Social media for universities can be a powerful tool for marketing your institution and creating a closer-knit community. As social networking sites have become such an integral part of our daily lives, universities must learn to adapt and use these platforms to connect with the new generation of students.
If youβre wondering how to incorporate social media into your strategy, youβve come to the right place. In todayβs article, weβll discuss the best practices for using social media for universities, provide some creative content ideas, and share the top five platforms you should consider using.
Letβs start!
4 Crucial Reasons Why Social Media is Important for Universities
From boosting student enrollment to promoting university events, there are several reasons why social media is important for universities.
Letβs discuss them in detail:
#1. Connecting With Students
One of the top reasons to use social media for universities is to connect with students in a more relaxed environment. While school tours and email correspondence can help prospects learn more about the university, being on social media will allow you to provide a more authentic glimpse into the actual day-to-day life on campus.
You can use features such as Facebook Groups to create a space where students and the school can interact, which can foster a sense of community. Alternatively, you can host virtual Q&A sessions to help new students learn more about the campus.
#2. Highlighting University Achievements
Social media for universities can also be an excellent way to highlight achievements and elevate your institution. You can post about awards the school received, give a virtual tour of the campusβ best facilities, or celebrate any athletic or academic achievements to showcase the excellence of the university and its students.
#3. Improving Student Recruitment
Using social media for universities can also help improve student recruitment, as you can make your institution more appealing to potential enrollees by managing your branding and presence.
According to the Keystone Education Groupβs 2022 State of Student Recruitment report, 54.1% of students utilize online search when deciding on a school, with 9.2% specifically using social media. By having a solid online presence, you can improve the universityβs visibility and reach new students who may not be aware of your institution.
#4. Promoting University Events
In addition to elevating your image, social media for universities can be used to promote events and ensure a larger turnout. Whether it be for a pep rally, a sports event, or an alumni event, posting on social media will allow you to reach the most number of people in a short time.
7+ Best Practices for Universities Managing Social Media
If you want to succeed at using social media for universities, itβs important to keep these best practices in mind:
#1. Create Social Media Guidelines
Unlike when using social media for freelancers, universities have a reputation to uphold. This is why itβs crucial to have a set of guidelines to follow to ensure that you maintain a unified brand voice across all profiles and content.
Some factors to include in your social media guidelines are:
- Social media policies
- Content style guide
- Guidelines for responding to negative messages
- Crisis management
- Contingency plan
- Social media compliance agreements
If you are planning to assign different users to manage multiple social media accounts, having clear guidelines is essential for keeping everyone involved on the same page. Fortunately, there are social media tools like Publer that can help streamline this process for you.
As a powerful social media management platform, Publer allows you to create collaborative workspaces where you can easily manage accounts from over 12 different social media apps and websites. You can also add team members to the workspace and provide each one with a custom level of control over content and profile management.
#2. Develop a Social Media Strategy
After setting guidelines, the next thing to do is to develop a social media strategy for the university that will guide your efforts to success. We recommend conducting a social media SWOT analysis first to help identify potential goals and opportunities that you can target; this can include improving alumni relations or promoting on-campus events.
Once you know what you want to achieve, you can use this as a basis for creating a content strategy and deciding which platforms to use. You should also perform audience segmentation and identify the social media KPIs you should track to help refine your strategy and measure your success.
#3. Post Regularly
Posting regularly is one of the best ways to build your presence online and reach your target audience. When using social media for universities, consider creating a content calendar to help you maintain a consistent posting schedule of diverse and timely posts.
You can also utilize Publer to create and schedule social media posts in advance, ensuring you donβt miss any opportunities to publish content. Moreover, our tool can help you target your audienceβs most active hours per social media platform, ensuring that your posts get the best chances for visibility.
#4. Respond to All Messages
One of the best advantages of using social media for universities is the ability to communicate with students directly, so be sure to fully utilize this feature by responding to all the messages you receive.
Ignoring messages can lead to missed opportunities, so whether the message is from alumni, existing students, or potential enrollees, be sure to provide a prompt response to help you establish a more positive reputation for the university.
Aside from a better reputation, this may also lead to an increase in enrollments. According to research by Shah et al. (2012), reputation is important for students when deciding what institution to enroll in.
