Loyal School District scores high on social media report card

In an increasingly online world, people often turn to social media for the latest news. The Loyal School District has been using a company called SocialSchools4Edu to learn how to better use social media to share its success stories with the community.

SocialSchools4Edu recently provided the school with a “social media report card,” capturing the last quarter for which it had data, November 2022 through January 2023. Loyal School District Administrator Chris Lindner shared the report card findings at the last school board meeting in February. The data showed that despite Loyal’s small size, it has a more engaged online audience than many bigger school districts.

Of 55 Wisconsin school districts served by SocialSchools4Edu, with enrollment counts ranging from 265 to 4,987, Loyal has the seventh-lowest enrollment at 492. However, among those 55 districts, Loyal ranked 31st for the number of Facebook followers. When adjusting for school enrollment, Loyal tied for the fifth-highest number of Facebook followers per student. Loyal has about 5.5 followers per student. New Auburn is the highest at 8.6, Prairie Farm has 6.6., Fall Creek has 6.4 and Plum City has 5.5 like Loyal. The largest school district served, Chippewa Falls (enrollment 4,987), only has 1.6 followers per student.

The Loyal School District reached an average of 13,633 Facebook users every month, the 29th-highest of the 55 schools, despite being in the bottom 20 percent in terms of enrollment.

When adjusted per student, Loyal had the sixth-highest Facebook reach of any school. That was equal to 27.7 users reached per student. The districts with the highest reaches were New Auburn, 40.5 reached per student; Plum City, 36.4; Prairie Farm, 31.4; and Port Edwards, 30.5.

Loyal had more Facebook followers than nearby districts of Neillsville, Pittsville, Edgar and Marathon.

The Loyal School District’s Facebook page has 2,698 followers. It saw an increase of 73 followers over the last quarter. The most popular posts in the last quarter were a school cancellation announcement on Dec. 13, which reached 3,355 users, and a new teacher welcome announcement, which reached 3,893 users.

On Instagram, the school district has 791 followers. It gained four followers in the last quarter. The average monthly reach is 530 users. The school district has 104 Twitter followers. It lost eight followers over the last quarter. It has 724 tweet impressions on average per month.