Social Media in Higher Education

24
2015 Jessie Baker UNC Wilmington 4/30/2015 Social Media in Higher Education: Effective Practices to Engage with Students for Enrollment Purposes

Transcript of Social Media in Higher Education

2015

Jessie Baker

UNC Wilmington

4/30/2015

Social Media in Higher Education: Effective

Practices to Engage with Students for

Enrollment Purposes

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY…………………………………………………………………….....1

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………...2

PROBLEM STATEMENT & RESEARCH QUESTIONS……………………………………2-3

LITERATURE REVIEW

Use of Social Media……………………………………………………………………….3

Engagement…………………………………………………………………………......3-4

Embracing Change……………………………………………………………………...4-5

Globalization………………………………………………………………………………5

METHODOLOGY

Data Collection………………………………………………………………………….5-7

Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………………8-9

RESULTS & FINDINGS……………………………………………………………………...9-14

RECOMMENDATIONS

Admitted Student Group……………………………………………………………...15-16

Grow Slowly……………………………………………………………………………..16

Develop a Social Media Communication Plan……………………………………….16-18

Develop a Social Media Team………………………………………………………..18-19

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………..19

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………….20-22

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Social Media in Higher Education

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The only thing constant with technology is change and with the rapidly booming world of

social media the marketing landscape of how students determine where they want to go to

college is being completely rebuilt. What once was a marketing world of mailers and emails to

prospective students is now expanding to include the world of social media whether universities

are ready or not. Universities are on board with utilizing social media, but that doesn’t mean they

are effectively using it to its fullest potential to connect with prospective students.

In order to resolve the problem of universities failing to produce effective content

universities need to look at what type of content students want to see from colleges they are

considering and where students are on social media in the college search process. Once

universities embrace the power of social media as a powerful recruitment and retention tool for

connecting with prospective students the sooner they can build effective strategies to see the

return on their social media investments.

The target audience of this report is representatives in higher education that manage

social media accounts or marketing efforts for recruiting prospective students, which is typically

through the admissions office at a university. In this report you will learn what the most popular

social media outlets are overall and specifically by students in their college search process. The

frequency of students using social media to research colleges is also discussed in comparison to

student opinions on the relevancy of information colleges are publishing. After understanding

what and where students are using social media you will gain an understanding of what type of

content students want to see on social media and how to implement social media strategies.

There are multiple resources available on how to use social media, but resources for

universities specifically on how to use social media in their enrollment and retention efforts is

limited. This report will provide realistic and economical recommendations for universities to

adopt in their social media strategies for the biggest return on their investment in time and

resources.

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INTRODUCTION

In a world where new social media outlets are popping up every day it can be

overwhelming to keep track of what to focus on and when. Universities often have limited

resources and have to determine where their best investment will be when it comes to reaching

prospective students.

Data supports that social media while, it will not likely look exactly the same as it does

now five years from now it’s value in providing effective and affordable tools for universities to

connect with prospective students is here to stay. Throughout this report an analysis of the types

of social media that students are utilizing in their college search process will be provided along

with realistic recommendations for universities to implement to get the most out of their social

media efforts.

PROBLEM STATEMENT & RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The use of social media is rapidly expanding; however in higher education many universities

may use some form of social media, but they are not consistently providing relevant and

effective content to connect with students. The significance of this problem is that universities

are missing out on opportunities to connect with prospective students effectively to aid in their

enrollment and retention efforts. The purpose of this report is to provide an analysis of data on

social media with high school age students in regards to how they utilize social media in their

college search process in order to provide recommendations for universities to capitalize on the

power of social media in connecting with these students.

Research questions that address the problem of universities providing ineffective content

include identifying what the most popular social media mediums are overall in comparison to

what the most popular social media outlets are amongst students. After addressing these

questions the question of what the most popular social media outlets are for students researching

colleges will be answered in order for universities to have specific social media outlets to focus

on. Additionally, the research will answer whether or not social media influences a student’s

decision on where to attend college which will be compared with how relevant students feel the

content is that universities are publishing on social media. After reviewing content relevancy the

frequency of students using social media to research colleges is broken down by daily, weekly

and monthly use.

