Articles

AI in Education Marketing​

Written by Clare Louise Ward

 

As the social media landscape has changed dramatically over the last 18 months, arguably the most significant adjustment has come from the tech companies themselves. Ensuring that every image uploaded, is now scanned by algorithms for “learning”, puts every image and person in that image, at risk. But arguably the biggest risk of all, is uploading images with children as the focus.

 

When creating any content for education sector, the founding marketing principle has previously been, “capture the smiling faces”, so selling your school through the enjoyment of pupils has been the golden rule. However as of November 2024, 92% of organisations are already using AI for Marketing and PR (Jyoti, 1AD). 

This significant rise in the use of AI encourages algorithms to not only learn and adapt faster than most humans but now are providing easier access to anyone choosing to generate indecent images using user uploaded photographs as the “starting point”.

 

So, what is the solution, how can we promote healthy marketing while still ensuring pupil safety? 

The answer is of course, be creative. 

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Firstly, go back to the original idea of ‘stock images’ which are relevant to your school or setting. This means use new photos of the facilities, share no-named artwork, trophies and have every post subtly pointing towards your USP. 

For example, if your school is a world class ballet school, your USP would be the rarefied education, the studio facilities, the worldclass pastoral care which supports aspiring dancers. 

All of these examples can be shown with a child’s point shoe, a wide shot of an empty studio and a close up of juice and biscuits in a child’s hand. 

 

The second solution is to be creative with the teacher/staff led content.

While it might be hard to convince teachers and staff to be in front of the camera at the start, giving them forewarning about when you will be turning up and offer them say over which photographs or videos are use in the end. Allowing this choice can encourage more adults into appear in content. 

Equally profiles on specialist teachers have proved extremely popular with both current and prospective parents. Showcasing teacher credentials has been a wonderful way to engage and soft way of encouraging enquiries about open days and meet the teacher events.  

 

But these two … are just the start of what each marketing department could be including in their marketing strategies.

 

It would normally be at this point I would add in a relevant article or campaign which you could research, but quite frankly, with the problem evolving so fast, any data shared will be woefully out of date the minute it is published. 

Alas, the biggest piece of advice I can offer is, if it feels like something needs to change in your strategy, do it today. The marketing industry has always been fast paced and so should all of our marketing strategies, but ultimately keeping children’s safety should always be of the utmost priority of every school and company, no matter what the tech companies want you to believe.

 

If you would like to know more about the social media solution, do reach out to find out how I can support your evolving strategy.

 

Sources

Jyoti, R. (1AD). 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, Generative AI Delivering New Business Value and Increasing ROI. [online] IDC, Microsoft Marketing Assets: InfoBrief, sponsored by Microsoft, pp.1–47. Available at: https://marketingassets.microsoft.com/gdc/gdcflXNT6/original [Accessed Sep. 30AD].

 

Howarth, J. (2024). 80+ AI Stats: Market Size, Growth & Business Use (2022). [online] Exploding Topics. Available at: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/ai-statistics.