Edu, short for Eduardo, was trying to find more information about his top universities. Social media is a great place to gain some different insights as these media a more casual. Some universities tend to be even more creative than on their corporate web. So, he started following his top-choice universities on different social media platforms. Edu realized 3 things:
- Some universities replicated content across platforms.
- Some universities repeated the same content over and over again.
- Some universities weren’t even on the social media platforms that Edu most uses.
For him, it seems to be a kind of checkbox. A university has to be present on social media, but let’s make it easy and efficient.
Social media platforms are a great tool for universities to expand their brand beyond their website. It drives traffic and new leads from these sites to their digital assets if done properly. They provide opportunities for very targeted advertising for particular programs. It sounds like a blessing to reach future students… but you must do it right!
Audience
Every social media platform caters to different audiences. As such, a one-size-fits-all approach is hardly possible. Content distribution platforms like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sendible make spreading content across established platforms very easy. They, however, might make it difficult to reach your target audience.
Original Content
Besides a different audience, every platform has a unique and preferred content style. Your message should adapt to this style to be effective and cater to the audience that prefers to consume the content this way.
Sharing your latest podcast on Facebook or Linkedin might work well. Posting it on Instagram will complicate the process as several steps are involved in reaching the original content. People expect to watch videos on YouTube rather than listen to a podcast.
Similarly, a great picture from an emotional graduation ceremony can stand alone (with hashtags) on Instagram but would need some context on Facebook or Linkedin. It’s a NO on YouTube unless you combine several pictures into a video. However, this would again miss the purpose and expectations of a YouTube user. Reposting content that is not the same content on a daily, repetitive basis is OK. Some universities publish the same story on Instagram. It disappears after 24 hours, and it might be great for a casual platform user. However, for a regular user and “story watcher,” this becomes annoying.
Channel
There is no need to jump on every new trendy social media platform. However, it should be a no-brainer once they become established and the audience aligns with your buyer persona. However, only a few universities are following these trends. New platforms like TikTok feature a totally different content style and creativity. They are not (yet) available on the content distribution platforms. This makes it very disruptive to established processes, and universities opt against it.
Social media platforms come without an initial cost, so it’s easy to set them up. However, the important element is how to manage it effectively and purposefully. It requires resources and time. Like on many occasions, one has to balance between benefits and costs.
If you wish us to review your student recruitment process or book our related student recruitment workshop for your team, check out our Workshops or contact us.
About this blog: EDU, short for Eduardo, is a great guy! He is your lead, candidate, student, and alumni. He helps you see things from his perspective. You will understand why things matter to him. On his blog, he will pose questions to which you hopefully have answers - or we help you to find them! So, go ahead and explore more stories at Eduardo or get the latest stories directly delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
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