Social Networking Sites
How has the popularity of social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, etc., affected communications with prospective students?
Does your school have a marketing plan that includes the use of social networking sites?
We have a dedicated FB page, and to be honest, it can be a challenge. Students talk to each other with personal understanding of courses, policies and procedures which are not always accurate. As an instructor it is particularly hard when something in my course has changed. Students have the "scoop" from previous students and are more willing to listen to them than to me. I would suggest that if you have social media attached to your school you need to monitor the content as an instructor because it is easier when you know what is circulating amoung students to be able to advise and support students.
Social networking is a very important source for gaining the attention of potential students. A School is able to promote events, make announcements and post pictures and videos of what their campus life is like. It also is a good place for current students to post questions and share their school page with prospective students.
I agree Philip. For Ross it does nothing but damage the Brand to have students airing out there issues on social media. Ross just has to be proactive be take away those opportunities for the Brand to be damaged. That's why it is crucial for any business the operates on one of the Social Media platforms to have someone constantly monitoring and making sure rules are set so negative information can't be displayed.
There should be a Social Media Administrator who monitors the site. With monitoring really it should be NEW, EXCITING, and RELEVANT information regarding the school and it's programs. The site can also
be set so comments have to be approved by the administrator. There are a few ways to control information posted.
Social Networking offers a opportunity for non traditional contact with perspective and current students. It is a very cost effective tool that if used consistently can offer current students another avenue for support. It also provides potential students insight into the program and the School they are thinking about becoming apart of.
We are required to have a staff facebook account. As a high school rep, my prospective students are fully immersed in social media and many feel most comfortable with communicating through facebook messaging and posts to a time line. It's no only phone calls and presentation cards anymore like when I was in high school. I think this is a wonderful way to meet the prospective students where they are and how they're comfortable. We even utilize texts with our leads...again, that's not how it was in my high school years. We had a home phone and a mailbox! I think, in this modern era, using social media appropriately opens up a huge amount of opportunity to find new students that may have been unreachable before.
I think social networking has been greatly beneficial for getting the word out about different opportunities and events at our school! It's a great way to reach a significant amount of people with the click of a button.
Social networking sites have helped tremendously with communications all around the world. These sites have allowed for representatives to contact prospective or current students to provide them with information or assist them if they have issues or concerns. I personally have not used social networking sites to communicate with students, but it has been proven successful with other individuals.
No we do not currently have one, but I think it could be a good thing.
Yes, our school has a marketing plan that includes social marketing, which is critical tool now a days to reach out and let people know who we are and what we offer
Our school posts to Facebook on a regular basis. We have found it to be a helpful method of getting information to the students. We sometimes post pictures of our students participating in events. This is a great tool to promote referrals. A current student sees themselves in the Facebook post and then shares that with their friends. The friends (prospective students) now have seen a bit about the programs and have the needed info to contact the school.
Social media is a way of free advertising. Social media allows current and prospective students to speak out about their experience with their school. Students tweet or share their status about their current experience with their school. This is free marketing in itself well as long as the status is positive one the school could benefit.
My school makes use of Facebook sporadically. We do not as yet have a large following, but I hope that will change in the future. LinkedIn groups are also important to us as we inform group members about upcoming programs.
We have a designated marketing person who handles all our social media but it is nice when they take input from admissions
We have recently expanded our Facebook site.It is definitely a place students go to get information.
The University I worked at also used Facebook for upcoming events, highlighting certain students, faculty, etc. It is a great tool and it is important for schools to remember to stay up on new trends of social media to relate to their target crowd.
The last institution I worked with had specific agents that worked the social networking sites and responded to students questions and concerns. I haven't been at my current institution long enough to know what policies they have here.
I think it's a great way to market to students. Things like having a Facebook page for the institution or specific location allows students to keep up to date with activites at a glance! It's just another great way to promote. Being a young 20 something myself I know that I'd be more likely to respond to an email or social networking contact that answer my phone in the middle of the day so it's just another great way to get the institution's name out there.
Negative imaging of the organization is brought to the attention of the director. The offending party is brought for discussion by someone in the organization, the reaction of your organization should be aimed at removing the comment posted and attemptimg to address their concern. I do not agree that this should be a normal occurance to see student concerns via social media; The organization should have some other procedure for student to voice their discontent.
Social Media is wher most people get information. I think that its very effective because you can reach a large amount of people in a short period of time.
