How to Use the New Instagram Quiz Sticker in Your School Marketing

Schools already on Instagram know it’s one of the most exciting social media platforms out there. Fresh and creative, the Instagram team are always looking for new ways to help you engage with your audience and keep those engagement levels high. And their latest Story sticker – the Quiz – is the perfect tool for schools to do just that! This new sticker allows you to create multiple-choice, trivia style quizzes that users can interact with in a fun and educational way! Heres how…

Getting Started with the Instagram Stories Quiz Sticker

If you’re on Instagram but haven’t started using Stories yet, now is the perfect time to get started! A Story is a 24-hour update that can be added to your profile and is a great opportunity to expand your school brand and highlight everything from a live event to an upcoming Open Day, but we won’t get into that now. Let me walk you through using the Story Quiz Sticker…

1. Ensure the App is Updated. If it’s been a while since you’ve updated the app, do that now as you may be missing out on some of the other great stickers -i.e. the Countdown (use this for your next Open Day!)
2. Upload Your Quiz Background. On your Instagram app, upload the photo, video or background that you want to use for your quiz.
3. Tap the Stickers Icon. Just like you would with any other sticker, tap the icon at the top of your screen to access the Quiz sticker.
4. Select the Quiz Sticker. If you don’t see it, go back to Step 1!
5. Brand your Quiz. Tap the colour wheel at the top to change your quiz colour.
6. Name your Quiz. This is your question and what visitors will see.
7. Add your Answers. Add between 2 to 4 answers by tapping the quiz box. Tap again to select the correct answer – it will change green (only you will see this). Like polls, when someone engages with your quiz, they’ll see the most popular as well as the correct answer. If they’ve answered correctly they’ll be rewarded with the ticker-tape animation to celebrate their success!
8. Monitor Engagement. As with polls, you’ll be able to see how many viewed and engaged with your Quiz – and their answers. This can provide you will valuable information on what others know or feel about your school. More on this later.

      

So that’s the technical bit about using the Quiz Sticker. Now let’s look at how you can use it in your school marketing…

How to Use Instagram Quiz Stickers in Your School Marketing

A few ideas spring to mind when I think about schools using this new tool and once you’ve had a play yourself I’m sure even more will come to you.

Engaging with Prospective Parents

As I mentioned Instagram Stories are a fantastic way to showcase your school and expand your reach. Brands using Stories not only see an increase of those viewing their profiles but a rise in Followers as well. So… what kind of quizzes/questions might work to capture the attention – and time – of a prospective parent in your next Story?

• Which of the facts is true about our school? Did you know The King’s School in Canterbury, England is the world’s oldest school (founded in 597 AD)? Why not share a fact about your school that you’re proud of.
• Which of these famous faces attended our school? Include a collage as your background image and tag those faces. There’s nothing like a ‘celebrity’ to boost exposure!
• Which of these awards has our school Won? Ok, a little shameless plugging, but why not have one of the answers be ‘All of the above’.
• Guess our GCSE pass rate. Stats don’t have to be boring when jazzed up in a quiz!
• Which won’t you see at our next Open Day? Throw something in there to give your audience a laugh and show your lighter side.

When using the new Quiz sticker to engage prospective parents you might even consider including a prize to up the engagement factor!

Engaging with Current Parents

With so much information that needs to be communicated to parents each week, it’s not surprising that recipients can tune out and become a bit oblivious to your messages. But what if you added another communication option that made it fun and interactive?

• Where can you purchase (add event name) tickets? Add a ‘sneak peek’ rehearsal image or video as your background to increase excitement around the event.
• What must every child bring to school tomorrow? Need students to return a form? Bring a book? Get creative with your reminders.
• Where can you find answers to (insert your most asked question)? Are parents always asking where they can find information no matter how many times you’ve sent that in your email communication? Remind them in a fun and memorable way where to go (no pun intended!).

I’m sure you’ll know more ways than I do how you can use this tool to communicate with your current parents. Why not give it a go!

Engaging with Current Students

Students love Instagram – even the younger ones. Dependent on their ages, there are so many fun ways you can use the Quiz stickers to engage with them…

• What two colours are mixed to create orange? A quiz can be educational as well. How many sides does a pentagon have? Which of these countries borders Germany? Of course, if you’re going to make it educational, make it fun as well, otherwise it’s just going to seem like homework.
• Where can you get extra guidance with your studies? Show you’re there for your students. Remind them where they can find extra support (it doesn’t hurt for prospective parents to see this either).
• What do you love most about our school? You can also use the Quiz to get feedback from students by using it as a survey tool. How many hours do they study each week? What would you like to see more of? Which do you find the most helpful? What’s their favourite cafeteria meal?

You might even get further engagement if you use Quizzes during your student takeover day. Let your students ask their peers. This could work for any age group and might prove to be fun for everyone!

Engaging with Alumni

Trivia-style quizzes are perfect for engaging with past students, giving them an opportunity to go down memory lane. A few ideas that come to mind …

• Guess the teacher? Building? Year? Add a picture as your background that’s relevant and see how clever your alumni are! First to get the correct answer gets free tickets to the next Alumni event??
• Where will the next alumni event be held? Make sure that this one is obvious. The last thing you want is someone who didn’t take the quiz going to the wrong venue.
• How can you contribute to our fundraising? Another ‘all of the above’ answer would make sense here. Make it as easy as possible to get those all important contributions!

Checking Your Results

To make the most of your Instagram Quiz, you want to be sure to track your results. To see how your quiz is doing, swipe up on your Story and there you’ll see your quiz views as well as who’s engaged and how they answered. Are the results indicating you need to work on your school’s brand awareness? If you’ve created a quiz that gathers some interesting feedback why not create a blog to share in a future story?

Pro Tips

A few last minute tips to maximise your reach and engagement using the Quiz Sticker:

• Include hashtags and mentions. You don’t need to limit your Story to the Quiz sticker only.
• If you’re really feeling creative, why not add a cover page and more than one Quiz at a time. Strike while the iron is hot!
• What about a short video asking the questions or reading the answers? This could be really fun coming from a student.

The possibilities really are endless for schools using this fun new sticker and I can’t wait to see how you’ll utilise it in your school marketing!

If you’re looking for assistance in growing your school’s online reach, visit my digital marketing services page to learn more about how I can help.