We are frequently asked about the necessity of school nutrition departments having their own marketing channels, and social media in particular. Districts often have Comms people or teams, and it feels like those people should be able to help manage nutrition outreach. The reality, however, is far different.

While there are many reasons to have your own channels, we’d like to share three of the primary reasons we advocate for nutrition departments to have their own social media channels.

Some things that restaurants do to market themselves are absolutely relevant to school nutrition, while others are distractions that take us away from what makes school nutrition unique.

School nutrition is a complex operation, and clarifying the most impactful areas for a busy audience comes with its own set of challenges.

That’s why we maintain strategic guidelines for our clients’ marketing that help to take the hundred things we want people to know about what we do and create compelling and confident messaging.

One of the biggest misconceptions we run into when talking about marketing is a client (or potential client) thinking that the process is about placing themselves at the center. But we are Obi-Wan Kenobi, not Luke Skywalker. Dumbledore, not Harry Potter.

Now is a time to communicate and tell our stories more than ever. If we are to ask our communities and co-workers outside of school nutrition to support us we need to make sure we’re sharing what we do.