Digital video has become one of the most popular and effective ways for brands to market themselves, and schools and districts are taking notice. Video allows you to show—rather than simply tell—all the great things happening in your district and what students and alumni are doing. It can help you form stronger bonds with your entire school community.  

Are you ready to add video to your engagement strategy? Here are some ideas for your consideration:

Recruit new members

Video is a dynamic, engaging way to capture the attention of your target audience. You can make a quick connection and encourage viewers to join your alumni network, get involved with your schools or donate money to a capital campaign. If appropriate, end each video with a strong call to action.

Ask alumni to submit their favorite memories

Create a social media campaign asking alumni to record themselves sharing their memories of attending your school(s), from the first day of kindergarten to high school graduation. Use a different prompt each month and ask alumni to share by tagging your profile and using your hashtag.

Encouraging your alumni to submit their own videos not only facilitates a two-way interaction with your audience, but it also helps you generate video content without high production costs.

Livestream events

Livestream is becoming an increasingly popular way for family and alumni to participate in school activities if they are unable to attend in person. Graduations are a prime example of an event people want to watch, but may be unable to attend for a variety of reasons.

One successful example is Klein Independent School District in Texas. The district does an excellent job using livestreams to engage their community.

Create short videos for holidays

If your school does a holiday pageant or rally, compile a video with highlights from the event. Include images and video from past holidays, as well. Record staff extending holiday wishes.

This can extend to silly holidays, too—your cafeteria staff might have a message to share on National Hamburger Day!

Use video as an invitation

Leverage video to create snazzy invitations to your events. You can add several images to a reunion invite and show off the venue to make for more engaging messaging. This video can appear on numerous channels in the lead up to the event, including social media, a district website and email newsletters.

Highlight notable alumni

Go one step further beyond a column in your newsletter to highlight alumni through video. Ask them to film a quick interview describing what they are doing today and how your schools prepared them for success after graduation.

Design a video for your fundraising campaign

Asking for donations from your audience is a delicate balance. One of your goals is generating money, but you don’t want to ask too often. Video is an effective way to demonstrate to alumni why they want to donate and where their funds are going.

There are simple and cost-effective ways to get started, such as livestreaming and user-generated content. Pay attention to how well your video content does versus text- or image-only, and you’ll likely notice an improvement in your community and alumni engagement efforts.

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