How Colleges Are Using Social Media
With millions upon millions of people using social media websites on a daily basis, educational institutions believe that social media networks play an intricate role in their success. External relations as well as marketing and advancement for educational institutions can be achieved using social media. Let’s take a much closer look into the ultimate goals of social media.
Primary Goals and Objectives of Educational Institutions
When it comes to the utilization of social media, educational institutions have a number of primary goals and objectives. Approximately 1 in every 3 schools believes that social media networks are much more resourceful and effective in targeting their intended audience as compared to other forms of traditional media.
Current Statistics
Nearly 83% of social media goals will provide a foundation to engage alumni while 77% will be used to help develop, maintain, and improve the brand. About 49% will extensively work to increase awareness and advocacy and 55% of social media networks work to engage their current student population. Social media websites also aim to target and engage current faculty and staff members, engage students admitted to the educational institution, manage and regulate crisis related issues, and to recruit new prospective students.
How Social Media Networks Are Used
Now that you’re aware that educational institutions believe that using social media networks will help them reach their targeted audience, which social media websites are readily utilized? Facebook is by far the most common and widely used social media network for educational advancement. However, other websites are becoming increasingly popular as well.
Emerging Trends in Social Media
There has been a significant increase in the number of educational institutions that actually use social media websites as a way to reach their intended audience from 2010 to 2012. About 96% of schools used Facebook in 2012 which is a 2% increase from 2010. Twitter, the second most common social media site used by educational institutions, was utilized by 80% of schools in 2012 accounting for a 13% increase since 2010. In 2012, YouTube was used by 73% of schools which is a 14% upsurge from two years ago. In addition, LinkedIn was used by 68% of educational institutions, Flickr was used by 51% of schools, and blogs were used by 55% of educational institutions in 2012.
Although some educational institutions are viewing the number of “Likes” they have, other schools are looking outside of social media networks to measure their success. Let’s take a look at how schools assess and evaluate their success with social media.
Approximately 68% of schools look at the number of friends, likes, tweets, and comments while 53% of colleges measure their success by the volume of participation. About 49% of schools view the number of times they have click-thrus, 30% base their success on the number of event participants, and 26% measure anecdotal success.
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