In order to provide universities recommendations relevant content the question of what

students want to see from universities will be discussed. The assumptions of this data is that

social media does influence a student’s decision on where to attend college and that the issue is

not universities using social media it is the issue of universities failing to use social media

effectively to connect with prospective students. A limitation of this research is that social media

is growing rapidly, but it is still relatively new particularly in higher education making the data

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somewhat limited on the use of social media by students and universities. Social media mediums,

platforms, outlets, channels, etc. is used interchangeably referring to the different types of social

media that students use throughout the report.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In reviewing literature on social media focusing on its relationship with higher education

four common themes emerged. The themes of what social media platforms students are using,

how they engage with universities, the challenge of universities embracing change in higher

education through using social media and the globalization of social media consistently were

discussed throughout the literature. In order to provide recommendations on how higher

education should use social media in the future a thorough understanding of the top performing

social media outlets for high school and college students is essential to understand.

USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Several consistencies emerged in the literature about the use of social media. The most

recent data focusing specifically on high school seniors indicated that Facebook is still the

leading social media outlet with over 82% of students using it. Twitter and Instagram are

consistently in the top three and Instagram and Pinterest have seen the most growth since 2012

(Rodgers G. , 2015). Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are also the leaders in use per day with

20% of students accessing the apps multiple times a day (Rodgers G. , 2015). These studies also

indicate that there is a positive correlation with college age students using social media for

personal use and for college information.

A demographic breakdown on social media use indicates that Twitter is one of the top

platforms for African Americans who represent 25% of the entire Twitter population, which is

disproportional compared to other social media outlets (Acosta D. , 2014, p. 11). Another source

indicates that 95% of students use Facebook, 80% use Twitter and 73% use Instagram. These

trends in the top social media mediums for college and high school students are useful in the

research on providing recommendations to universities on how to use social media with a focus

on the areas that students are already present (Viner, 2014, p. 1). The fluctuation in numbers

across the literature is minimal for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which is why these three

are focused on throughout the data analysis.

ENGAGEMENT

One of the goals of social media is to engage with a target audience and provide relatable

connections. There is a fine line however between engaging and wasting your time, which is why

universities need to utilize social media as a way to retain students and build their brand and

relationship marketing strategies (Jesitus, 2014, p. 50). Increased use of social media with

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college students has a solid foundation of research, but the benefits of college students engaging

in higher education through social media is still an area of some contradiction. Consistent

engagement through social media with students is considered beneficial for generating student

interest, allowing students to take more control of their education and increasing student

engagement in the classroom (Blankenship, 2010, pp. 11-12). To contradict the most popular

theme of the benefits of social media engagement in the classroom one concern in the literature

is that without structure social media can potentially negatively impact a student’s learning

capabilities (Gikas & Grant, 2013, p. 19).

Another area of research in engagement is whether or not engagement from students on

social media has a positive relationship with their likelihood to enroll at a university.

Consistently in several case studies, students that participated in private admitted student

Facebook communities at private and public universities produced higher yield rates versus non-

members. The support for this type of social media enrollment intelligence is that it enables

universities to confidently predict enrollment outcomes (Uversity, 2012, p. 3). While, the exact

repercussions of student engagement through social media is still up for debate for classroom

benefits, the literature showed no contradictions on the positive relationship with students using

social media to engage with universities during the college search process.

EMBRACING CHANGE

One of the challenges with the rise of social media in higher education is the ability for

universities to embrace change. We are in a unprecedented era of digital innovation in which

communication technologies such as social media provide competitive advantages to universities

willing to take the risk in finding what works for more effective and efficient marketing

communications with students, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to dive in (Olivas-Lujan &

Bondarouk, 2013, p. 276). Surprisingly, initial assumptions of faculty varying by age having an

impact on whether or not social media is being used in the classroom shows no difference with

older faculty compared to younger faculty members (Blankenship, 2010, pp. 11-12). One of the

challenges consistently presented in the literature with embracing social media is that it is

constantly in a state of change which can be overwhelming (Tess, 2013, p. 60).

The rise of social media is inevitable because today’s college student is raised in an IT

world giving them a natural IT ability to use technology (Olsekeviciene & Sliogeriene, 2014, p.

392). Social media isn’t just changing higher education it is changing the entire landscape of

marketing making businesses, universities, etc. refocus how they deliver messages to community

members that now expect frequent and accurate information in real time because of social media

(Walaski, 2013, p. 40). Social media is redefining how people relate to each other and

organizations, making the need for higher education to embrace social media inevitable in order

to connect with future generations of students (Reuben, 2008, pp. 6-8).

Change produces challenges and while social media is a tremendous tool to connect with

students universities have to be aware of some of the hazards. A cautionary tale form Boston

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University is to be aware for parody accounts that students or others may create pretending to be

a university department (Buzalka, 2013, p. 1). These types of hazards are why universities need

to approach social media management cautiously.

