The Social Side of College Admissions

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For lots of admissions offices, the decision has been made to use Facebook in recruitment and yield efforts. The opportunity to reach such a large number of prospects in one place has become hard to ignore. However, many are not fully aware of the various options they have for promoting their school on Facebook and what the pros and cons of each option are.

We've pulled together a brief look at the various options for creating a presence on Facebook for your school and admissions office. We hope this helps you get started and make a more informed decision.

The 4 main options on Facebook are (in order of customizability):

1. Personal Profile
2. Group
3. Fan Page
4. Application

Personal Profile

A personal profile is meant to represent an individual on Facebook. Anyone can set up a personal profile. All you need is an e-mail address.

Pros

• It's free
• Easy to set up
• Status updates show up in the News Feed on a user's homepage

Cons

• Meant for individuals not institutions
• No access to user data in easily digestible format
• "Friend"ing is the main form of connecting with prospects and admits

How Profiles Are Used by Colleges

Admissions officers will often set up a separate profile for professional use. Many will use this profile to friend students they meet on recruitment trips, at college fairs, and elsewhere. Some universities have set up personal profiles for mascots or with the name of the university.

Challenges and Risks to Consider for Facebook Personal Profiles

First off, there is a limit of 5,000 friends for an individual profile. Second, Facebook profiles are meant for (real) individuals only. We have heard about several instances where a personal profile that represented a mascot or the school itself was shut down by Facebook because they were not individuals. Finally, some students may find a friend request from an admissions officer a little awkward. Adding someone as a friend typically gives them access to view your full profile, including status updates, uploaded pictures, and more. Students might worry that a picture from last Friday night's party will come back to haunt them. Many schools have stated that Facebook is fair game for use in the admissions process (even if they do not actively check Facebook profiles)

Group

Individuals can join groups on Facebook to interact with each other around some common interest, shared experience, common cause, or other attribute.

Pros

• It's free
• Easy to set up
• Group admins can message group members (as long as the group has fewer than 5,000 members)
• Admin can control access to group (Open / Closed / Secret)
• Users can upload videos and photos and admins create Facebook events

Cons

• Limited customization
• No access to 3rd party applications (e.g., accessing Twitter feed, linking YouTube video channel)
• No audience segmentation (messages go to all members, and all group members see the same information within the group)
• Size limitations (lost functionality when membership reaches 5,000)
• No access to user data (can only see a non-exportable list of group members)

How Groups Are Used by Colleges

The most common use for groups by admissions offices has been for "Class of 20XX" groups. In many cases, prospective and admitted students will set these groups up on their own. Some schools will create more specific groups for international students, for minority students, or for specific programs (e.g., study abroad) where prospects may face unique challenges, have unique needs, or have more specific questions.

Challenges and Risks to Consider for Facebook Groups

FacebookGate (2009 version and 2010 version), which involved companies setting up "Class of 20XX" groups, has garnered a lot of press and is something to be aware of. If you are not the admin of the group, you will not be able to moderate wall posts for objectionable or incorrect statements, and you will not have the ability to message all members, one of the biggest benefits of groups. This is definitely something to keep in mind if you are letting prospects and admits take the lead in Facebook. Additionally, while you can limit access to a group, it can be time-consuming to approve new members one-by-one.

Fan Page

Facebook Fan Pages could best be described as profiles for institutions. Individuals become "Fans" of your institution.

Pros

• It's free
• No size limitations
• Access to 3rd party applications (e.g., incorporating YouTube channel, twitter or RSS feeds, static FBML)
• Basic Traffic / Usage Data via Facebook Insights
• Status updates show up in the News Feed on a user's homepage

Cons

• Limited customization of design
• Limited audience segmentation (all fans see the same information, limited targeting for status updates based on geography, gender, or age ranges)
• Limited access to user data (can only see a non-exportable list of fans and limited demographic breakdowns)

How Pages Are Used by Colleges

By now, most colleges and universities have a Facebook Fan Page for their institution. Many have set up Pages for the admissions office, for specific departments, or for the athletics program as well. They can be an effective tool for broadcasting information and creating a way for Facebook users to connect with your school.

