Using social media in higher education is the new norm. Recruitment. Student and alumni relations. Crisis communications. Fundraising. Information technology all happens on social.

In this post, we await at the expanding role of social media in higher pedagogy. Let's explore how you tin use social tools to build your institutional reputation and foster a sense of customs.

Bonus: Read the step-past-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to abound your social media presence.

There are plenty of benefits for higher education institutions that understand social tools. Here are some of the peak advantages of social media in college pedagogy.

Promoting values and achievements

Make your institution's mission and values known. Social media use in higher education is pregnant in setting the tone on campus. Promote and represent the kind of culture your school aims to cultivate.

Value alignment informs everything from pocket-sized purchases to major life decisions. Permit prospective students, faculty, and partners know they're welcome and supported. In turn, communicate the types of behavior that won't exist tolerated.

Give electric current and past scholars reasons to accept pride in their alma mater — broadcast commitments to sustainability, investments in the customs, or advances in medical research.

A little old-fashioned bragging goes a long manner, too. Show off country-of-the-art facilities, award-winning inquiry, and other accomplishments. Highlight students, staff, faculty, and alumni. Rally school spirit by celebrating peak athletes, wins, and offset place finishes.

Connecting with alumni and boost fundraising efforts

Alumni are often the source of major fundraising contributions. Social media raises your profile and helps maintain connections with them. Many colleges and universities maintain social accounts specifically geared to alumni relations.

Facebook groups for alumni in dissimilar cities or countries could be a good bet, too. The University of Oregon has Facebook groups for alumni all over the world.

UO Japan Alumni Facebook group

Source: UO Japan Alumni

Social is as well an important tool to publicize one-off or annual fundraising events.

Last twelvemonth, Columbia University'south #ColumbiaGivingDay raised $24 one thousand thousand. There were more 19 thousand donors. Social media is a central way to spread the word and inspire participation and gifts.

Integrating a entrada like this with a CRM system allows you to attribute funds and measure ROI. Social fundraising campaigns also invite alumni, students, staff, and faculty to exist active advocates for the school. They can provide an invaluable prove of support and camaraderie.

Taking advantage of UGC (user-generated content)

Your entire student population is likely creating social content on a regular basis. That's a ton of existent-life cloth that can help authentically heave your institution'southward profile.

Create a hashtag like #BerkeleyPOV for students to share photos. Repost the best ones (crediting the authors, of class) on your official channels.

Social media contests encourage students to share content you tin utilise. Simple rewards like university logo article of clothing piece of work well as motivational prizes. Plus, those promotional habiliment items volition probable show up in later posts, farther promoting the university in an organic way.

Developing new learning opportunities

Social media in higher didactics presents powerful opportunities for artistic thinking and presentation.

In the Netflix prove "The Chair," a professor asks students to Tweet their favorite line from Moby Dick. There'south not much critical thinking there. Just it could exist a good first step to incorporating social tools. Perhaps students could use a class-based hashtag to collect those Tweets and discuss their impact or meaning.

The A. Holly Patterson Library at Nassau Community College provides resource for instructors to incorporate social media educational activity in assignments. These include guides on information literacy and spotting simulated news.

In the journal Research and Exercise in Technology Enhanced Learning, Hamadi, El-Den, Azam, et al. created the following framework for the role of social media in college education equally a cooperative learning tool:

Framework for the role of social media in higher education as a cooperative learning tool

Source: Hamadi, M., El-Den, J., Azam, S. et al. A novel framework for integrating social media equally a cooperative learning tool in higher education'due south classrooms . RPTEL 16, 21 (2021).

Contempo research shows social media is almost often used in:

  • literacy didactics
  • medicine
  • higher education marketing, and
  • social sciences

The impact of social media in college education is hard to overstate. Let'south wait at a few of its most of import uses for higher ed.

Attracting new candidates

A recent study by TargetX found 58% of aspiring students use social media to research schools. 17% say these sources are extremely influential. And 61% say they are at least somewhat influenced past their social research.

Make it easy for students to pic their future at your university. Showcase college life with virtual tours and student takeovers.

https://www.instagram.com/idiot box/CTqNUe1A7h3/

Feature the clubs, communities, and social opportunities attendees can become involved in. Evidence off the campus. Assistance them empathize the benefits your institution offers beyond bookish study.