GLOBALIZATION

Globalization is consistently discussed in the literature because technology facilitates

international connectedness and with the increase of social media interconnectedness is

accelerated around the globe (Eijaz & Ahmad, 2011, p. 64). Social media is changing the world

in how we receive news, which is changing how history is made. This phenomenon of a highly

networked and interconnected world is enabling random events to turn into large events with the

ability of news to spread rapidly on social media (Ball, 2011, pp. 447-448).

Social media is an extremely powerful tool for universities to use to expand their reach

across the globe. The landscape of international student recruitment is changing not only because

of technology, but because of decreased budgets and increased competition. The consistent

values of social media in international recruitment are that it enables faster communication and

removes the challenge of geographic boundaries in a cost-effective manner (Choudaha, 2013, p.

2). The world may not be getting smaller but it is clear throughout the literature that social media

is bridging communication gaps worldwide.

METHODOLOGY

There are numerous variables that impact the use of social media overall, but for reviewing

social media in higher education specifically there are four primary independent variables, which

are also the themes in the literature and two dependent variables which are illustrated in the

conceptual model in Figure 1 on page 6. The methodology used for this research is to provide

descriptive statistics on student survey results from 2013-2015 conducted by enrollment

intelligence companies to provide a comparison in changes year to year of students using social

media in relation to a marketing survey on the use of social media overall.

DATA COLLECTION

Instrumentation

There are three data instruments that most appropriately address the research questions

and variables. These instruments include student surveys about social media use in researching

colleges, survey data on the use of social media worldwide and literature reviews discussing the

use of social media in higher education and what information students want to see from

universities. The survey instruments to collect data on students using social media are conducted

through enrollment intelligence and student engagement software companies that email students

annually to collect information on how students are using social media. International information

on the use of social media overall is collected through a marketing survey which is administered

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annually to help businesses understand the changes in social media year to year. The literature

discusses qualitative data regarding how students are accessing social media, how often they use

it and what type of information they want to see from colleges in their college search process

available on social media.

DATA SOURCES

Student Surveys

The most comprehensive quantitative data existing on social media trends in college

recruitment, admissions marketing and student engagement is from student surveys conducted

through the enrollment intelligence companies, Uversity and Chegg (Chegg, 2015, p. 1). Their

survey methodology involves emailing surveys to registered and active high school students on

Zinch.com and Chegg.com throughout the United States, which since 2013 has resulted in a

1,500-2,000 median response rate excluding 2013 which gathered 7,000 responses providing a

sample population of over 10,000 collectively since 2013 (Chegg, 2015, pp. 1-3). The gender

breakdown has varied annually since 2013, with females consistently leading between 55%-70%

(Chegg Enrollment Services, 2014, p. 2). Racial demographics indicate over a 50% white

response rate with African Americans and Hispanics following at 18% and 19% from their 2014

survey (Chegg, 2015, p. 3).

These data sets are used because these surveys are strong in both internal and external

validity. The internal validity of the survey responses accurately reflect the goals of the studies to

Engagement Efforts & Resources

Student Use of Social Media

Abiilty to Embrace Change

Globalization

Universities Adopt Social Media in

Recruitment Efforts

Social Media Influences College Decision-Making

Process for Students

Figure 1: Conceptual Model of Independent and Dependent Variables

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gain understanding of what, why and how social media is used by students in the college

decision-making process. Externally the results are easily generalized to high school student

populations across the United States and reliable due to the recent dates of the surveys, the vast

amount of states and diversity represented and the large sample population of approximately

10,000 (Chegg, 2015, p. 3).

Marketing Survey

In order to provide a cross-comparison secondary quantitative data collected from the

2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report marketing survey is used to compare social media

use overall in comparison to social media use in the college search process. This report provides

insight from over 2,800 marketers that is conducted through an electronic survey emailed out to

230,000 marketers across the world (Stelzner, 2014, pp. 48-49). The survey addresses questions

in social media including the time commitment, benefits of social media marketing and the most-

used social media platforms; which are all relevant to universities in regards to what and where

they should direct their social media resources (Stelzner, 2014, pp. 1-4). The internal validity of

this survey is strong because there are no conflicts of interest in the survey as it is completely

voluntary and sent out worldwide. Externally because the results have a wide geographic

representation the results are easily generalizable to the use of social media worldwide,

connecting to the globalization variable that influences the impact social media has in higher

education.

