Welcome, Mikaela.
This is your reference for how things work day-to-day at TST — the content pipeline, the brand voice, the links you'll use, and what "good" looks like.
Your role, in short
You're taking over the video-to-social pipeline (Drive → edit → Buffer) covering Instagram (@thestudenttutors), TikTok and Facebook, plus a set of marketing tasks that currently sit with Ted. You report to Ted, day-to-day contact is WhatsApp (+44 7443 436118), and you have full posting autonomy — no per-post sign-off needed. Once a month, you and Ted will go through the Buffer calendar and the KPI tracker together; expect that check-in to be more frequent (roughly weekly) for your first 2–4 weeks while things bed in.
What's in scope
- Editing tutor-submitted and Ted's own video clips (own clips + lesson highlights) into Reels/TikToks/Facebook posts, and scheduling them on Buffer
- Formatting tutor-submitted blogs onto the Squarespace blog, then adapting a version for the TST company LinkedIn page — full steps in Blog & LinkedIn workflow
- Original carousels (built in Canva) and stories across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn — see targets in Weekly content goals and design rules in Brand & Content Kit
- Keeping the Linktree bio link current, and using the right link in captions and replies
- Personally emailing our tutors, every week, to build relationships with the ones who engage and to cold email plenty more to get them to try making content. Lesson highlight clips are the priority ask. See Emailing tutors
- Growing the mailing list: every post gives people a reason to join. See Growing the mailing list
- Advertising the Revision Masterclass on social, alongside everything else. See Advertising the Masterclass
- Logging activity into the shared KPI tracker once it's built
Weekly content goals
These are targets to aim for, not hard quotas to hit at all costs — a quiet week where you post 3 solid pieces beats a forced 5 that feel thin. Track your actuals in the KPI tracker once it's built so we can see the real pattern over time.
One practical suggestion: rather than deciding day-by-day, pick a loose weekly rhythm so it's not a fresh decision every morning — for example Mon/Wed/Fri for feed posts, stories most days with an extra one whenever a post goes out, and LinkedIn same day each week (Tuesday works well, early in the school/work week). Batch-scheduling a chunk of this on Buffer in one sitting will make the 3–5/week far easier to sustain than posting live each day.
Growing the mailing list
More email sign-ups is the single most useful result your content can have. A follower is attention we borrow from Instagram or Facebook. An email address is a parent we can look after properly: the nurture emails build trust, and that is what leads to a free lesson booking. Everything you post sits at the top of that chain, so every post should give someone a clear, easy reason to join.
Which route for which post
| If the post is about... | Send people to... |
|---|---|
| Revision tips, exam stress, grades (parent-facing) | “21 Ways in 21 Days”, parent version |
| Revision tips aimed at students | “21 Ways in 21 Days”, student version |
| “Most students revise the wrong way” and myth-busting | The “Are you revising the right way?” quiz |
| 11+ | The “Is your child ready for the 11+?” quiz |
| Tutors, testimonials, anything building trust | The free 1-1 lesson sign-up |
All of these links are in The links you'll use. On Facebook put the real link in the caption. On Instagram say “link in bio” and keep the Linktree in the same order as this table.
Caption lines you can copy
Swap “link in bio” for the real link when posting on Facebook. Keep them as the last line of the caption, after the value.
Habits that grow the list
- Stories do the pushing. When you post something new, put a story up that day with a link sticker straight to the matching sign-up page. A story reaches people who already follow us, which is the warmest audience we have.
- Keep the Linktree sorted by importance. The free lesson and the two 21-day offers go at the top. Rarely used links go lower.
- Answer comments with the link. If someone asks a question a sign-up page answers, reply to them by name with the link. See the tone notes in Your brand voice.
- LinkedIn gets the same treatment. End the company page post with a short line pointing at the Study Hub post, and make sure that post has a sign-up link in it.
- Check what works every month. Look at Linktree clicks by link in the KPI tracker. The routes getting the most clicks tell you which topics and captions to repeat.