Sharing important updates in real fourth dimension

No i hopes for crises or emergencies. Only it's important for institutions to plan for them. People increasingly look to social media for real-fourth dimension updates and data. Social is a key part of every crisis communications programme.

Rumors travel fast on social media. So practice pupil-led trends you'll want to proceed tabs on (we're looking at you lot, #bamarush). All this makes it essential to conduct active social listening.

COVID-xix has increased the demand for stiff communications at universities and colleges. Mask policies, concrete distancing requirements, precautions, event cancellations. These are all advisories schools now issue on social media.

Ohio University has a Twitter business relationship specifically to deal with COVID information and updates:

People also expect institutions to answer to social movements. They desire to see the university take concrete actions to address social or institutional issues.

Communication plans should also be prepared for emergencies. Think about weather disruptions, natural disasters, and other imminent threats.

Engaging students on and off-campus

Not all students alive on campus. That doesn't mean they're less motivated to engage and participate in student life.

A key reward of social media in higher education is that it allows students to connect. That might be from dwelling house, different campuses, work study programs, or at a briefing.

Create channels and groups to rally students. Base them on wide-ranging topics, interests, experiences, and activities.

McGill University runs more than twoscore accounts defended to student life. And the Campus Life & Engagement Facebook Folio links to private groups like McGill Academy Entering Class of 2021-2022.

There's also a Facebook page specifically for off-campus students. This ensures they experience equally much a part of the university community as those who alive in residence.

Using social media in college educational activity tin can experience a little overwhelming. Here are 6 tips to help make it work for your institution.

1. Develop a social media strategy

Behind every successful social media aqueduct, there's a strategy at play. Add more channels to the motion-picture show, and the need for strategy increases. But and then do the challenges.

It'south an enormous challenge to create a strategy for a multi-channel organization.

This is likely why it continues to be a top goal for professionals polled in our Social Campus Written report. 76% of respondents say defining a clear social media marketing strategy and objectives is their pinnacle priority. Some other 45% hope to coordinate social strategy campus-wide.

Align social strategy dorsum to the academy's core objectives. This creates a clear business organization case for social media and allows managers to improve allocate resources. In fact, 64% of professionals agree that social media should connect to the strategic plan and institutional mission.

For example, look at Georgia State Academy'southward #TheStateWay campaign. It has four pillars: Atlanta, research, classroom technology, and pupil success.

@georgiastateuniversityWe're pinnacle ranked! #TheStateWay!♬ original sound – GeorgiaStateU

Meanwhile, the University of Sydney uses social media to back up its 4 big strategic goals:

  • enhance its research reputation
  • attract loftier-quality students
  • diversify its international student base
  • build a unique brand

2. Establish social media guidelines and policies

With so many people and accounts involved, it's of import to found guidelines and policies to keep everyone on track. Solid documentation helps streamline onboarding, promotes all-time practices, and maintains a unified voice across channels.

Your complete set of higher educational activity social media guidelines should include:

  • A social media style guide
  • Guidelines for dealing with negative messages
  • A crisis communications and emergency direction program
  • Social media policies
  • Contact information for relevant members of the social team
  • Links to social media preparation opportunities
  • Mental health resources

It may seem like a lot of ground to cover. Only thorough guidelines provide crucial support to social managers. They also empower students and kinesthesia to participate in an independent and authentic mode. As a bonus, they reduce the demand for back up from the core team.

3. Create a social media hub

Higher ed social media operations tend to involve a lot of people and even more channels. Bring anybody and everything together with a fundamental hub. Create a social media directory that lists and categorizes all social media accounts.

For example, the Academy of Michigan has more than 1200 active social accounts. Official accounts are listed in a directory.

University of Michigan's directory of social media accounts

Source: Academy of Michigan

MIT maintains a searchable website that lets visitors look up channels past keyword or platform. The University of Waterloo lists upwards of 200 channels by department or domain with the selection to filter past network.

As an external resource, these hubs permit people to find and follow the right channels. They can be confident they're looking at official accounts.

The hub-and-spoke setup translates as a good management model as well. With the support of a tool similar Hootsuite, a core team tin monitor all channels from a central dashboard.

