of the coverage. Positive publicity bolsters your school’s reputation while negative publicity undermines or harms it.
In 2020, almost 75% of high school students reported having negative feelings about school. Maintaining a constructive, caring school environment is most likely to positively influence students’ perceptions.
Reputation management companies stress the importance of schools publishing positive content and news. It also helps you detract attention from negative coverage. (More on that later.)
- School Mission and Values
Every school must have a clear, concise mission statement. A school’s mission represents the quality and type of education its staff and administrators (should) strive to achieve. It even markets a school to the audience it’s targeting.
What your formal mission statement looks like depends on your school’s values. Creating a list of school values gives you insight into how to promote your school and build its brand.
Always display your mission and values on the school website. It’ll give parents and students a clearer idea of what your school stands for.
- Accountability
Accountability is a critical part of life, and it’s important to model that behavior for students. Thus, it’s necessary to account for controversies, misunderstandings, and other problems that arise. How your school handles these difficult moments impacts its public image.
Transparency is the key to gaining public trust. Being as transparent and accountable as possible builds up the public’s trust, which benefits your public image.
- Responsibility
Taking responsibility for your school’s reputation means engaging in social listening. Social listening involves using social media to gain insight into what users are saying about your school. Reputation management software helps you identify/assess what content and conversations to listen to.
Better yet, look into professional reputation management for schools. Learn more about the best reputation management services for schools of all sizes through the previous link.
Posting consistently to school social media channels promotes your school. However, it only takes one bad word on social media to cause an uproar. Consulting with reputation management professionals is the most responsible thing you could do.
Take Advantage of Reputation Management
Do your best to respond to parents’ emails immediately. Responding to their questions and concerns in a polite, prompt manner is a form of reputation management in and of itself.
Maintaining a good reputation through online reputation management increases a school’s enrollment rate. It also strengthens a school’s traditions, legacy, and overall experience.
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