Social Admissions: Social Media Strategy for Student Recruitment

Our Monthly Thoughts on Enrollment Management and Student Recruitment Strategies

STUDENT RECRUITMENT STRATEGY

Welcome back to Enrolled.

This week, we take a look how social media strategy can boost student recruitment. It’s important to always be your admission team’s social outreach strategy and connect with students where they spend a growing amount of their time. The Enrollment Management Association wrote a great and simple post that I feel resonates well today even though it was written in Winter 2013!

mStone noted in their last study that “51% of colleges and universities have an admission blog and noted that familiarity with social networking had jumped from 55% in 2007 to 83% in 2010. Today, admission officers have clearly embraced Facebook and other social networking sites as viable forms of communication with prospective students and have even embraced tools like Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. So, what makes a good social media strategy for admissions officers?

7 Tips for Social Media Strategy THE ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (Winter 2013)

But a recent article in Inside Higher Ed noted that “Nearly all colleges and universities rely on Facebook as the primary social network through which they engage a range of stakeholders.” Despite Facebook’ struggles, most universities embrace Facebook for their audience and targeting capabilities.

For Now, Facebook Remains the Primary Social Network for Higher Ed INSIDE HIGHER ED (2/7/2018)

Though this is the case, we’ve recently seen pitfalls driven by the lack of social media controls from an admissions officer at Stanford University. More schools have had similar issues, so it’s best to have a Communications Strategy outlined for all admission officers (like most companies) to make sure there’s no wiggle room on how we engagement prospective students.

Admission Officers Who Overshare Online INSIDE HIGHER ED (1/22/18)

Stories like this should encourage us to systematize our processes (if they aren’t already) and take social media even more seriously in today’s war for the hearts and minds of prospective students. We’ll leave you with a ‘Call to Action’ from Lindsey Read, Senior VP of Education at the Communications Strategy Group.  In her most recent post, she encourages admission officers to establish an engagement policy in her most recent article.

Five best practices to help your institution be more strategic with social media INSIDE HIGHER ED 1/5/2017