DID YOU KNOW … Today’s high school students practically live online. It seems that they are always Facebooking, Tweeting, texting, checking in, and more. And they expect us to find them there. Do your student recruitment efforts take this fully into account?
Recently, online content service Mashable published 10 Tips for Building a Strong Online Community Around Your Startup. Even though you probably don’t consider your Office of Admissions to be a startup, for many of our institutions, social media efforts are in startup mode. This article offers sage advice for building that critical online community that will help you draw prospective students in, get a dialog going, and use this amazing marketing platform to spread the word.
Author Megan Berry, who is a Senior Marketing Manager for Klout (there’s another service you should check out—it helps you measure and leverage your online influence) cautions patience, saying, “Real community doesn’t happen overnight … [but] the returns on your efforts increase exponentially as you grow a real community. Don’t give up when your account doesn’t ‘go viral’ immediately, because unless you’re the Old Spice guy, it’s probably not going to happen.”
Perhaps most importantly, take chances and experiment. It’s the way you will learn what works and what doesn’t. If you are just starting out and don’t have many followers, the risk is low and learning can be high. As your social media efforts grow and mature, you will still benefit from experimentation. This is a world that is constantly changing, and the expectations of its participants (your prospective students!) continue to climb. Sure, there is risk, but there are rewards as well.
Berry concludes, “A vibrant community helps you attract new users, keep current users engaged, and provide valuable feedback to help improve your product [the engagement experience you offer prospective students]. At the beginning, getting any retweet or share will be a victory. If done right, however, you’ll find yourself quickly and exponentially growing past those initial milestones.”
Read the full article and get to work! Once you are up and running, you will find it to be one of the most rewarding areas of your work. Trust us!