#5. Maintain Branding
Aside from reputation, another important factor to prioritize in a social media strategy for educational institutions is branding. According to Kannappan (2013), a consistent brand image can help build trust, awareness, and a connection with students, directly impacting a universityβs enrollment rates.
To successfully use social media for universities, itβs crucial to maintain consistent branding in all your posts, regardless of their content. Every post should feature a similar color scheme, tone of voice, and digital assets to present a more cohesive and easily recognizable image. This is also where the guidelines you established early on will come in handy.
#6. Balance Informative and Creative Posts
While the most common reason to use social media for universities is to share informative posts, itβs also important to balance these out with more creative and engaging posts to encourage interactions.
So, aside from the usual event, academic program, and deadline posts, consider publishing student stories, interactive polls, or behind-the-scenes videos featuring faculty. These will help paint a picture of life on campus and make your institution more relatable and appealing for incoming students.
Engaging your audience will also help your profileβs overall visibility on the platform, as social media algorithms consider engagement an important ranking factor for content.
#7. Optimize Strategy Per Social Media Platform
To enhance the results of social media marketing for universities, itβs vital to create a strategy specifically optimized for each social media platform. Different apps cater to varying demographics and have different content formats, so you shouldnβt treat them as one and the same.
While certain sites can have similar formats, like TikTok posts and YouTube Shorts, your approach for each one should be tailored to the specific audience of that platform. Additionally, even if you need to post the same content on two different platforms, avoid simply cross-posting the same image on various sites.
For instance, if you are planning to post about enrollment deadlines on both Facebook and Instagram, consider creating a more detailed, long-form post for the former while focusing on a detailed visual for the latter.
#8. Monitor Analytics
Keeping your strategy relevant is a key part of digital marketing for universities, and the best way to achieve this is by monitoring your social media analytics. Doing so will allow you to determine the parts of your strategy that are working and the parts that need improvement, helping you achieve better results.
While each social media platform already has a built-in analytics feature, you can complement this with Publerβs advanced analytics tool to gain a more comprehensive understanding of your current performance.
5 Compelling Social Media Content Ideas for Universities
Itβs important to post a diverse range of content to both engage and appeal to target audiences, so here are five college social media post ideas you should incorporate into your strategy:
#1. Show Campus Life
Using social media for universities can be a great way to provide a glimpse into campus life and show both students and parents what they can expect inside the institution. You can host a livestream to tour the viewers on campus or create Stories featuring the different areas of the university and compile them in an Instagram highlight to create a virtual tour.
Aside from touring the buildings, you can also use the Instagram question sticker to ask your audience what other content they want to see about the campus.
#2. Share Real-Time Updates
While school newsletters and emails were originally used to share updates with students, these are often ignored. So, if you want to share important or time-sensitive announcements, itβs better to use social media for schools.
This method is highly effective, as students are likely already on several social media platforms and wouldnβt have to go out of their way to view the announcement. In fact, 63% of college students use social networking sites to find the latest news, so your posts have a much higher chance of reaching your audience compared with other channels.
#3. Cover Events
In addition to showing campus life, another way for universities to use social media is by covering live events to generate excitement and engagement online. Doing so benefits not only potential students but also those currently enrolled who may not be aware of such happenings.
You can promote the event prior to the actual date to build hype or live stream the actual event to cater to students who are not able to attend. You can also post interviews from attendees, behind-the-scenes footage, or highlights to create a more immersive experience for viewers.
#4. Create Branded Hashtags
Branded hashtags arenβt just limited to companies and creators; in fact, they can be a useful marketing tool when using social media for universities. You can use hashtags to curate all related posts about the university in one place, making it easier for students to research potential school options.
We also recommend using hashtags to hold a competition, which will generate significant engagement and visibility for your account.
Here are some hashtag contest ideas you can try:
- Ask students to share their best moments on campus
- Ask students to share their enrollment experience
- Ask students to share their favorite spots on campus
You can create a specific branded hashtag for each contest and ask participants to use it in their entries. This will help you gather a lot of user-generated content (UGC) and further improve the institutionβs visibility on social media.