This makes life easier for often under-resourced social managers. Use the dashboard to assign tasks, approve and schedule posts, coordinate content from contacts beyond the campus, and mobilize in the event of a crunch.

4. Adopt a platform-specific approach

Did yous bank check out the social media directories nosotros mentioned in a higher place? If so, you lot'll detect the social platforms used vary beyond departments, faculties, and other areas of university life.

Does admissions need a LinkedIn page? Does information aimed at parents need to go on TikTok? It'south of import to consider which platforms are most probable to reach the right audition.

Only remember: You're not just talking to Gen Z.

Your audition includes students and potential students, of course, but they may non all be in their late teens or early twenties. In public four-year schools in the U.S., 90% of students are under 25. Just for private for-profit four-twelvemonth institutions, 66% are 25 or older.

Distribution of new full-time students by age

Source: National Center for Instruction Statistics

Beyond mature students, y'all've also got to reach enough of other adult audiences:

  • parents
  • corporate partners
  • other institutions
  • faculty and potential kinesthesia
  • staff

Get to know each of your social audiences. Wait for trends in age range, gender, location, and, if available, occupation, education level, and interests. With these findings, tailor and personalize messages for each different audience.

For instance, LinkedIn may not be the best platform for recruiting undergraduates. But it could exist the platonic place to market standing education programs or recruit new instructors.

TikTok might be a good aqueduct for admissions content. (Though likely not the merely one — retrieve those adult learners). It can likewise be a platform to experiment and only build community in the inexplicable fashion that only TikTok can.

Stay on top of platform and demographic trends to identify where your communities are almost active. This allows managers to focus on channels that bulldoze the most results. Management tools like Hootsuite make information technology piece of cake to compare how channels stack upwards confronting each other.

5. Build and empower communities

With a central hub, guidelines, and strategy, your infrastructure is in place for communities to flourish on social media.

Create hashtags the student body tin rally behind online. Develop an attainable intake plan so students and kinesthesia can apply to create and manage accounts. Allow students and their inventiveness take over — it pays off.

City University of New York handed command of its TikTok account over to students. The result is definitely not what y'all would find on well-nigh official higher-ed social platforms. But it has more 23 k followers and 1.vi 1000000 likes.

@cunyeduStill gonna get that iced java tho ๐Ÿ˜—✌️ ##CUNY ##higher ##student ##school ##nyc ##CandyCrushAllStars♬ original sound – Call me Snow

Colorado State University created a student-run YouTube channel. Student ambassadors share pretty intimate videos about life on campus and what it has been like to exist a college student during a pandemic.

CSU promoted its YouTube channel with pupil takeovers on its Instagram account, which led to messages similar this:

Exchange of DMs between CSU social team and prospective candidate

Source: Shorty Awards: A Ram's Life Vlog

The more people who share content, the greater your institution's accomplish and social share of vocalism. With Hootsuite Dilate, faculty, staff, and students tin can share vetted, on-make content and increase reach.

6. Invest in building a team

Social media for higher education is not a 1-person job. Nor is a job that should be left to interns. (Although information technology is a slap-up idea to include student interns or work placement positions on your social team.)

For context, the University of Michigan has a social media team of 12 people plus a manager and educatee interns. West Virginia University has a total-fourth dimension social team of viii for their Morgantown Campus plus three half-fourth dimension student workers.

Don't even so have a total squad? Create strategic alliances with other departments. You'll gain access to more than information and resources than you could on your ain.

You tin also maximize the fourth dimension of a small-scale team with a social media management platform like Hootsuite. Create posts in advance, schedule them for the best posting times, and upload batches of posts in majority. You also don't waste material time logging in and out of different platforms.

Liz Grey at the Academy of Sydney said, "​​Hootsuite saves the states so much fourth dimension. It's probably equivalent to having ii more people on our squad."

Need to prove to higher-ups that you lot need more budget for social media? Come up prepared with enough of data most your electric current return on investment.

A social media report is an of import tool for backing up the value of your work.

Put your higher education engagement strategy into action and relieve time while you're at information technology past using Hootsuite to manage all your social channels from 1 dashboard. Try it free today.

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