Olivia Backus

09 / Social · Strategy · Analytics

Turns out, paying attention pays off.

Managing social media for a school district means figuring out what thousands of families, teachers, and community members actually want to see. And trust me, they're not all interested in the same things.

I started paying closer attention to what people reacted to, when they were online, and which posts got them talking. Then I adjusted how I approached our content.

  • +36.7%total interactions
  • +25.4%average interactions per post
  • +110.1%comments

Interactions include reactions, comments, and shares. These compare two equal 827-day periods, before and during my employment at Perry Township Schools.

See the district page

Timing

When should I post?

I noticed families seemed to interact more during the school day.

That made sense. Teachers sometimes check social media before school or during lunch, and people share things with friends or coworkers throughout the day.

So I started paying more attention to publishing times.

I don’t have one magical posting time that I follow. I still switch things up, try different times, and watch what happens.

Frequency

More posts doesn’t automatically mean better results.

We published 629 posts in the earlier window and 686 in the later one. That is +9.1% more content. Total interactions increased +36.7%.

Growth across the same two windows
  • Posts, 629 to 686+9.1%
  • Interactions+36.7%

The interaction growth was considerably larger than the increase in publishing. I am not saying that posting a little more often caused it.

Content

What do people actually care about?

I paid attention to what people responded to. Student achievements, school culture, personal stories, community moments, and information families actually needed.

Different posts work for different reasons. A celebration and a weather update are not the same job.

  • Student dancers on stage at the Perry Meridian Cultural Showcase

    March 10, 2026 · School culturePerry Meridian High School’s Cultural Showcase. 4,974 interactions. One post can carry a lot of a period, which is why I also look at the average.

  • June 2, 2025 · Student recognitionFive Southport High School CIP graduates, celebrated with friends, families, and educators. 1,155 interactions.

  • March 6, 2025 · Student storyMang Par’s path from a newcomer classroom at Abraham Lincoln Elementary into the rest of her school story. 1,139 interactions.

  • January 5, 2025 · Operational updateAn e-learning announcement for inclement weather. Families needed the information that day. 909 interactions.

Average interactions on photo posts
  • 2023134
  • 2025191

Photo-labeled posts averaged about 134 interactions in 2023 and about 191 in 2025. Meta’s photo label covers albums and single images together.

And then

What I’ve learned.

There’s no magic formula for making people care about a Facebook post. And if there is, somebody should really let me know.

What I’ve learned is that the little things matter. When something gets posted. How a story is told. Whether someone has a reason to share it.

I pay attention, make adjustments, and keep trying things. Because what worked last month might not work next month.

About the data.

Apr 3, 2022–Jul 7, 2024, then Jul 8, 2024–Oct 12, 2026. Same length: 827 days. Counts are lifetime interactions on posts published in each window, not activity that happened to fall inside those dates.

Older posts have had longer to collect activity. The newest posts have had less time. This is a read of the page, not a test that isolates one change. The results reflect the team, the platform, and the work. They are not exclusively mine.

Instagram comments are turned off on the district account, so Facebook is the clearer view of public conversation for this analysis. Exported publishing hours are in the workbook, but the timezone is not confirmed, so I am not charting them as a local schedule.

Spotlight is a separate campaign, with its own sample.