3 Tips to Optimize Your College Social Media Strategy

According to ICEF Monitor, 85% of students use social media to decide their enrollment.

Whatever the exact nature of the influence on their decision, social media must be part of your college or university’s overall marketing strategy.

Many colleges fail to leverage their social media presence fully. They create a disconnect between their brand on their website and their social media profiles.

Here are three tips to make sure your college is well-represented online.

Source: postano.com

             Develop a College social media strategy

• • Define your social goals: With the Marketing team, determine what your college wants to achieve through social media. Determine what success will look like on your Analytics tool. More traffic to your site? More leads? More registrations? Do not limit your goals to “increase numbers of leads,” but aim for precise success metrics: “Increase the number of leads from social media by 50”. It will make the goal more realistic and increase your chances of success.
• • Define your social channels: Facebook is still one of the main social media platforms for colleges, but recent studies show that students leave it for platforms that are more specific to their social group or needs. Instagram, Pinterest, Scoop it, Storify it, Tumblr? How can you reach your audience without spreading yourself thin through the social media race? The only way to consider it is to ensure you are relevant. Start by analyzing your and prospective students: how are they using a specific network? Is it consistent with how you would use the network to promote your college?
• • Gather your team:  Identify the persons working on creating or keeping your college’s presence online. Your team should include staff from your main social goals. If the central goal is recruitment, onboard a Recruiting team member. If it is to promote the college image, include a marketing person. Make sure you consider creating a social media Student Ambassador team.
• • Define your keywords and key messages: Find out what keywords your college tries to rank for. Keywords should be part of your communications strategy. Various SEO tools can help you determine what they are. Use those keywords throughout your online activities and on social media.
• • Establish a social media content strategy that includes your college’s blog and all the content you need to create to be shared (videos, comments). For each month, determine how long you will spend on your various platforms, what you will be doing (sharing, community building, etc.), and what you will share with your community. This will save you time as it will offer you a base of content while allowing you to share content spontaneously. Your social media content plan should also include a channel plan, defining how each piece of your content will be shared (time, platforms, etc.) Make your online presence consistent with your offline presence. This is beyond the logo and colors. It pertains to the tone of your school, both online and offline, and the atmosphere in your school.
    

    Manage your college’s brand efficiently

    • Maintain a consistent image: Keep all your profiles updated with the right profile pictures, background, and cover, as this is the first thing potential students will see once they click, for instance, on your Google+ account. Logo sizes and specs will change over time, as will the types of content. That is why it is important to manage your social media profiles daily.
      • Choose the right tools to manage your social media presence: Many tools help you manage all your accounts more efficiently. Hootsuite, Spredfast, or SproutSocial can also help you manage your brand’s image and spread your content effortlessly on different networks.
        • Be active on social media: A common question is, How can I be active on social media? Once you create an account on a social media platform, you must be active on it: share relevant content and engage with your audience.
          

          Monitor your college’s online reputation

          So, How should colleges use social media? Social media reputation management is key to monitoring your college’s reputation and reacting appropriately. Listen to what is being said about your college.

          • • Use the right tools: Many platforms allow you to do keyword searches, which will give you an idea of the perception of your school. It is important to look for key hashtags for possible mentions. Other tools are available, such as:
              • Google Alerts is a great way to start receiving emails every time specific keywords are used online.
              • Tweet Beep, which are Twitter alerts
              • Social Mention allows you to keep track of mentions and the sentiment associated with them
              • Finally, Mention helps you create alerts for your college and competitors and get notified instantly when there is a new mention on any web source (forums, blogs, social media networks, videos, news, etc.). If you want to mention your college, you can retweet or post it on Facebook and share it with your community. Mention can be used on different web, desktop, and mobile platforms. There is a free plan that allows you 500 mentions per month.
            • Keep track of trends. Keeping track of all mentions and interactions will help you identify trends and react appropriately. Recently, some of our clients faced the “Spotted at” trend, where students share anonymously on a Facebook page. Although the nature of the content was generally good-natured, it could easily lead to bullying and had to be monitored closely. We helped our client determine what they could do to limit its effects and advised them to create a policy about social media use in their school.

FAQ’s To Consider

How should colleges use social media?

Social media reputation management is key to monitoring your college’s reputation and reacting appropriately. Listen to what is being said about your college.

How can I be active on social media?

Once you create an account on a social media platform, you must be active on it: share relevant content and engage with your audience.