Social Media Marketing

Colleges can benefit from creating a Facebook account. There is a great deal of data available to substantiate the fact that most current and prospective college students utilize social media daily. After Facebook began to allow businesses to create profiles, the number of commercial users greatly increased, but colleges have been slower to use this new form of communication. Once the decision is made to create a profile page for business purposes, a college, program or department should spend a great deal of time planning several items before actually setting up an account. “To gain any benefit from the social web, institutional social networks need to build sustainable communities that grow and significantly expand their reach. Simply throwing a page up on Facebook or pulling together your own online network is no guarantee of success. If you build it, they may or may not come.”(MacDonald) One or more individuals should be charged with the job of monitoring the page and creating engaging posts.          

Not only can a Facebook page increase a program’s enrollment, it can also be used to keep track of alumni. In a recent journal article, Fritz MacDonald states:

 “Because of its relationship-building power, social networking could become a brave new tool to help achieve a number of significant goals for a higher ed institution, in particular:

Expanding admissions inquiry pools

* Tracking prospective students as they move through the recruiting funnel

* Improving yield and conversion rates

* Bringing alumni back home and integrating them into recruiting and fundraising

* Expanding potential donor pools, particularly for annual funds

* Broadcasting your brand through "viral word of mouse"

* Expanding the reach and constancy of institutional identity”

As college budgets shrink, utilizing free or low cost online marketing platforms can increase the impact of available funds.

            The way in which a Facebook page is managed can greatly impact participation rates and also impact one’s brand.  A successful page must include intriguing posts that both entertain and inform. In a recent article in the Community College Journal, Sally Chapman Cameron states that “It's important to stay casual and connect with users on a personal level. That means having fun and showcasing activities, events, and students who represent the very best the college has to offer.” Due to the time required for monitoring the posts and promptly responding, many programs choose to assign this task to a young or low level employee, but this author does not recommend this practice. She cautions colleges to not “… be tempted to pass this project on to an intern or junior staffer. Yes, social media is second nature to a lot of younger people, but that doesn't mean they see the big picture as it pertains to the college.”

            A great way to improve the number of visitors or “likers” would be to increase the quality of each post. For inspiration, one might “like” other successful pages, creativity does not always have to be sparked by an original idea. Viewing the pages of businesses which share the same target market should prove helpful.

Works Cited

Cameron, S..  8 Ways to Build Community with Social Media.  Community College Journal  81.1 (2010): 22-26. Research Library, ProQuest. Web.  6 Mar. 2011.

McDonald, Fritz. Five steps to developing a powerful social networking strategy: creating web communities can help you build relationships of value with your most important constituents. Here's how. University Business 12.5 (2009): 43+. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Mar. 2011.

Works to be Cited

Bingham, Tony and Marcia Conner. The New Social Learning. San Fancisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc, 2010.

Evans, Dave Bratton. Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

Geyer, Stephanie. Higher Ed Live : Web Content Social Media Mobile Devices. 7 March 2011. 20 March 2011 <http://higheredlive.com/web-content-social-media-mobile-devices/>.

Johnson, Jenna. Live Washington Post: Campus Overload Live with Jenna Johnson: College social media. 20 January 2011. 15 March 2011 <http://live.washingtonpost.com/campus-overload-live-0120.html>.

Powers, Patrick. Patrick Powers. 11 January 2011. 5 March 2011 <http://patrickpowers.net/2011/01/3-ways-higher-education-could-be-using-quora/>.

Staton, Michael. Inigral. 2011. 14 March 2011 <http://www.inigral.com/>.

Watkins, S. Craig. The Young & The Digital. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2009.

Woodruff, Judy. Pew Research. 24 February 2010. 15 March 2011 <http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1516/millennials-panel-two-millennials-media-information>.