When it comes to strategic communication efforts, colleges and universities have a range of social media tools and strategies to choose from. In addition to “The Big Three”—Facebook, YouTube and Twitter—institutions are also exploring other platforms, writes Inside Higher Ed reporter Eric Stoller in the latest SEM Quarterly.
For example, the University of Michigan (http://www.linkedin.com/edu/school?id=186330) was an early adopter of LinkedIn’s new University Pages, which connect students and their families with institutions and their alumni. On LinkedIn University Pages, users can see metrics such as where alumni work, tuition figures and enrollment totals. In addition, a side bar lists student and alumni connections as well as groups including “notable alumni” and “similar schools.”
“The holistic potential of LinkedIn University Pages is tremendous when you consider the fact that they connect prospective students with alumni and everyone in between,” Stoller wrote in SEMQ. “This is something that has not occurred in this manner before, and it is crucial that institutional brand managers from admissions to alumni development are literally on the same page with this new addition to the social media mix.”
Some schools, like Chapman University (www.social.chapman.edu), are using social media aggregation, which essentially creates a directory for all social media an institution engages in. “Aggregating social media content from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Chapman blogs, this social media hub is an impressive example of how a community effort can extend and enhance an institution’s brand,” Stoller wrote. “It displays content in a single location that is easily perusable by prospective students and their families.”
Other new social media strategies have been successful as well, including Ithaca College’s recent Tumblr project, which resulted in photos and a video of daily life on campus (http://lifeatic.tumblr.com), and Colgate University’s use of Reddit to allow the community to vote on questions for an “Ask Me Anything” session with the dean of admissions.
As resources evolve, social media competency as a core skillset is important to those who work in higher education, Stoller said in SEMQ. “Enrollment management professionals have to be well-versed with how to use as many of these tools as possible,” he said.
More from the January issue of SEMQ:
Click here to review the abstracts for all articles from the most recent issue of SEMQ, including the following titles:
Lessons Learned at the Brink
Judith Maxwell Greig
Student Access and Completion: A Regional Strategic Enrollment Partnership
Angela Peterson¿
Enrollment “Management” Isn't Good Enough Anymore! Enrollment Leadership for a Campus Transformation
Scot Lingrell¿
A Data-Driven Approach to SEM Development at a Two-Year College
Landon K. Pirius
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