Your day-to-day workflow
Videos — tutor clips + lesson highlights
- Check the Drive submissions folder / form responses sheet at least 2–3 times a week.
- Edit to the agreed simple format — see the video spec in Brand & Content Kit for exact fonts, captions and framing.
- Schedule on Buffer — with the real link in the caption for Facebook, or "link in bio" for Instagram.
- Log it in the KPI tracker.
Reading the tracker
The "Hook" column is your brief for tutor clips — edit the clip and write a caption that matches it. For Ted's own clips, the hook field also includes caption direction. Each row is colour-coded so you always know what needs doing:
| Row colour | What it means |
|---|---|
| GREEN | Edited and ready to post. No action needed from you. |
| RED | Problem — can't be posted. Leave it highlighted red and message Ted. |
| NO COLOUR | Ready for you to edit. Download the raw file from the link in that row. |
Blogs
Every tutor-submitted blog turns into two pieces of content — a Squarespace blog post and a LinkedIn post — with its own full workflow in Blog & LinkedIn workflow below. Same 48-hour turnaround target applies.
Carousels and stories
These run on a weekly cadence rather than a submission-triggered turnaround — see Weekly content goals for the exact targets, timing at your discretion within that. Carousels should be slightly more structured/educational — a tip broken into steps, or a testimonial with context, avoiding walls of text per slide. Stories can be more casual and behind-the-scenes: polls, quick tips, reshares are all fine.
Blog & LinkedIn workflow
Each tutor-submitted blog does two jobs: a full-length Squarespace post, and a trimmed LinkedIn version. Do the LinkedIn edit first, then publish the longer original to Squarespace — that order means the harder editing work (cutting it down, cleaning it up) happens once and the Squarespace version just inherits the same tidy-up.
- Trim and clean the blog for LinkedIn. Cut it to roughly 600–700 words — LinkedIn technically allows longer, but that's the practical ceiling before people stop reading. While you're trimming: fix any grammar issues, and strip out anything that reads like it was written by AI rather than a person. See the checklist below — it covers exactly what to look for.
- Schedule it on Buffer for the TST company LinkedIn page. Use the tutor's suggested photo if they sent one with their submission; otherwise pull a free stock photo from Squarespace's built-in image library (it's Unsplash-powered) — pick something that actually fits the topic, not generic stock-photo filler.
- Publish the full-length version to Squarespace. Go to the Study Hub tab and add it as a blog post — no word limit here, so more of the tutor's original can stay in. Use the same photo as the LinkedIn post where possible, for consistency. Add relevant subject/level tags (e.g. "GCSE Maths," "Exam Tips") and fill in the SEO title/description fields in the post settings so it's actually findable via search. Also add the internal link back to the relevant service page — see below, this step is easy to forget but matters.
- Schedule or publish it the same day on Squarespace — either is fine, there's no strict timing rule here like there is with Buffer.
/gcse-science-tutor; a post about any A-level subject links to /alevel-tutors. If you're ever unsure which service page a post should point to, ask Ted rather than skip the link or guess.
- No em dashes (—) anywhere. Use a comma or a full stop instead.
- No "it's not X, it's Y" style contrasts. Just say the Y directly.
- Cut throat-clearing openers like "Here's the thing," "The truth is," or "It turns out." Get straight to the point.
- Cut filler words: really, just, honestly, actually, literally, simply, genuinely.
- Avoid turning the post into a bullet-point list. Write it as flowing paragraphs — one idea leading into the next, the way a person would actually explain it.
- Vary the sentence length. If every sentence is long, or every sentence is short and punchy, that's a tell — mix it up.
- Make sure a real person is doing the action in every sentence, not a passive "mistakes were made" construction.
- Read it out loud once. If it sounds like a robot wrote it, it needs another pass.
Your brand voice
This didn't exist as a written guide before, so treat it as v1 — it'll get refined as we see more of your output in practice.