Literature Reviews

For my qualitative data sources my research focuses on literature reviews discussing the

use of social media in higher education in regards to concerns, strengths and how to implement

social media strategies. There is extensive quantitative data available on monitoring social media

marketing (SMM), but qualitative data on social media allows marketers to understand consumer

behaviors and attitudes, not just how many clicks or likes they have on Facebook (Branthwaite &

Patterson, 2011, p. 430). The literature review also provides in-depth insight to expand on from

the quantitative data on qualitative factors that influence social media use such as racial

demographics. For example, as discussed earlier Twitter is one of the top social media platforms

used in higher education by African Americans and the literature addresses why this is the case

(Acosta D. M., 2014, p. 11).

The literature review sources are relevant because they allow me to draw conclusions

about the use of social media in higher education through addressing concerns of social media

such as privacy issues and the idea of public space in higher education. College students, faculty,

staff and parents all have conflicting interests in how social media technology should be used

and the literature provides support to guide my final recommendations on best practices for using

social media in higher education (Davis, Deil-Amen, Rios-Aguilar, & Canche, 2012, p. 17).

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DATA ANALYSIS

Because my research focuses on the use of social media in searching for colleges that is

discussed with quantitative and qualitative sources I used quantitative and qualitative

methodologies that complement each other in my analysis (White, 2006, p. 4). My methodology

for my quantitative data analysis was to identify key trends in the use of social media by students

and overall from the student and marketing surveys (Biddix, p. 1).

Statistics

Because the student surveys and marketing survey have large sample populations

descriptive statistics on the frequencies, measures of central tendency and graphs to describe the

common trends in the survey data that relate to the variables and answer the research questions

are used. The surveys address the research questions regarding the most popular social media

mediums, how frequent students use social media and whether or not social media influences the

college decision-making process (Crossman, 2015, p. 1). To address the independent variable of

universities being able to embrace change and the research question of how universities use

social media I analyzed the qualitative data in the literature review that supports the challenges

of universities embracing social media and publishing creative content. I then provided general

observations based on the trends in the literature to aid in developing my final recommendations.

Data Points

In reviewing the quantitative data from the student and marketing surveys I focused on

data points of various topics regarding social media use by students, social media use overall,

whether or not information on social media is relevant that universities are publishing and the

frequency that students use social media in researching colleges they are considering. This

information is provided through graphs with descriptive statistics to provide comparisons on the

variances in the use of social media by students versus use of social media overall and the

changes in social media use by students since 2013.

My graphs include data from the use of social media by students primarily on Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest from 2013-2015 (Chegg, 2015, p. 10), which is illustrated in

Figure 2 on page 10. Data on how often students use social media in researching colleges they

are considering is provided with survey results from 2014-2015 (Chegg, 2015, p. 12) in Figure 3

on page 11. There is no question that students utilize social media in researching colleges

however there is a gap between students using social media versus the content they are seeing

from universities being relevant. This difference is illustrated through charting the opinion

students have on content being relevant from universities from 2013-2014 which is shown in

Figure 6 on page 13 (Uversity; Zinch, 2014, pp. 14-15). Since 2013 there has been a shift on the

impact social media has on influencing a student on where to attend college, this is graphed to

show the increase in social media’s influence in Figures 4 and 5 on page 12 (Uversity; Zinch,

2014, pp. 18-19).

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Strengths & Limitations

The strength of my research design is that the quantitative data sets from the student and

marketing surveys are recent since 2013. This ensures that the data and my findings are relevant

to how social media is currently being used, which will make my recommendations realistic for

universities to implement in 2015 or the near future.

The biggest limitation of my research is that social media is continuously changing because it

is still very new and rapidly growing. Two years from now the most popular social media

mediums in researching colleges may be completely different than they are now, which is why I

have generalized my recommendations to be relevant in the future. A second limitation is that

because social media is still new in higher education the data on how it is used by students

specifically is very limited in recent peer review sources. Chegg and Uversity are the only

sources of data existing with significant student input on the influence of social media in the

college decision-making process. This is a limitation because these are both enrollment

intelligence companies making the data at risk of being somewhat biased in order to support the

need for universities to invest in enrollment intelligence services.

RESULTS & FINDINGS

Through conducting a data analysis the research questions have been answered. The

graph in Figure 2 on page 10 addresses the research questions regarding the most popular social

media mediums overall and with students while also illustrating the relationship between these

two population samples. Figure 2 shows that Facebook is still the top social media platform used

by students and by the general population overall in the United States for 2015, which is pulled

from both the student and marketing survey data sets. The five social media platforms in Figure

2 were selected because they have consistently been in the top ten since 2012 for social media

use by the population overall as well as students. It is important to note that LinkedIn has also

consistently been in the top ten social media platforms since 2012, however it does not rank as a

popular social media platform used by undergraduate students yet which is why it is not included

in the analysis (Stelzner, 2014, p. 23). Students are not using LinkedIn yet as it is focused more

on professionals, which is why it is more popular amongst graduate students or recent graduates

looking for jobs.

