If you’re not using social media as a recruitment tool, you’re missing out on an easy and quick way to reach potential students. Your university needs to establish brand awareness and relationships with students. Social media is by far the best tool to do that.
Social media is essential for your university it’s how students connect and communicate. Your social media strategy can be a great recruitment tool; you need to meet your prospective students, current students, and alumni where they are.
An effective social media marketing strategy can be a great recruitment tool, a convenient way to share announcements quickly, an effective way to build a community, and so much more.
Widespread access to the internet and digital media has transformed the education sector completely. For example, Facebook today has more than 2.3 billion monthly active users, while Instagram now has over 1 billion monthly active accounts. With social media platforms becoming more popular day by day, the way we consume information is also changing significantly.
If you are considering implementing a social media marketing strategy for your higher education institution, then you’ve come to the right place! We’ll take you through some essential tips and points to keep in mind when developing your social media marketing plan.
1. Presenting Yourself online
The best way to get your school noticed is through constant use of social media, email marketing, and blog posts. From blogs and social media posts to recruitment materials, your school brand needs to be consistently promoted in relevant places across all of your different touchpoints. In addition, to have a positive image with potential learners, you need to ensure that what they see on social media matches what they read on your website and see on your other channels.
Social media use in higher education and boot camps is important in setting the tone on campus. Promote and represent the kind of culture your school aims to cultivate. Make your institution’s mission and values known. Let prospective students, faculty, and partners know they’re welcome and supported. Show off some accomplishments and defining characteristics of your university by posting content related to that. Feature the clubs, communities, and social opportunities attendees can get involved in. Show off the campus. Help them understand the benefits your institution offers beyond academic study.
For example, share the accomplishments of your students and teachers/ faculty members. Make it easy for students to picture their future at your university.
2. Develop a social media strategy
Social media channels are important, but having a cohesive strategy is even more crucial.
In this Social Campus Report, 76% of respondents say defining a clear social media marketing strategy and objectives is their top priority. Another 45% hope to coordinate social strategy campus-wide.
So it’s crucial to align social strategy back to the university’s core objectives.
64% of professionals agree that social media should connect to the strategic plan and institutional mission.
For example, look at Georgia State University’s #TheStateWay campaign. It has four pillars:
- Atlanta
- research
- classroom technology
- student success.
Meanwhile, the University of Sydney uses social media to support its four big strategic goals:
- enhance its research reputation
- attract high-quality students
- diversify its international student base
- build a unique brand
3. Be platform-specific
Every social media platform has its unique advantages for higher ed, from blogging to Instagram. As you move forward in establishing your social media presence, it’s important to weigh how each platform can help achieve your campus and community goals.
For example, you could use Facebook to engage students and alumni around on-campus events while hosting discussions on Quora.
Recruiting is about finding and connecting with new students in new and innovative ways. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms are essential to this effort—but they are not the only tools in your toolbox.
Pinterest and Flipboard can increase brand awareness, and Medium and WordPress can be used to publish blog content for your network.
Twitter is a great platform to reshare success stories from your students and engage with them by retweeting anything they mention about your school. Instagram is a great platform to reach students as well as build your presence.
4. Use Social Media Tools
Content calendars allow you to maintain a consistent social media presence by planning and scheduling your posts.
Having a content calendar is an essential part of any social media strategy. If you’re spending time each day just to figure out what you should publish, you start to focus too much on the small details rather than your overall strategy. A content calendar keeps you in control by helping you focus on the big picture. Tools like Hootsuite, Sendible, Falcon.io, and Sprout Social will help make managing your social media strategy that much easier.
Some Other Tools To Use!
- Free high-quality stock photos: Pexels, Unsplash
- Content strategy: Ahrefs, Google Trends, BuzzSumo, SparkToro
- Video creation: Animoto, Biteable
- Graphic design: Canva, Figma
- Photo editing: Pixelmator Pro, Pixlr
5. Create a hashtag for your university
Create a specific hashtag for your university or Bootcamp that isn’t used anywhere else. Then, encourage students to use the hashtag on their social media accounts and tell them to share pictures from the campus and other university-related events.
You can encourage your students to use it by reposting the content under your hashtag on Instagram and Stories. By having your own hashtag, you’ll encourage students to promote your social media content and initiatives organically and make it easier for other students to find you on your various channels.
Hopefully, these tips have been useful on starting your own social media program at your Bootcamp or University! Looking to increase enrollment in other ways? Offering more tuition options is a great way to get started.