We are
- Warm and genuinely reassuring
- Direct and practical — one clear tip
- Confident because of results
- Accessible expertise — explain like a great tutor would
- Efficient and unpretentious
We are not
- Salesy, hypey, or urgency-baiting ("LAST CHANCE", excess emoji/caps)
- Vague or jargon-heavy ("holistic learning journey")
- Boastful without evidence
- Academic or exam-board-technical (unless writing for students)
- Corporate-sounding or overly polished/impersonal
The underlying idea to write from: parents are usually anxious, not just browsing. Results come from effort and the right support (not "natural talent"), and we'd rather let a tutor, a result, or a specific tip do the talking than say we're the best. Calm confidence, not pressure.
Tone by context
- Captions (video/carousel): short, hook in the first line, one idea per post, plain English.
- Stories: casual, behind-the-scenes, lower pressure — polls and quick tips are fine here.
- Carousels: a bit more structured/educational, but avoid text-heavy slides.
- Comments/replies: friendly and specific to what was said, never a copy-pasted stock reply. If someone's asking about pricing, availability, or how to book, that's a lead — reply with the relevant link from the table below rather than negotiating in the comment thread.
- LinkedIn (company page blog reposts): more professional than Instagram/Facebook, but still warm — this is parents and other education professionals, not a corporate audience.
Using AI to help write copy
Ted has a customised brand-voice Claude skill (brand-voice:brand-voice-enforcement) set up on his own Claude account, which applies all of this automatically to anything he drafts there. Claude skills are tied to the individual account they're installed on rather than shareable by a plain link — so for you to get the exact same thing inside your own Claude, Ted would need to either add you to his Claude workspace/plugin install, or export the skill together with his filled-in brand guidelines file and send it to you to import into your own account. Ask him if you want that set up properly.
In the meantime, the prompt below gets you the same result in any AI tool you're already using — Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, whatever's easiest — since it's just plain text, not a Claude-specific feature. Paste it in once at the start of a chat (or save it as a custom instruction/project prompt if your tool supports that), then just ask for whatever you need.
The links you'll use
- Facebook (Page): put the real link straight in the caption text. Facebook makes it clickable on its own.
- Instagram: captions say "link in bio" — the bio points to one Linktree page listing every link below.
- Comments or DMs asking for something specific: reply directly with the matching link — friendly and specific, not a stock reply.
| If someone asks about... | Send this link | Source |
|---|
Quick logic behind it: the free 1-1 lesson and both 21-day offers route through a Kit landing page, which automatically tags the person and drops them into the matching email sequence — you don't need to do anything manually once someone submits their email there. The two quizzes, the two direct booking links, and the Masterclass link are all already-existing pages that handle themselves.
Linktree
One free Linktree page, linked from the Instagram bio, listing all the links above with clear labels. Already set up. Keep it current as offers change — if a link in the table above changes, update Linktree the same day.
Advertising the Revision Masterclass
The Revision Masterclass is our online course. It has no capacity limit and anyone can enrol at any time, which is a real advantage: parents never have to rush a decision, and you never need to say places are running out. It is also where our nurture emails send people at the end, so every post that gets someone interested helps both routes.
The ground rules
- No scarcity, no countdowns. Never write “limited spaces”, “last chance” or “closing soon”. Talk about enrolling any time and working at your own pace.
- Lead with the student, not the course. Start with the problem (revising without a plan, a disappointing mock, a free week in the holidays), then show the course as the answer.
- Show it rather than say it. A tutor teaching a real topic, a student's words or a clear example beats “our course is brilliant”. See the proof angles below.
- One call to action per post. “Link in bio” on Instagram, the real enrolment link on Facebook. The link is in The links you'll use.
- Answer questions with the link. If someone asks about the course in a comment or DM, reply by name and give them the enrolment link.