The results in Figure 2 are important because they illustrate the most popular social

media mediums for students and for the general population. Universities should care about these

findings because it is important for universities to understand what students are using as well as

what social media platforms may be extremely popular, but not necessarily as popular for

students or vice versa. For example as illustrated in Figure 2 Instagram has significantly higher

usage by students than versus the general population with 64% compared to 28%.

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Universities should care about these findings because it gives them an understanding of

what social media outlets they should commit their resources to in order to engage with the

largest student audience. Figure 3 on page 11 illustrates the steady growth in various social

media platforms that students are using to research colleges, while Facebook is still number one

in 2015, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are all not far behind. Figure 3 highlights the

significant growth in these platforms since 2013, which is only likely to continue based on these

trends over the past three years.

Universities should pay close attention to these numbers as it provides insight into what

social media areas they should focus their efforts based on student usage specifically for

researching colleges not just using social media in general. Additionally, Table 1 on page 11

expresses the frequency that students utilize social media to research colleges they are

considering enrolling at. The breakdown of usage provides insight to universities on how often

they should produce social media content on each social media channel based on the frequency

distribution from 2014-2015. The frequencies show steady increases in all of the leading social

media channels from 2014-2015. These positively correlate with the steady increase of social

media use for researching colleges provided in Figure 3.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

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90%

100%

F A C E B O O K T W IT T ER B L O G G I N G I N S T A G R A M P I N T E R E S T

AX

IS T

ITL

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SOURCE: CHEGG STUDENT SURVEYS & SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER MARKETING SURVEYS

Figure 2: 2015 Top Student Social Media Platforms

Versus the Top Social Media Platforms Overal l

Students

Overall

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Type of Social Media

Multiple Times Daily Daily Weekly Monthly

Facebook 2015 15% 16% 15% 9%

Facebook 2014 10% 9% 14% 7%

Increase 5% 7% 1% 2%

Twitter 2015 8% 12% 12% 7%

Twitter 2014 5% 5% 7% 4%

Increase 3% 7% 5% 3%

Instagram 2015 13% 9% 9% 7%

Instagram 2014 6% 4% 6% 3%

Increase 7% 5% 3% 4%

Table 1: Student Social Media Usage Frequency 2014 & 2015

Frequency

Source: Chegg Student Surveys

The data supports the research questions of what types of social media students are using

to research colleges and how often, but it’s also important to understand how much social media

really impacts a student’s decision on where to attend college and whether or not they are getting

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Pinterest

YouTube

SOURCE: CHEGG STUDENT SURVEYS

Figure 3: Student Social Media Usage To

Research Colleges

2015

2014

2013

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the information they need through social media from universities. In Figures 4 and 5 on page 12

students were asked whether or not social media influences their decision on whether to enroll at

a college of their interest. The results indicate a significant change from 2013 to 2014 between

the value students place on social media in their college-decision making process.

The impact of social media is apparent with its influence on where students attend

college, however data indicates that a large percentage of students do not feel the information

they receive from universities is relevant to their college search process. The literature suggests

in regards to the independent variable of globalization it’s not just students that don’t always find

social media content relevant, it is a global issue that businesses face where from a 2010 media

study 42% of businesses around the world felt engaging audiences was one of the biggest

obstacles in social media (Grensing-Pophal, 2012, pp. 21-25). Figure 6 on page 13 provides an

understanding of the gap that exists between the uses of social media by students in researching

colleges versus students actually finding relevant information that universities are providing.

The most important relationship for universities to consider is that students are present

and using social media however as indicated in Figure 6 on page 13 the content universities are

producing is frequently irrelevant to what students are searching for in their college decision-

making process. This is important because this is where colleges are missing the mark on

engaging and recruiting prospective students. If colleges focus on producing relevant content to

attract more students in their college-decision making process based on the large percentage of

students utilizing social media the results have tremendous potential to influence the college

enrollment process in a positive way.