Challenges and Risks to Consider for Facebook Fan Pages

Most Fan pages are geared toward current students and alumni, and the information posted on these pages primarily reflects the interests of these audiences. While it can be interesting for prospective and admitted students to see this discussion, their needs are often not met by a university-wide presence. Think of most university websites, prospective and admitted students often have sections dedicated to them. Trying to address too many audiences with a single university presence can be a major challenge.

Application

Applications are akin to building a dynamic website within the Facebook environment. Applications have a variety of ways that they plug into the Facebook environment (e.g., Applications can access user data, enable user-to-user interactions, invite users to Facebook events).

Pros

• Access to user data (subject to Facebook's privacy controls and Facebook's terms of service)
• Traffic / Usage Data (can incorporate Google Analytics or almost any other method available to a regular website)
• Customization of design (e.g., CSS stylesheets can be used, school branding and color scheme can be incorporated)
• Audience segmentation (can adapt Application based on data from Facebook profile or other data collected by the Application)
  For example, our Application adapts depending on whether someone is a prospective or admitted student and what term they plan on enrolling.
• Can create unique functionality (incorporate forms, offer searches, export user data for use in CRM / SIS systems)
• Can do almost anything you can do with a website

Cons

• Cost and effort to build and maintain
  -OR-
  Cost to license
• No direct access to News Feed – Wall posts and notifications must be triggered by user actions (e.g., give a friend a virtual gift, share a video with a friend)

How Applications Are Used by Colleges

Several colleges have begun utilizing applications to create communities in Facebook for various audiences. We have helped nearly two dozen schools create communities for prospective and admitted students. Other companies have worked with schools to create communities where current students can connect with each other and the university's faculty and staff. These communities provide additional functionality to users and typically allow for improved metrics and data gathering.

Challenges and Risks to Consider for Facebook Applications

While applications usually provide superior functionality and features, they usually come with a price tag (either a development fee or an annual licensing fee or man-hours from your IT/web team). The continued utility of the application will depend on future upgrades of the application. The Facebook Platform is a constantly evolving environment. Working with a company or having an in-house team that stays on top of these changes and continues to innovate around them is a must.

Labels: Admissions, Community, Facebook

We want it to be easy. We want our first YouTube video to go viral. We want our blog to have hundreds if not thousands of followers within a couple months. We want our tweeps (and subsequently their tweeps) re-tweeting our Twitter posts, creating a giant echo chamber for our messages.

Unfortunately, for 99.999% of us, it just doesn't work like that. For every social media overnight success story, there are thousands of folks inching forward, building an online following for their social media presence a handful of users at a time. But maybe being the tortoise in this race isn't so bad. We may not all be able to catch lightning in a bottle like UQAM did with their LipDub video. But maybe we can build meaningful, ongoing relationships with our target audience (prospects, admits, current students alumni, sports fans, and more) through our social media efforts.

Keep the (Relevant) Content Coming

Focus less time trying to come up with a single Silver Bullet that you hope will knock the socks off users and more time providing them with a constant stream of good content. The more content you provide, the more opportunities your audience has to engage with your school.

This doesn't mean distributing the same content on every social media outlet to every audience. Also, don't feel like everything you post has to be an official news release. One of my favorite social media campaigns is the Ohio State O-H-I-O picture campaign. It literally involves them sharing the best pictures of people forming the letter O-H-I-O in fun, interesting, exotic, and unusual locations.

Create a Strategy for Maintaining Momentum

Trust me, I know this is not an easy task. I started this blog with hopes of producing a post every week or two. Unfortunately, they've become a little less frequent. I should've been more honest with myself up front setting up a more manageable timetable for posts.

Try and figure out what are realistic expectations up front. That means determining who will be responsible for creating and curating content, for responding to user comments, for actually posting the content, and for measuring the results of your social media efforts. It also means figuring out how many resources you can reasonably devote to these efforts, not just for the initial launch but on an ongoing basis.

