Instagram Resources

March: Music in Our Schools Month / Youth Art Month

• Showcase some student projects or a peek into a music class

March 3-7: National School Social Worker Week / National School Breakfast Week

• Have a social worker collect a few clips for a "Day in the Life" story or reel. They could also share a few tidbits as poll quiz questions as "Did you know?" for their role.
• Take a photo of students sharing what their favorite free school breakfast is!
• Share photos of breakfast options and create a poll/bracket challenge for the favorite breakfast!

Thursday, March 20: International Day of Happiness

• Ask students/teachers what makes them happy and share responses either with text on a photo of them, or put together into a short reel

Friday, April 4: National School Librarian Day

• Ask librarians what their favorite book in the media center is right now

Gen Z Marketing Script: Have a staff member talk about the building, a classroom, or activity using "trendy" lingo the youth are into.

Switch Up the Music: It's Music in Our School Month! Have a teacher teach a trendy song to play on traditional instruments. This video has 3.3 million views!

Walk-Up Songs: Grab a handful of teachers and ask what their walk-up song would be to hype them up entering the classroom.

Tell Us Something Good: How wholesome is this? I can imagine some cute answers from the littles, and inspiring things to look forward to from older students as well. Also a great option for International Day of Happiness!

All past editions of the Instagram Resources newsletters can now be found on the staff webpage! Click the button below to find all past newsletters for the year on the staff's Communications & Branding webpage. These can be helpful reminders (like how do I schedule that post, again?) or if a new staff member is going to begin managing an account.

Posts are the most straightforward way to share on Instagram, but not always the most effective. Take a look at the @stillwater834 account analytics below!

Nearly all of our views and interactions came from adding to our story and creating reels. A great reason to challenge for the use of more content across those two avenues!

Notice that majority of all story views are by our followers - this is why this is a great space to share those upcoming event reminders, compared to how reels attract a new audience.

These analytics can be found directly within Instagram. On a desktop, there is an option on the left of "Dashboard". Use the dropdown under "Insights" to view account and content analytics. The desktop app can filter analytics for the last 7, 14, 30, or 90 days.

For more in-depth analytics, go to your profile in the Instagram app and click "Professional Dashboard". There are options to sort analytics by Views, Interactions, Followers, or Content Shared.

For the most detailed analytics, search in Meta Business Suite on a computer. On the left panel, select "Insights". Both the Instagram app and Meta Business Suite can customize dates to generate analytics for - meaning you can see how well stats were over homecoming week, for a specific month, and more.

Periodically checking out analytics helps to recognize what content performs well on an account and what might need to be tweaked in the future.

What is AP Style? Associated Press (AP) style is the go-to English style and writing format for journalism and news writing.

All district communications utilize AP style. AP style dictates basic rules for grammar and punctuation, as well as specific styles for numbers, spelling, capitalization, abbreviations, acronyms, and much more. Below are some common things to know:

Dates:

• Six-digit school years: Ex. 2024-25, not 2024-2025
• Days of the week: Always include a day with a date and always spell days of the week out
• Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. are abbreviated as such
• Months from March to July are not abbreviated
• Months are only spelled out when accompanied by a year and no date. Ex: September 2024
• A year is not required: People know you're advertising for this Friday, March 21 in 2025 - not advertising for an event a year ahead in 2026.
• Never use "st", "nd", etc. after a date. Ex: do not say today is Monday, March 3rd, 2025 - is it simply Monday, March 3.
• Date resource HERE

Times:

• Always include a.m./p.m. - this is not PM/pm, always lowercase with periods
• Do not include :00 for even times
• If beginning and end times are both morning, or both evening, each time does not need a.m. indicators Ex. NOT 8 a.m. - 10 a.m.

The proper way to date an event is: Friday, Sept. 6 from 6-8 p.m.

Other:

• All numbers under 10 are spelled out except for times and ages
• Ex: The largest graduating class in six years; Five members of the swim team; A class of 6 year olds; The math team finished fifth in the state; Seventh graders
• Prices: No .00 is required after an even dollar amount. Ex: $5, not $5.00
• Number resource HERE

Brookview recently shared a video and photo carousel from their second grade music share. This post is up close to the action, features an easy to read caption, and explains about the event and staff involved. Great stuff!

See it here.

This is a great way to make an announcement for an upcoming event! Rather than a graphic, this shows happy students excited to participate. An engaging photo entices people to read the caption - helping the goal of informing them of what's coming up!

Check it out here.

Andersen recapped the week by sharing a carousel of photos with a short caption of the fun that was had that week! This included a variety of activities, a look inside the school, and helps parents see how their students spent some time that week.

Scroll through Andersen's week here.