Yes38%

No62%

Figure 4: Does Social Media

Influence Where Students Attend

College? 2013SOURCE: CHEGG STUDENT SURVEYS

Yes69%

No31%

Figure 5: Does Social Media

Influence Where Students

Attend College? 2014SOURCE: CHEGG STUDENT SURVEYS

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The difference in what colleges are sharing compared to what students want to see from

colleges is an important issue to address in order for colleges to adapt their information to best

serve their student audiences. This is a concern amongst social media marketers in general as

well who question where the core of social media engagement is headed with the concern that

the communal spirit that made social media so popular is disappearing (Marketing Weekly

News, 2014, p. 97). The data supports the interest from students in viewing social media by

universities and 73% of students feel colleges should have a social media presence (Uversity;

Zinch, 2014, p. 13).

According to the literature the type of information that is not useful for students that

universities are sharing includes; student stories on how their school prepared them for the

future, information about sports, information about alumni, upperclassmen deadlines and events,

pushing too much of extracurricular info and generic, “we want you!” paragraphs (Uversity;

Zinch, 2014, p. 15). Additionally, many universities fail to recognize the interconnectivity of

each social media platform. In order to resolve this universities need to view social media as an

ecosystem where the emphasis on content is based more on conversation than consumption

(Hannah, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011, pp. 265-267). In regards to what students want to see from

colleges on social media 66% of students feel that conversations with current students through

social media influences their decision on where to enroll (Uversity; Zinch, 2014, p. 18). In

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Not at All SomewhatIrrelvant

SomewhatRelevant

Relevant Very Relevant

SOURCE: CHEGG STUDENT SURVEYS

Figure 6: How Relevant is University Information Posted on Social

Media?

2013

2014

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Figure 7 below a breakdown of the types of interactions students are seeking on social media is

provided.

The findings in Figure 7 support the connection students are seeking to communicate

with people connected to the universities they are interested in through social media, particularly

with current students. These findings are important to universities because it is not necessarily

the content they are pushing on social media, but more so what access they are providing to

prospective students for them to connect with individuals that are part of the university. This

supports that it’s not only current students that need to be active on social media for prospective

students, but getting faculty, alumni, admissions counselors and administrators involved also

play a valuable role in the social media communication plan for prospective students.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The data supports the need for colleges to get on board with the rapidly growing world of

social media if they want to connect with prospective students. Students are actively using all

types of social media in their college decision-making process, which is why it’s critical for

colleges to take advantage of the opportunity to connect with students through using affordable

social media platforms. The key is that colleges need to use social media effectively in order to

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

CurrentStudents

OtherAdmittedStudents

AdmissionsCounselors

GuidanceCounselors

Faculty Adminstrators Alumni

Figure 7: Importance of Interacting with People via Social MediaSOURCE: CHEGG STUDENT SURVEYS

Importance

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produce the greatest return on recruiting and retaining more students and most importantly to

succeed in providing prospective students an opportunity to truly connect with schools they are

interested in. In order to provide these opportunities the following recommendations below

provide strategies for colleges to implement in order to strengthen their social media presence

with prospective students.

PROVIDE AN ADMITTED STUDENT GROUP

The data in Figure 7 on page 14 supports that admitted students want to engage with

other current students, admitted students, faculty, etc. in order to give them a sense of

community. To do this they need a place to go; if colleges don’t create their own admitted

student group for each incoming class students will do it on their own and colleges will miss out

on the opportunity to engage in these groups. Colleges have two options for building a sense of

community, which include creating a private school group for free on Facebook which requires

student university email addresses to join or a university can purchase a private school group

software for Facebook which provides enrollment intelligence data to universities. The benefits

of going the free route on Facebook is that it is more cost-effective than the private companies

and often easier to find for students, however it lacks the enrollment intelligence data that private

school groups can provide. The types of data that is provided through the enrolment intelligence

predicts how likely a student is to enroll at a university based on how active they are within the

admitted student group which helps universities predict their enrollment numbers.

In these admitted student groups colleges should provide opportunities for students not

only to communicate with themselves in a safe and comfortable environment, but they should

provide access for students to connect with university officials including alumni, current

students, etc. as reflected in Figure 7 on page 14. The best population to include in admitted

students groups is to have current students such as student workers, tour guides, etc. to have

office hours where they post and chat with students in the admitted student Facebook groups.

This gives admitted students an opportunity to gain a student perspective and allows them to ask

questions they may not be comfortable asking to an administrator, admissions counselor, etc. The

current students selected for these types of assignments should have a diverse background and a

passion for the school they attend, this enables them to naturally have enthusiasm for the school

and provide a diverse amount of experiences to prospective students. Methods to further develop

current student representation within these groups is discussed in the social media team

recommendation starting on page 18.