If you have a small team with minimal time available, that may mean that being on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, while publishing your own blog is not really an option.

Again, be realistic about what you can achieve and what sort of effort you can maintain.

Let Your Audience Do Some of the Heavy Lifting

Effective social media efforts are two-way dialogues. Encourage your audience to participate. Make it easy for them to contribute content. You may openly solicit their feedback and opinions ("What's your favorite memory from college?" for alumni, "What's your favorite class?" for current students). You may create contests with prizes for the top submissions ("Take a picture of yourself in the college's sweatshirt. The most creative picture wins a $100 book scholarship" for admitted students).

First off, these efforts can help make your job easier since you won't have to be the one trying to generate all the content. Secondly, it'll provide you with some great feedback on what sorts of content your users may want more of.

The most effective social media efforts are able to harness the power of the audience and enlist their help in building an engaging community. Back to that that UQAM LipDub video I mentioned at the beginning of the post. This was not an official school video. It was shot, directed, and choreographed by students. While the school's marketing department did not have any hand in the video, it's probably one of the best social media campaigns they could have asked for.

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Twitter, YouTube

Social media doesn't necessarily lend itself to easily tracking performance like your website or e-mail campaigns do. It's not always possible to figure out how effective a status update on your Facebook Fan Page or a Tweet from a university Twitter account is.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't try. We offer a number of ideas for determining the success of your social media efforts.

Capitalize on Existing Metrics Offered

Take advantage of the existing metrics offered and track changes over time. For Facebook, that might be monitoring the number of fans and wall posts for your Facebook Page. For Twitter, you might keep tabs on the number of followers for your account.

Don't just peek at these numbers on occasion. You might want to create a spreadsheet where you record these numbers over time. This will allow you to better understand what caused significant increases. Was it a blog post, a mention in your alumni newsletter, a big athletic event? Did you post a status update or tweet that was especially engaging?

Determine the Effectiveness of Calls to Action

Utilizing these existing metrics is just the start. We assume getting a Facebook Fan or a Twitter follower is not the end goal. You are typically going to want these fans and followers to take some sort of action. For alumni, you may want them to donate money or return to campus for homecoming. For prospects, you may want them to apply to your school or accept your admissions offer. For current students, you may want them to buy tickets to Saturday's football game. Asking your fans or followers to act on one of your messages is referred to as a Call to Action.

When you post a Call to Action via social media, try and do so in a way that you can measure the responses. An easy way to do this is via tracking links. With tools like Google Analytics, you can incorporate special codes into links, allowing you to determine how many people got to your website via a given link and which pages they viewed. So you can find out how many people donated money after clicking on a link from your Twitter account. Or how many prospects completed an application form after you posted an Apply Now link to your Facebook Page.

By measuring the performance of these Calls to Action, you will not only start to understand the value of a Facebook Fan or Twitter follower, but you will also get a better understanding on what types of Calls to Action work best on each of your social media outlets. What works on Facebook might not work on Twitter and vice versa.

Survey Your Users

Get information directly from your Facebook Fans and followers. Find out what constituency they are a part of. Are they alumni? Prospective students? Current students? Parents of students? Fans of your sports teams?

You might ask them what sorts of information they want to receive. Do they want sports scores? Information on upcoming campus events? Alumni news? Admissions tips? The more engaged they are, the more likely they are to respond to your Calls to Action.

Find Benchmarks

It's hard to understand how you are doing if you only focus on your own efforts. See what colleges and universities in your peer group are doing. How does your performance stack up against their performance? For schools that seem to be doing a better job attracting Facebook Fans or Twitter followers, what are they doing differently? Are they posting more pictures on their Facebook Page? Is the tone of their Twitter account serious or more light-hearted? Are they running contests?

We've built a resource that will hopefully help you with some of this benchmarking. Our Facebook Page Directory can help find data on hundreds of college and university Facebook Pages.

None of these methods for measuring performance should be considered as one-off initiatives. These should be ongoing efforts that help you hone and refine your social media strategy, helping you better understand who your audience is, what types of information they want, and what types of actions they are likely to perform.