How often
| When | How much Masterclass content |
|---|---|
| Normal weeks | Around 1 feed post in 4, plus a story whenever one goes up |
| 3 to 4 weeks before a holiday window | Roughly 30 to 40 percent of content (see the five holiday pushes) |
| Final two weeks before the window | Near-daily, using the different angles below so it does not feel repetitive |
Five angles, with captions to start from
Rotate through these. Each caption is a starting point: add the real course facts, tidy it to your own voice and run it through the no AI slop checklist before scheduling.
A story sequence that works
A carousel outline
Follow the design rules in the Brand & Content Kit: cover slide of 8 words or fewer, a maximum of 3 lines of body text per slide, and the CTA slide last with the logo.
A prompt for Canva, ChatGPT or Claude
Paste the TST brand voice prompt first, then this one. Fill in the square brackets each time and ask for one format at a time.
The school year, month by month
The short version of Ted's full content calendar (academic year 2026–27) — what's happening in the exam calendar each month, and what to lead with. Three things TST sells, and each gets talked about differently:
- 1-1 tuition — the core, ongoing product. Most content builds trust and demand for this, year-round.
- Revision Masterclass — the online course. No capacity limit, so never scarcity language ("spaces left") — always enrolment-and-pace framing, pushed hardest around the five holiday windows.
- Tailored Holiday 1-1 Packages — a bundle of 1-1 sessions over one school holiday. Genuine tutor-capacity limits, so this is the one product where real urgency language is honest.
The five holiday pushes
Both offers get pushed hardest in school holidays, when students have full days free and parents are actively looking for structured support. Every window needs a 3–4 week run-up: the month before, shift roughly 30–40% of content toward the Masterclass and Holiday Packages, then go near-daily in the final two weeks.
| Window | Dates | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1. October half-term | 26–30 Oct 2026 | First push of the year — smaller, sets the tone |
| 2. Christmas holidays | 21 Dec 2026 – 3 Jan 2027 | Post-mock-results panic — high urgency |
| 3. February half-term | 15–19 Feb 2027 | "12 weeks to go" energy — strong technique sell |
| 4. Easter holidays | 26 Mar – 9 Apr 2027 | The biggest push of the year — last major window before exams |
| 5. May half-term | 31 May – 4 Jun 2027 | Smaller — exam-period top-up for late papers/A-level |
Primary content formats
Read this before briefing anything. Tutor videos, tutor blogs, and lesson-highlight clips carry the calendar every month — carousels and graphics are supporting/additional formats, never the main idea for a week.
- Tutor video: a tutor speaking to camera or narrating over a lesson clip — technique explainers, mock/exam advice, subject tips. The single most important format.
- Tutor blog post: a short, practical write-up from a named tutor — publishes on the site/newsletter and gets cut into social captions. Builds SEO and long-form authority alongside the video content.
- Lesson-highlight clip: a real moment from an actual 1-1 or Masterclass session, repurposed as short-form video — the strongest proof content TST has, because it's real teaching, not a talking head.
- Carousel / graphic: supporting only — summarises or repurposes a tutor video/blog/highlight clip for feed variety, never a standalone idea in its own right.
Messaging angles used across the calendar
Different from the Content Pillars in the Brand & Content Kit (those are post topics) — these are the underlying angle a piece of content takes.
Key dates at a glance (2026–27)
| Date | What's happening |
|---|---|
| 1 Sept 2026 | Autumn term begins |
| First 2–3 weeks Sept 2026 | 11+ exams sit (Kent, Sutton, Bucks: early Sept; Essex CSSE: mid-Sept; CEM regions: throughout) |
| 26–30 Oct 2026 | October half-term — holiday push 1 |
| Mid-Oct 2026 | 11+ results released |
| 31 Oct 2026 | Secondary school (CAF) application deadline |
| Nov–Dec 2026 | GCSE/A-level mock exams (school-set, varies) |
| 21 Dec 2026 – 3 Jan 2027 | Christmas holidays — holiday push 2 |
| 4 Jan 2027 | Spring term begins — natural enquiry peak |
| 15–19 Feb 2027 | February half-term — holiday push 3 |
| 1 Mar 2027 | National Offer Day (secondary places, incl. grammar/11+) |
| 26 Mar – 9 Apr 2027 | Easter holidays — holiday push 4 (biggest of the year) |
| 10 May – 25 Jun 2027 | GCSE and A-level written exams (provisional JCQ window) |
| 31 May – 4 Jun 2027 | May half-term — holiday push 5 |
| Mid-Aug 2027 | A-level results day (typically the 3rd Thursday of August) |
| Late-Aug 2027 | GCSE results day (typically the following Thursday) |
Mock-exam timing is set school by school — treat Nov–Dec/Feb–Mar as working windows rather than fixed dates. 11+ regional dates vary by county. Confirm exact results-day dates via JCQ once announced each year.