Having various administrators on-campus that work directly with admitted students

throughout their enrollment process such as staff from housing, financial aid, academic advisors,

orientation leaders, etc. provides a quick resource for students to get responses on social media

within the admitted student group versus having to call or email the school. In relations to the

data this helps address the urgency students have in wanting quick responses from schools they

are interested in. Having employees from these departments across campus assigned to check

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these admitted student groups daily requires limited resources and can streamline the

communication process with admitted students which ideally can save time answering calls and

emails. The data supports that students consistently want to have opportunities to connect with

real people who have real experience at schools they are considering. Providing admitted

students groups preferably established by a school’s admissions office gives students these types

of connections.

GROW SLOWLY

The data in Figure 6 on page 13 addresses the issue of universities failing to post relevant

content, which is often caused when schools dive into too much at one time leading to poorly

managed social media accounts. By starting one to two social media outlets such as Facebook

and Twitter, which the data shows as leading platforms prior to setting up accounts on every

social media outlet colleges are able to build a strong social media foundation. This prevents

colleges from having social media accounts floating out there that are unmanaged or have

content that is only posted occasionally.

Factors in growing social media also depend on the staff and resources available to do so.

Colleges with two to three admissions counselors are not going to be able to manage the same

amount of social media outlets that colleges with twenty admissions counselors can. This is why

it’s important for colleges to be realistic about what they can manage and have a strong presence

on versus creating social media accounts just to have them. In many cases less can be more in

regards to where colleges have social media accounts. The data illustrates that students are using

all types of social media so they will find a college on social media whether it be Facebook,

Instagram, Twitter, etc. if they really want to connect with them. The important thing is that

colleges have some type of quality social media presence that is up to date and relevant versus

having lots of poorly managed accounts.

The concept of growing slowly also connects to the third recommendation below of

developing a communication plan that allows for organized progress into uncharted territory of

emerging social media outlets. Growing slowly also allows for universities to experiment with

what content works best for them based on engagement in order to identify best directions for

them to focus on. For example a university on the coast will most likely attract a large population

of students interested in being near the beach or studying in fields of marine biology, etc. which

would mean a large marketing focus would be on the location and academic fields related to the

area. Universities are able to hash out what works and what doesn’t work in regards to

personalizing their content to connect with students through allowing themselves to grow slowly

before diving into too much too fast.

DEVELOP A SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION PLAN

Developing a social media communication plan provides universities the opportunity to

schedule posts which allows them to have content frequently available on their social media

channels and helps manage posting relevant content. Creating a communication plan also keeps

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staff on schedule and can keep content consistent. The important thing is that while scheduling

posts is helpful it is a supplement to also posting spontaneous information that is relevant to

prospective students such as open house events on campus, important university information that

comes up, etc. Most social media outlets have some type of scheduling platform and software

such as Hootsuite, which allows posts to be scheduled on multiple social media outlets at one

time such as Twitter and Facebook.

A communication plan also helps produce content that is relevant to each social media

channel. The most appropriate content for different types of social media is not always the same.

For example Instagram which as the data shows in Figure 3 on page 11 is one of the most rapidly

growing social media outlets that students are using, which is based on sharing photos. In this

case posting photos of current students or of campus would be a more appropriate type of post

versus asking questions to engage with students which would be more appropriate for Twitter.

The key to producing effective content is to bridge human centered social media content across

various social media outlets. As shown in the data the popularity of social media outlets is often

uneven, which is why it is important to understand the connective power of content most

appropriate for each different type of social media channel (Suman & Mei, 2014, p. 3).

In order to generate creative content looking at what other universities are doing on their

social media channels is encouraged. Scheduling different themes throughout the year or

scheduling contests when decision letters hit of students posting pictures of their acceptance

letters in order to win a prize such as a t-shirt, etc. can produce tremendous amounts of

engagement. Through identifying different peaks within the year where students are more likely

to be active on a school’s social media channels such as at orientation, open houses, campus

tours, etc. Universities can capitalize on speaking to a larger audience during these types of

events and engage them with contests.

Students like to see themselves on social media to compare themselves to other students.

Offering easy access to what other students are doing on social media through broadcasting live

social media feeds at events such as open houses with an event hashtag such as a school mascot

with future in front of it such as #FutureSeahawks gives students a hashtag to use throughout the

event and see what other students are also saying at the event. Planning out specific hashtags in

the communication plan can also be useful for contests such as photo contests of students taking

campus tours, etc. Pushing a primary hashtag for prospective students allows universities to also

track the engagement levels specifically related to their hashtag across multiple social media

channels. Scheduling these types of promotions in the communication plan during particular

times of the year will help with the success of these campaigns.

