This High School’s Social Media Is Run by Students
I talk to the Archer School For Girls about their Content Creators Crew program and helping teens hone their digital literacy skills.
Last year, an unexpected video came across my TikTok FYP. It was from The Archer School For Girls, a private middle and high school in Los Angeles, and featured students interviewing other students about their favorite spots on campus. Why was the school I grew up playing sports against showing up on my feed at the big age of 34? When I scrolled, I found a Nicole Kidman AMC commercial spoof and “guess the lyric” game for Spirit Week. The account appeared to be totally run by students.
I reached out to Archer to understand their strategy more and learned they have a Content Creators Crew program where students can apply to help run the school’s social media. The team behind the program actually built a curriculum that helps students critically analyze content and develop responsible social media use practices.
Below you’ll find my conversation with Rachael Uriarte, Director of Communications and Strategic Marketing, and Amanda Ryvkin, Associate Manager of Communications & Strategic Marketing, at Archer. We talk about the role of social media for a school, helping students hone their digital literacy skills, and more.
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Rachel Karten: First can you tell me a bit about your roles?
Rachael Uriarte: As the Director of Communications and Strategic Marketing, I oversee our social media as part of our overall departmental strategy. Although I have worked at two other independent and private schools as a Director of Marketing and Communications, my current position is the first time that I have had the agency to develop a comprehensive strategy specifically for social media.
Amanda Ryvkin: I’m currently the Associate Manager of Communications & Strategic Marketing at The Archer School for Girls, and among other responsibilities, I manage the day-to-day strategy and execution for all of our social media accounts, from content calendars, to shooting video, to online community management. I also oversee and lead our Content Creators Crew, which is made up of students who collaborate with us to create social media content.
RK: How would you describe Archer's social strategy?
RU: Archer’s social media is part of our larger strategy of audience development and engagement. We’re not trying to explicitly market the school; rather, we see social platforms as a way of building authority as a leading organization in our industry through authentic storytelling.
AR: Whether it be through classroom updates, behind the scenes videos, or Archer-ified trends, social media is a place for us to connect with our community—current, alum, and prospective parents and students—and engage in larger conversations about girls’ education. We are also really intentional about what content we post to which platform, based on who we think the content will most resonate with.
RK: I recently came across Archer's social because I was served a TikTok of students interviewing other students. Can you talk to me about the Content Creators Crew initiative you mentioned?
AR: The Content Creators Crew is a program our department officially launched this year (after some beta testing last year) for students to participate in and collaborate with our department on content for social media. Students can pitch ideas, participate in, and with advanced permission (because we have a no phone policy at school), shoot/edit videos that we then help further edit and publish to Archer's TikTok, Instagram, and/or YouTube Shorts.
It’s a great opportunity for students to get hands-on experience in content creation, connect with other students, and have a chance to have a voice in our communications. We’ve also developed a curriculum for the program that helps students hone their digital literacy skills, critically analyze content, understand how social media works, and develop responsible social media use practices.
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RK: Have you noticed any uptick in students who are curious about how social media works in a more professional sense? What sparked the idea for creating the program?
AR: We have had some students who have expressed interest in working in social media, but the sense that I get is that for the most part, the students who want to participate in the Content Creators Crew just really enjoy social media and want to create fun videos. We launched the Content Creators Crew because we wanted to make sure that our social media felt authentic to our students and their experiences. Who better to be the face of Archer than our own students? Also, who would know better what sort of content our students are interested in? Seeing themselves and their friends represented on Archer’s feed excites our current students and really offers a look into what it’s like on campus.
RU: Schools across the country have various ways of approaching how they involve students for their social media. Some have fully student-run socials, while others are run strictly by the school’s administration. I would add that Archer’s Content Creator Crew was designed to be a medium between the unpredictable nature of having it purely student run, and the sterility of having someone who purely sees it as a way for marketing. We also saw it as a great opportunity to integrate digital literacy skills.
RK: Do students apply to be a part of it? What does that process look like?
AR: Students in grade 10-12 are invited to apply to join. As part of the application process, students are asked to share what skills they would bring to the team and why they want to join. They then upload a video audition where they respond to a prompt, which allows us to see what their comfort level on camera is, as well as what their skills are when it comes to filming. Students are required to be in good academic and behavioral standing in order to join and participate.
RK: Are you able to share some of the curriculum? What skills are the students learning?
AR: The Content Creators Crew meets about once a month. Earlier this year, I had students bring in videos that they liked and we analyzed what they enjoyed about the videos, what kind of content buckets the videos fell into, and how ideas from each video could be adapted to work on Archer’s social—how can we take this idea and align it with our brand and our brand values? I also did an overview of framing, aspect ratio, and video quality recommendations when shooting video content. Some of the other topics we’re planning to cover include crafting social media hooks and diving into how social media algorithms work.
RU: This year, Archer became a phone-free campus. Our Head of School, Elizabeth English, and our Upper School Director, Maggie Cenan, both saw the Content Creator Crew as an opportunity to shift how teen girls approach social media in their free time. You get to be a part of the Crew and make fun videos, but how do we approach this as a healthy learning experience too?
RK: Is there a recent post you are proud of? How did it come together?
AR: I worked with one of the Content Creators Crew students on a “Gen Z Writes the Script” video, where she and I collaborated on the script. We had our Director of College Guidance read it on camera, and people have responded really well to it! I think the students really love seeing faculty in a new light and even audiences who don’t know Archer can appreciate the silliness of the video, while learning more about the school.
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RU: The “Gen Z Writes the Script” video is universally a favorite at Archer. But I’m going to go with our mascot doing the Charlie XCX Apple Dance on our Instagram Reels. The students don’t actually know who is in that Panther costume doing the dance which adds to why I love it!
RK: I looked up other schools on social media and it seems like the world of middle and high school social is particularly hard to crack online. What have been some of the roadblocks?
RU: Personally, there are only a handful of schools that I’ve seen that have solid and coherent social media strategies. I think a lot of schools see social media as more of a chore than anything else. They’re on it because they feel like they have to be on it.
That being said, we're not in an easy industry to utilize social media to its full potential. The roadblock which is most obvious is that our content features children. I don’t think I have to get into all the ways it makes it awkward for people who are not actively looking into educational institutions to follow or engage with content. Higher Ed institutions have a slightly easier time with this because everyone’s an adult.
RK: Finally, you talk about how this program helps students hone their digital literacy skills. I am wondering if this feels particularly important in this moment where we see the effects social media can have on teens and their mental health.
RU: As a school, we are extremely aware and wary of the many detrimental effects of social media, but also understand that social media is going to be a part of many teenagers' lives no matter what.
Social media, at its essence, is neither good nor bad. It's a lack of education and digital literacy that causes many of the negative impacts it has on people using it. Beneficially, with proper understanding of how it actually functions and works, I think that it can be and is used in today's society as a tool. Part of the goal of the Content Creators Crew is to reframe and educate students about how to utilize it rather than be passive users.
AR: It is important to us to help students understand the platforms they're using, and how they can be used and consumed in a healthy way. We want to help prepare them to be conscious digital citizens.
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Came to learn about Archer’s strategy & program, and got the Dash report as a treat 🥰
wow i looooooove this