Labels: Facebook, Metrics, Strategy, Twitter

We've given dozens of demonstrations of our Facebook Application for college admission and marketing offices. All but a handful have gotten great responses from colleges, most of whom are looking to do more with social networks, specifically Facebook. The biggest reason folks pass on the opportunity is budget concerns. We've heard some variation of "We just don't have the money for this. Our budget has been cut this year" more than any other reason. We've only heard "We just don't see the value" once.

This got me thinking, are social media efforts primarily considered an additional expense and new responsibility or can they be viewed as an alternative to an existing initiative? As I started to think about this question, I started to realize the implications of the answer.

Social Media Is an Additional Expense and a New Responsibility

If your school views social media as one more thing it needs to do or one more product it needs to buy, you're probably facing an uphill battle, especially in these economic times. There are unlikely additional funds for these "new, non-traditional" approaches. Not only that, many universities are paring down administrative staff, increasing everyone's workload. That likely means any new initiatives only add more to someone's plate, a plate that is already overflowing with responsibilities.

It's easy to see how a school that approached social media from this perspective is going to choose the path of least resistance, requiring the fewest resources, both financial and human. That probably means a Twitter account that pulls directly from the school's news feed, a Facebook Page that regurgitates press releases, and a YouTube account populated entirely with the school's 30-second TV commercials. All content that does very little to play to the strengths of social media and social networking.

Social Media as an Alternative to Existing Practices

Colleges and universities that view social media as a new way to interact with prospective students, current students, and alumni are much better able to take full advantage of the opportunity. This might mean admissions counselors spend more time crafting status updates for your Facebook Page, fun Tweets for your Twitter account, or intersting blog posts that give an insider's view of the admissions process. And less time each week sending off e-mails or manning a booth at a college fair. These schools may choose to invest money from their limited budget in a Facebook Application or private social network rather than in a beautifully designed brochure.

For these schools, a down economy does not mean that social media goes by the wayside. These schools may find that social media actually offers a way to more cost-effectively reach students. A Facebook Page and Twitter account are free to set up, as is a blog if you use a site like Google's Blogger. Expensive viewbooks could be replaced by a lively Facebook presence that helps prospective and admitted students interact with real people in a two-way dialogue. You may choose to create a series of fun 1-minute YouTube videos about life on your school's campus rather than buy an ad in a magazine.

How does your school view social media?

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks

We're heading to the NACAC Conference in Baltimore next week. We're looking forward to exhibiting at this great event. We'll be at Booth #604 so stop on by and say hello if you're going to be there.

Raffle for Free Year of Our Facebook Application

We're going to be raffling off a free year of our Facebook Application at the conference. Don't miss your chance to win. Just come visit us and drop a business card in our raffle bowl to enter.

Can't make it to the NACAC Conference this year? Don't worry about it. You still have a chance to win the free year of our Facebook Application. Just submit our online Raffle Entry Form by September 25 and you'll be entered to win.

Give us a shout out on Twitter (@VarsityOutreach)if you are going to be at the NACAC Conference. We'd love to meet you in person.

Labels: Facebook, NACAC

Varsity Outreach will be hosting a webinar on September 15 at 2pm ET on how colleges can use Facebook to promote themselves. We will combine useful statistics and an overview of your options with practical, actionable advice regarding Facebook.

We plan on covering all the options you have for getting involved in Facebook, including Profiles, Groups, Pages, and Applications. We will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each. Additionally, we will provide tips on how to get the most out of your Facebook experience and a roadmap for a successful Facebook presence.

So come join us next Tuesday, September 15, at 2pm ET. You can watch the webinar from your computer. If you want to participate and ask questions, there will be a chat room (registration on UStream required). We will also be monitoring the Twitter hashtag #VOWebinar

The webinar will be on our UStream channel:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/facebook-tutorial-for-colleges

You will also be able to watch on the Varsity Outreach website at:
http://www.varsityoutreach.com/VideoPresentation.aspx

We hope you can make it!

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Strategy, Webinar