Making a creative content plan
Challenge
Gateway Public Schools was struggling to stand out in a crowded landscape of San Francisco public education. As a tuition-free, college-preparatory charger school with both a middle and high school, Gateway offers a uniquely personalized experience marked by strong teacher retention, small community feel, and a curriculum designed to prepare every student for success. Despite these clear strengths, they faced difficulty communicating their distinct value to prospective families. They wanted a stronger presence, particularly on social media, to showcase what makes their classrooms, programs, and community so special. With multiple people managing their channels and no clear content strategy or brand alignment, they lacked the consistency needed to reach and resonate with their diverse audiences. Gateway needed a focused, strategic plan to help them tell their story more powerfully.
Strategy
We met with the Gateway team to understand their unique school culture, audience, and communication challenges. It quickly became clear that they needed a structured content development plan and clear social media guidelines to ensure consistency across platforms and among multiple contributors. We organized their storytelling into core content pillars such as student life, academics, and faculty to ensure broad, balanced coverage. From there, we identified sub-topics like athletics, ethnic studies, and teacher professional development to provide depth and showcase the richness of their program. Finally, we developed aligned messaging for each topoic area, helping the team speak clearly and cohesively about what makes Gateway exceptional.
Impact
We delivered a comprehensive social media content plan for the second half of the school year, complete with sample posts, content direction, and a clear posting schedule. Alongside this, we created tailored social media guidelines to align all contributors and ensure a consistent, on-brand presence across platforms. Together, these tools gave Gateway a more strategic and sustainable approach to social media, empowering their team to market the school more intentionally, consistently, and confidently to prospective families.
NOTE: In some cases, photos have been replaced with stock imagery to protect student privacy and content has been replaced with lorem ipsum.