Social Media In Use: University Student Recruitment
by Chelsea Herman
University recruitment is becoming an ever-competitive task, in part because of the proliferation of options in post-secondary education and in part because of the diminishing pool of graduating high-school students across Canada. By 2012, "the 18- to 21-year-old cohort is expected to level out and start declining nationwide" (Trends in Higher Education: Enrolment). In order to draw in prospective students in this demographic, post-secondary recruiters are recognizing the need to publicize their schools' "brand" using the target demographic's language and via the mediums that matter to them. Understanding the expectations of the "millennial" generation, as this generation has been called, is crucial to the university recruitment race. Because increasingly computer-saavy students typically use the internet for their university searches and because they expect high-quality visuals and media, particular attention is now paid to university websites, and traditional print recruitment tools (view books and brochures) have increasingly been supplemented by the following social media:
Blogging
MIT was one of the first universities to effectively use blogs on its website, and many Canadian universities have followed suit. Blogs written by students from various faculties and programs, as well as alumni, staff, and high-ranking university officers and directors, are featured on the university's homepage or prospective student/admissions page. According to higher education recruitment expert Bob Johnson (interviewed in Campus Technology magazine), even university presidents are using blogs because they are an "excellent place to speak frankly to the public...about issues that are important to the school." This medium can be troublesome from the PR professional's standpoint, says Johnson, because of the ease with which blogging can be done; bloggers, including university directors and presidents, can write and publish blogs without consulting with public relations and communications experts.
Social Networking Sites such as Facebook and MySpace
According to a recent Pew Internet survey (Pew Internet on Adults and Social Media), 57% of adults aged 25 to 34 maintain profiles on social networking sites, while 75% of adults aged 18 to 24 do, and the numbers are rising in both demographics.
Facebook is a particularly prominent medium in the student recruitment race, because compared to MySpace, Facebook users are more affluent, more male, and more highly educated (Source: "The Evolution of Online Student Recruitment" - Campus Technology). Facebook can be used in an informal way, such as creating a university group that allows prospective students to meet others, which "reduce[s] the intimidation factor." One prospective Acadia University student appreciated the university's Facebook group, reporting that she "felt at ease asking questions of someone her own age [and that] she was getting the straight goods and not a faculty member's hard sell". This approach can be a inexpensive form of publicity, but again, can cause problems for the PR department because it again is difficult to oversee or control.
Easier to control from a PR standpoint is Facebook sponsored content, which is more expensive but which offers targeted advertising, allowing the institution to direct specific messages to specific segments of the population--from those of certain ages and locations to those with specific interests and hobbies.
University-specific online portals
Some universities have designed and built some of the capabilities of social networking sites, blogging sites, YouTube, and other social media into their own websites. This allows the institution to provide the interactive and visual- and media-rich content that millennials expect, while maintaining some control over the messages conveyed and emphasizing what's important to the institution.
Acadia University claims to be "one of the early adopters of the online portal," according to its director of communications and marketing, having focused on "Web 2.0 approaches focusing on user-generated content." Its website also includes "AcadiaTV" (http://www.acadiau.ca/acadiatv/), which features a variety of YouTube videos specific to the Acadia University experience.
The University of Alberta's "Bears' Den Online Community" (http://www.registrar.ualberta.ca/ro.cfm?id=270), which includes live chats, blogging, and a YouTube-based video contest in which prospective students can vote for a winner.
McGill University's "Campaign McGill" (http://sixwords.mcgill.ca/homepage.html) has an interactive website inviting users to "Think Big in Six Little Words", sharing their dreams or their fondest McGill memory in six words.
Experts agree that only those universities that take the time to understand the millennial generation will have a real stake in the university recruitment race.
