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How to Create a Great YouTube Channel for Your School

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By Jay Cooper
Jan 10, 2024 8:00:00 AM

Setting up a Youtube channel for your school is an excellent way to promote engagement and showcase the school's achievements. The process is very straightforward. You can visit YouTube Help and follow a series of prompts to set up your channel. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind while setting up the channel.

It's important to create a dedicated Google account for your school. This will help you control who has access to posting videos. You should also select all the activities that people can perform on your channel, such as liking, commenting, and subscribing to the channel, as it promotes engagement. In case you want to restrict comments, you can always moderate them.

 You have the option of making your channel public, private or unlisted. It is recommended that you choose the public option as it is the easiest to manage and is best for search-ability. However, some experts recommend setting up an unlisted channel to share the link directly without making the content searchable. With an unlisted channel, permission to subscribe is not required.


Survey says: it's time for video

SchoolNow recently surveyed over 125 schools and what’s clear is that most school administrators, teachers and parents are currently seeking more effective ways to communicate, and video – be it for learning or other school communications – is an engaging, efficient method.

As more and more schools launch the standard social media plays: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Youtube is gaining traction as the natural way to tell your school stories in what's perhaps everyone's favorite medium – short videos.

As Jake Sturgis points out in his Video Tips to Tell Your School Stories article, video is perhaps the most compelling way for your school stories to resonate with your audiences.  A Youtube channel provides almost unlimited live streaming and archived recording options. Zoom, Facebook Live, self-produced video and Youtube itself – whether streamed live or recorded – are all great sources of video content that can be organized and shared readily from your Youtube channel.

Follow these four simple steps, and you'll have your school Youtube channel up and running in no time.

1. Set up your school Youtube channel

Setting up a Youtube channel for your school is an excellent way to promote engagement and showcase the school's achievements. The process is very straightforward. You can visit Create a Youtube Channel and follow a series of prompts to set up your channel. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind while setting up the channel.

It's important to create a dedicated Google account for your school. This will help you control who has access to posting videos. Secondly, you should select all the activities that people can perform on your channel, such as liking, commenting, and subscribing to the channel, as it promotes engagement. In case you want to restrict comments, you can always moderate them.

You have the option of making your channel public, private or unlisted. It is recommended that you choose the public option as it is the easiest to manage and is best for search-ability. However, some experts recommend setting up an unlisted channel to share the link directly without making the content searchable. With an unlisted channel, permission to subscribe is not required.

2. Set production standards for school Youtube videos

Once you have your channel set up, you’re ready to start making videos.

Of course, that may sound easier said than done. After all, you’re not a film maker. Maybe you struggle with a selfie, let alone filming a decent-looking video. Don’t worry. It’s not as hard as you think. In fact, many teachers, administrators, and students find that making the video is actually a lot of fun.

You want to establish some standards for production quality, but at the same time, you don't want to discourage contributions. Here are a few tips to get you started on Youtube video production.

Most smartphones are capable of producing good video. You don’t need an expensive camera system to shoot your own videos. Smartphones have advanced to the point that they’re fully capable of capturing high-quality video.

It’s more important that you shoot a wide frame in landscape mode and that you get plenty of lighting. If you do those two things, you’ll be off to a good start.

Get close enough for good sound quality. While cell phones may capture quality video, the same can’t always be said for sound. You may be surprised when you start shooting to see that the sound just didn’t come through the way you would have hoped.

Always make sure you’re close enough to the action to get good sound. You may find that you need an additional microphone. A quick search online should yield plenty of quality microphones that you can simply plug in to your smartphone.

Use Youtube editor. Youtube wants people watching videos, which means they want your videos to be high quality. To help you with that, they’ve created Youtube editor, a powerful tool for giving your videos the kind of presentation that you used to only be able to get from a professional. You can add cuts, transitions, music, captions, and much, much more. Best of all….it’s free! The editor is available to access when you upload your video.

3. Build your school’s Youtube production crew

One of the ways to keep the video content coming is to encourage contributors. You don’t have to do it all yourself. You can recruit students, teachers, staff members, and even parents to help. In fact, it should be a group effort.

Involving students as associate producers could be one of the best moves you could make as studio mogul for your school. Hand pick some of the more talented students to lend a hand in producing and vetting the videos made by others.

Also, no one expects you to be Steven Spielberg. You don’t have to make professional-quality videos. Authenticity continues to be the mantra when it comes to self-produced videos.

4. Don't let your channel gather dust

When you have a Youtube channel, it’s critical that you post new video content on a regular basis. You don’t want a prospective student or parent looking at your Youtube page and seeing that you haven’t posted a video in a year or more. If you’re not going to post videos, you’re almost better off not even having a channel.

Get the full Youtube picture for your school

See how some schools are embracing Youtube  to deliver their messages, then check out some of the kinds of school video topics – including award-winning content – you can be using to tell your school’s stories.


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Related articles and content:

How to Go Live with Live Streaming School Video
Tips for Zoom Classroom Management and Etiquette
How to Use Facebook Live at School
Video Tips to Tell Your School Stories
SchoolNow Remote Learning Resources



Topics: Communication School Districts Private schools Social media

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About the author

Marketing director and content strategist for SchoolNow, Jay’s a former school public relations specialist who’s helped businesses, schools and colleges use the power of communications to improve their image, generate support, and optimize relationships. Reach him at jay@schoolnow.com.