Full month-by-month breakdown
Tap a month to see what's happening, this month's objective, 4–5 content ideas with hooks, and the Masterclass/Holiday Package push for that month.
Quick reference: what to lead with, month by month
| Month | Lead with |
|---|
Emailing tutors directly
Everything we post starts with a tutor sending us something. No tutor clips means no videos, no lesson highlights and nothing for you to edit. So emailing tutors is one of the most important parts of your job, and it is built around personal emails from you rather than group messages from Ted.
- Tutors who already engage. Thank them every time they send something, tell them how their clip did, reply to what they say and ask for the next thing. Tutors who feel noticed send more, and they tell other tutors.
- Tutors who have never sent anything. Cold email lots of them to get them to give it a try. Most have never made a clip, and a friendly, specific, low-effort ask gets a good number to say yes. Plenty will not reply, so send one short follow-up after about a week and then move on.
The priority ask: lesson highlight clips
Lesson highlights are the strongest proof content we have, because they show a real tutor teaching a real student. We want a lot more of them, so ask every active tutor, personally. The ask is easy for the tutor: they are paid for it, they do not need to film anything, and they only need to look back through recordings on LessonSpace or Bobbin and note the times of a good explanation or a nice moment. You do the editing.
- Send it one tutor at a time, from your own email. This one should never be a group broadcast.
- Make it specific before you send. Add a line about their subject, a recent bit of parent feedback or something you noticed. That is what turns it from a mass email into a personal one.
- Only send it to active tutors who are currently teaching. TutorCruncher shows who is active.
- Students stay anonymous. The email says so. If a tutor asks anything about student privacy, consent or payment that the email does not cover, send the question to Ted rather than answering it yourself.
More templates for building relationships
For group reminders: TutorCruncher Broadcasts
The rest of this section covers how to send reminders to several tutors at once. Use that for the weekly nudge. Use personal emails for everything above.
What Broadcasts lets you do
- Regular reminders: a weekly or fortnightly nudge to your 5–6 target tutors about content — send to all of them, or filter to just the ones who've gone quiet.
- One-off custom asks: filter down to a single tutor (or a small group) and ask for something specific and different from the usual video clip — a set of photos from "a day in their life," a short written Q&A, a voice note about a recent lesson win.
- New tutor introductions: filter to tutors added in the last week or two and send a short "tell me about yourself" ask, so you can put together an intro post when someone new joins.
Three more templates for group messages
Brand & Content Kit
The reference for exactly how TST content should look — colours, fonts, carousel and video specs, content pillars, and what to avoid. When in doubt about a design choice, this section has the answer.
Brand colours
Use only these. Don't substitute, tint, or introduce new colours without checking with Ted first.
| Colour | Hex | Use it for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Navy | #1C2B3A | Slide backgrounds, headings, dark sections | |
| Sky Blue | #A9E5FF | Accents, CTA text, key stat numbers, highlights | |
| Ice Tint | #E8F7FF | Light section backgrounds, card backgrounds | |
| Steel Blue | #5A8FAA | Secondary text, captions, supporting copy | |
| Midnight | #111111 | Body text on white/light backgrounds | |
| White | #FFFFFF | Clean backgrounds, text on dark slides |
In Canva: click any colour swatch → Add new colour → enter the hex code → save as a brand colour.
