During the presentation "Social Media in 2016" Mark Godenho raised the point that using social media is a critical tool to increase student engagement as well as attract more interest in the school. It was also mentioned that 3 things stop organisations from using social media:

• (1) No dedicated staff
  
• (2) Lack of relevant content and
  
• (3) Lack of understanding of the platform.
  

I was pleased to hear this, as it is one of the reasons why we developed Hail. It is a service that addresses these points. Hail is a collaborative service that allows all members of your school and the wider community to contribute content that can be easily shared through social media. Stories of staying in Christchurch, videos of the city and the learning environment at your school can be created. There is no need for dedicated staff, content is easy to create and there is no need to understand the complexities of social media as Hail does it all.

I briefly touched on using Hail as marketing tool and I gave this example of a High School using the service.

To increase the numbers of international students and be more selective on the students a Dunedin High School turned to Hail for a digital makeover. The school used Hail to create engaging digital publications for international agents/students, including videos from the students talking about their time at the school, student stories of the experience and an international welcome pack. Through the use of social media, newsletters and an up to date website the result was startling. A significant growth in the number of enquiries and doubling in international students.

The results was incredible by presenting ourselves as a Digital School. On one occasion we produced a digital publication featuring international students and prizegiving. Within 5 minutes of sharing this publication I had an email from Japan thanking us for sharing the news. Can't beat that endorsement.
— Deputy Principal

I certainly enjoyed meeting many of you at the conference. I am Christchurch based and I would welcome the opportunity to show you around Hail.

Stuart@hail.to
021 2700686