Social media communication plans allow universities to cautiously transition into new

social media outlets as they emerge through planning out specific content to see how it performs

on a social media outlet. As discussed in the conclusions the main challenge with social media is

that it is always evolving into new things. Through strategically planning out and experimenting

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with new social media outlets universities allow themselves to “test drive” a social media

platform before really committing a significant amount of their resources.

A social media communication plan also helps universities make sure they are sharing

relevant content versus only posting spontaneous information that is not always relevant.

Scheduling important deadlines, reminders, tutorials for paying enrollment deposits, etc. ensures

that universities have established schedules to get this type of content delivered to prospective

students via social media. Until recently many universities have seen social media as a fun,

relaxed tool which in some ways it is but the value and importance of universities taking social

media seriously as a communication tool to connect with students has arrived. Having a social

media communication plan is just as important as any existing communication plan universities

have for emails, mailers, etc.

DEVELOP A SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM

Frequently universities assign one person to manage social media and fail to realize how

big of a task that can be and how much that limits the content universities post if only one person

is in charge. This is why it’s valuable for universities to establish a social media team which can

have one person as the leader or “gatekeeper” of all of the social media accounts but allows

various employees to produce content. This is also supported by the data in Figure 7 on page 14

indicating that students want to hear from a diverse mix of university representatives. Having

multiple people managing social media accounts allows for multiple perspectives and diverse

content to be shared to prospective students. The social media team needs to meet regularly in

order to make sure that content, while different and creative is still consistent with the identity of

the university.

If possible adding current students to the social media team whether it be through

creating a social media organization on campus or just having a few students hired on part-time

to assist with social media having current student input is vital to prospective students.

Additionally, involving current students on a social media team ensures that the true student

perspective of a university is being accurately projected to prospective students and it reduces the

generic and sometimes boring content that employees may think is relevant when in actuality it

is not. It is equally important to involve new students annually particularly freshman on the

social media team because they are the most relatable source for prospective students that are

still in high school. Freshman can address typical concerns prospective students have and give a

realistic view of what it is like to start college your freshman year and why students should

attend the college that they are attending.

For universities that have the resources to manage a substantial student population on the

social media team I recommend that they develop a social media ambassadors program that is

advised through the admissions staff and recognized as an organization within campus

involvement. Through organizing a social media ambassador program students would be more

consistent in their commitment to producing social media representing their views of their

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university and would have a student support group to bounce ideas off of versus only

incorporating one to two students here and there. A formal social media student organization

would allow the students to have more say in the content being produced, which eventually

would alleviate some of the responsibility from the admissions office in marketing on social

media through beefing up the student social media marketing efforts.

A social media team can also manage hosting guests on social media channels such as

inviting a faculty member to have an open chat session on Twitter for several hours or to jump in

an admitted student group on Facebook to chat with prospective students about popular majors,

etc. These types of opportunities allow prospective students to ask specific major questions or

questions about the classroom life of a university that an admissions office may not be able to

provide as much detail on. Frequently the admissions counselors are the first point of contact for

prospective students, but it is valuable to allow more in-depth resources for students to connect

with beyond the surface level information for schools they are seriously considering.

CONCLUSION

The challenge of this study is keeping up with the rapidly growing and changing world of

social media as well as the identity of today’s typical college student. Students today expect

answers in real time and disconnect when they don’t easily find relatable information that they

are looking for from universities. That is why it is a constant challenge for universities to keep up

with providing effective communication in the enrollment management process and focusing on

social media is a realistic strategy to bridge the gap between today’s student and traditional

university marketing strategies used in the past. Because of the constantly evolving world of

social media it makes it difficult to frequently collect data specifically focused on how students

use social media in regards to what they want from universities on different social media outlets.

These challenges tie into the recommendations of establishing a virtual community

through creating admitted student groups on Facebook that involve numerous voices from a

university to connect with prospective students. Because of the challenge of keeping up with the

changing landscape of today’s college student as well as social media it is critical to have

multiple connections available for students. The instability of the current leading social media

channels is a challenge universities will have to keep up with in regards to making sure they are

focusing their efforts on the most current popular channel. If feasible universities should

continuously collect data from students on their entire college search process from how they visit

campus whether it be tours, events, etc. to what they do with mailings, to how they apply

whether it is through paper applications or through a university website in addition to seeing

where they are on social media. Realistically universities don’t always have resources readily

available to collect this type of data for their specific student populations, which is why the

recommendations and data in this report serve as a stepping stone for universities to keep pace

with today’s IT college student in the college search process.

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