Social Media in Higher Ed, a How To

Recently Inigral undertook the task of coming up with no-bs, easy to understand social media guidelines document for colleges and universities to use when experimenting with social media..

For some this may not be as flashy as you are used to, but after having conversations with 100′s of schools we decided to share some common themes and best practices.

1. Go where the students are

Don’t try and force students down a path they aren’t comfortable going (wait for class to do that). Engage students where they are most comfortable. Everyone has different communication and learning styles. That’s right all “Millenials” don’t use technology the same.

Focus your priorities on where students are. When talking about social networks, there’s only one place 80% of students spend most of their time online. Facebook.

2. Don’t Just Broadcast

Remember, this isn’t about you. It is about them. What type of information do they need? What do they want to do? This isn’t a place for you to be a brand caveman with your logo in every possible location. There should be people on your social media spaces. You may have admissions counselors, student ambassadors, or even just student peers helping to ask questions and help one another out.

Get them involved. Think like a student. Talk to students. Listen to what they say.

3. Think real-time dialog

You should know when people are posting and asking questions, and you should respond in a relevant time period. The sooner the better in general, but a response time with-in 24 hours may also do. Be careful busy pages and groups don’t bury unanswered questions. It sends a social proof that signals this is not a place to answer questions and decreases the likelihood they feel comfortable reaching out.

Think call-to-action and conversion. Make sure after you give them what they want, you get what you need. Ask them to like the page, sign up for e-mails or to view special videos. Social media is another point in an evolving digital communications environment.

If you’d like to download our full guide to Facebook in for Admitted and Incoming Students you can find it here.