#5. Utilize User-Generated Content
As we mentioned, running a contest will help you gain user-generated content, so be sure to use this to your advantage by reposting them on the official university account. Aside from contests, you can also get UGC by creating hashtags for sports events or academic competitions and, in that way, encourage students to share their photos online.
According to data from Salesforce, utilizing UGC in social media campaigns results in a 50% increase in engagement. Moreover, UGC offers a more genuine look at your institution compared to more curated and branded posts, which makes them more effective at resonating with audiences.
Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Universities
While using social media for universities can provide several benefits, itβs vital to be strategic about the platforms you use. After all, signing up on too many sites can be difficult to manage and maintain.
With that in mind, here are our recommendations for the top five social media platforms for universities:
#1. Facebook
At the top of the list of our social media for colleges is Facebookβthe largest social networking site. With the biggest and most diverse user base, Facebook can be a great starting point for universities looking to venture into social media.
Moreover, the app has a wide range of content formats, including both traditional text posts and the more popular short-form video content. This makes it a versatile platform for connecting with students, parents, and prospective enrollees.
On Facebook, universities can create a page where they can share updates, events, and other information about the institution. Rather than having a personal profile, a page presents a more professional image. You can also utilize Facebook Groups to connect more easily with students or faculty and provide a space that facilitates conversations.
#2. Instagram
If you plan on using social media for universities to highlight campus life and facilities, then Instagram is the ideal platform to be on. Instagram focuses mainly on visual content and offers several formats for sharing photos and videos, including Stories, Reels, and regular posts.
Stories are perfect for sharing behind-the-scenes or promoting events, while Reels can be used for Q&A sessions and virtual tours. You can even go live on Instagram and share the stream directly on your profile to garner even more engagement.
Instagram is also an excellent app for utilizing branded hashtags. As students share their photos, they can promote the school and start to build a sense of community with other residents on campus.
#3. LinkedIn
Social media for universities can serve as a platform for networking with industry partners, sponsors, and alumni, and the best app to use for this purpose is LinkedIn. Compared to the first two apps, LinkedIn caters to a more professional crowd, which makes it perfect for highlighting the universityβs programs and faculty members.
Universities can also use LinkedIn to publish papers and post about job opportunities or internships while building their academic institution’s credibility.
#4. TikTok
TikTok is one of the most popular apps today, making it an important social media tool for universities that want to reach the younger demographic. The platform specializes in short-form video content that can be used to connect with prospective students.
Universities can use TikTok to participate in trends, use popular sounds and elements, and promote their branding. The app is also ideal for sharing short snippets about the campus, as it can deliver information in a more digestible and engaging way that resonates with audiences better than a lengthy text post.
#5. X/Twitter
Last on the list of must-have social media sites for universities is X/Twitter, where you can share real-time updates and engage in conversations. The platformβs mainly text-based format is perfect for quick reminders, important announcements, or event changes that would get lost on another social media appβs algorithm.
X/Twitter is also a valuable social listening tool that can help universities monitor relevant trends and their current reputation online.
How Publer Helps Universities With Social Media Management
As we mentioned earlier, you can use Publer to manage social media accounts and schedule posts, but this advanced tool also offers additional benefits, such as:
- Posting better quality content. Since Publer allows you to schedule posts in advance, this gives you more time to perfect each one and ensure that your branding and message are clearly defined. By posting more quality content, you can present a more professional image for the university and attract potential students.
- Simplifying social media workflows. Aside from scheduling and analytics, Publer has several features that can simplify social media workflows, including an AI Assist tool, VistaCreate and Canva integrations, and a Spintax generator.
- Saving time and effort. With several tools at your disposal, such as a hashtag generator and a built-in media library, Publer can help you save significant time and effort on content creation without sacrificing quality.
Key Takeaways
- Using social media can help universities connect with students, improve student recruitment, promote events, and highlight achievements.
- Some best practices to remember when using social media for universities include creating and following guidelines, developing a strategy, maintaining branding, and optimizing content for different sites.
- If youβre unsure of what content to post on social media, consider showcasing campus life, covering events, and reposting user-generated content.
- The best social media platforms for universities are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X/Twitter.
- Using Publer can help universities simplify social media workflows, save time and effort, and post more quality content.
Ervin Kalemi
