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Locked Out? Navigating a Locked-Out School Social Media Account

July 12, 2023

By Nikki Svec

It’s never fun being locked out. Whether it’s locked out of the house, or locked out of a social media account, the frustration of not being able to get into a desired space happens to us all. When it comes to school social media accounts, it is all too common for a district to get locked out most often due to employee turnover. While it may be enticing to simply use your existing social media platforms and avoid the locked-out platform all together, it is important that your district is using all communication platforms to amplify important information. When all attempts at accessing the account have proven unsuccessful, a new page will inevitably have to be created. 

 

Here are some tips to navigating a locked-out school social media account and best ways to avoid a future lockout:

 

1. Email/Password Management

 

Before you get started developing the new account, create or use an email that is specifically for your district’s social media. Avoid future lockouts by refraining from using employee email addresses to create the account. Be sure to update the master list of social media account emails and passwords when you are done. 

2. Handle

 

When it comes to creating a new handle, developing one that is as clear, concise and abbreviated as possible is key. While it may be tricky coming up with a duplicate handle name, avoid using numbers. Using the name of the existing handle with the addition of an underscore may be the closest option you have to maintaining the original name.

 

3.Consolidating accounts

 

Now that your new account has been set up, connect the other appropriate district social media platforms so they are all in sync. That way, you can easily post across all platforms if you are using a social media management tool like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Mention. 

 

4. Promotional Posts 

 

Let the followers of your other social media accounts know about the page via a cross promotional strategy. If you are launching a new FB page for example, create a post that encourages people to follow the new page. Make it easy for them by including the name of the handle on the image of the post and include a link in your Instagram for the Facebook account. You can host multiple links in your Instagram bio with the linktree option, making it possible to direct your followers to your website along with all social media platforms. 

 

5. Community Engagement


Encourage key school leaders, parent ambassadors, and community affiliates to promote the new account on their social media pages. This will bring awareness to the page and increase your followers. Create groups on your new social media account and invite followers on your existing pages to join relevant groups, such as parent groups or sports groups depending on the social media platform. A social media challenge could be helpful to accelerate your following. For example, create a challenge rewarding your followers for following and reposting a promotional post about the new account. 

 

Now that you know what to do in the instance of a social media lockout, you can work proactively so that your school district can avoid the hassle in the future. 

 

Tagged back to school, crisis communications, school public relations, school social media, social media

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