Typography
Two fonts only — nothing else, on any slide or graphic.
| Font | Weight | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Playfair Display | Bold (700) | Slide titles, pull quotes, cover headlines |
| DM Sans | Regular (400) / Medium (500) | Body copy, bullet points, labels, captions |
Size guide (1080px canvas): cover title 52–64px, section heading 36–44px (both Playfair Display Bold) · body copy 18–22px, labels/small text 14–16px in Steel Blue (both DM Sans Regular) · CTA button text 16–18px DM Sans Bold.
Content pillars
Every post belongs to one of these six.
| Pillar | What it is |
|---|---|
| Study tips & exam prep | Specific, actionable, curriculum-relevant tips. Our best-performing pillar. |
| Subject-specific tutorials | Tutors walking through a real topic, question, or concept on video. |
| Student results | Before/after transformations. Written consent required before any post. |
| Motivation & mindset | Shareable, aspirational content. |
| Tutor spotlights | Humanises the brand — shows the quality and relatability of our tutors. |
| Lead magnet & CTA posts | Drives email sign-ups and lesson bookings. One CTA per post, never more. |
Carousel guidelines
- Minimum 80px margin on all edges — text must never touch the border
- Maximum 3 lines of body text per slide — add another slide rather than cramming
- Brand colours only, no gradients, no text shadows or glow effects
- Flat-style illustrations only — your own, or from unDraw (undraw.co), Storyset (storyset.com), or Flaticon (icons only)
- All slides in one carousel use the same background treatment — never mix dark and light
- Logo appears on the cover slide and the CTA slide only
Example carousels — start-early messaging
Two ready-to-adapt examples on the "don't wait until January" theme — simple, one idea per slide, ending with a clear "link in bio" CTA. (Comment-triggered auto-DM tools like ManyChat need a paid plan we're not on yet, so link-in-bio is the reliable route for now — worth revisiting if that ever changes.) Swap the wording, keep the structure.
1. "January Is Too Late"
2. "3 Signs They Need Help Before Christmas"
Short-form video spec
Applies to tutor clips, lesson highlights, and Ted's own clips alike. The tutor's explanation is the content — keep the production out of the way.
- Vertical 9:16, 1080×1920px, for Reels/TikTok
- Edit in CapCut: auto-captions first, then manually check every word for accuracy
- Caption font: DM Sans Bold or Montserrat Bold, white text with a dark outline
- One word at a time, centred on screen — never at the very top or very bottom
- Cuts only between clips — no transitions, no background music, no overlays beyond captions
What to avoid
Content: student names, schools, or photos without written consent on file · grade claims that can't be verified · the words "cheap," "affordable," or "budget" — TST is a premium service · more than one CTA on a single post · generic motivational quotes with no connection to studying.
Your tools
| Tool | Access / what you'll use it for |
|---|---|
| Buffer | Full collaborator access — scheduling and publishing all content. |
| Google Drive | Edit access to your shared folder and the Content Tracker sheet — this is where clips and blogs land. |
| Linktree | All set up already. |
| Kit | No login needed — Ted builds and maintains; you just use the resulting links. |
| TutorCruncher | Restricted admin login (Operations only) — tutor contact list and Broadcasts, no accounting or settings access. |
| Squarespace | Contributor login scoped to the blog section (the "Study Hub" tab) — enough to publish posts, not full site access. |
| Canva | Canva Pro is active on your account. Export or share finished designs into the shared Drive folder so there's always a TST copy. |
| Upwork | Your contract — log hours here as you go. |
| KPI tracker | A shared Google Sheet — your tab covers Buffer post counts, top post stats, and Linktree clicks. |
Any questions?
Message Ted on WhatsApp — day-to-day questions, anything unclear in this guide, or anything that doesn't match what you're actually seeing. Better to ask than guess, especially in the first few weeks.