Effective Public Relations and Promotion to Enhance Your Program

As real estate agents live by the mantra "location, location, location," school counselors can embrace the "three promotes" PR strategy: promote yourself, promote your program and promote your events. Just as a prime location can make or break a property’s value, strategic promotion is essential to ensuring that your school counseling services are visible, accessible and valued by the school community. By actively promoting yourself, your program and your events, you can increase awareness, foster stronger relationships, boost engagement and maximize the impact of your school counseling program.
 

 
Reaching Your Target Audience
A target audience is the specific group of people your message is intended to reach. This can include students, parents, teachers, administrators and community members. Before starting your outreach, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Who is your target audience? Understanding the individuals who directly benefit from your programs and events allows you to tailor your messages and select the best communication methods to engage them effectively.
2. How do you reach your target audience? Send a brief survey to the school community to determine their preferred communication method (e.g., social media, email, text message). This helps ensure you reach your audience through the channels they engage with most. View an example survey
3. What is your takeaway message to your target audience? Using the PR inverted pyramid approach can help you structure messages effectively. Start with the most crucial information, follow with supporting details and end with background information that is useful but optional. Keeping key points up front makes your messages clear and accessible.

 
Promoting Yourself
Promoting yourself as a school counselor is essential for helping students and families feel comfortable seeking your support. Establishing a visible presence builds trust and rapport, making engaging with you more accessible.

• Use your yearbook photo as a headshot to create a professional and recognizable image. Add your headshot to your website, presentations and promotional materials to increase familiarity.
• Incorporate your personality into your office décor to create a welcoming environment that resonates with students, helping them see you as approachable and encouraging conversation.
• Display your degrees and certifications in your office. As it does for other professionals, displaying your credentials can instill confidence and trust in your expertise.

 
Promoting Your Program
Promoting your program raises awareness of available services, ensuring the school community knows where to turn for academic, social/emotional and postsecondary support.

• Maintain an easy-to-navigate school counseling website. Include information on services, resources, upcoming events and your professional headshot with contact details. Free website-building platforms like Wix, Weebly and Google Sites simplify establishing and updating a website without prior experience.
• Include program updates in existing school newsletters and websites to reach your school community without overwhelming them with additional communications.
• Present program highlights at faculty and leadership meetings to keep staff informed. Share your yearly counseling calendar, intervention results and new program offerings.
• Engage your advisory council to share your data, brainstorm new ideas, promote events and provide feedback about existing programs.
• Create short videos showcasing your counseling program’s services and available resources. User-friendly platforms like iMovie, Flip and TikTok make it easy to produce and share videos that can be posted on social media, embedded in emails or added to your website.

 

 
Promoting Events
When promoting events, utilize the survey results to reach your target audience through their preferred communication channels. This approach helps boost attendance and participation by ensuring your audience knows when and where these events will occur and the benefits of attending.

• Incorporate details about events into classroom and parent presentations to keep students and families directly informed.
• Publish a thorough events calendar on your website with names, dates, locations, brief descriptions and links for further information. Use platforms like Google Docs or Microsoft Documents for instant updates that are automatically reflected on your site.  
• Display visually engaging, self-running PowerPoint slides featuring QR codes on school hallway TVs. This setup will capture students’ attention throughout the day, allowing them to easily access event details directly from their phones.
• Send concise emails with headers, bullet points and links to event details for easy readability.
• Announce events on the school’s morning broadcast to reach students daily.
• Design professional-looking promotional flyers using free, user-friendly websites like Canva, PosterMyWall and Piktochart, which require no prior design experience.
• Promote events through social media. Create a flyer with your social media handles, including it in all your presentations, and offer incentives such as gift cards and school swag to increase followers. Keep messages brief, add links to more details using URL shorteners like bit.ly or TinyURL, and consider asking school social media influencers (e.g., student council leaders, PTSA) to repost events for broader reach.

Access a complete list of resources.
 
Betsy Alpert, Ed.D., NCC, is a high school counselor at in Cobb County, Ga.