Why Social Media is Vital to Colleges

College Institutions across the country are starting to realize how vital social media is in attracting prospective students in high school. Since the majority of college students are on social media, it is the perfect place to reach out to them and tell them about your university. “Schools have taken notice of what students are looking for, and are using social media to share their campus culture with prospective students and their parents. Colleges are sharing campus life as it happens, using Instagram photos, YouTube videos, tweets and more” Colleges are starting to see many ways to make it easier for these prospective students to do things like book a tour of the university or even virtually. “When searching for a college or university, students want the world-class program, facility and faculty, but they are also looking for a place to fit in and call home. Move over printed booklets, campus visits and overnights; students can now connect with a school’s campus life 24/7 through the power of social media” The tiniest things like providing photos of the school and its features like its facilities can make a huge impact. If a prospective student sees these photos, likes them and feels comfortable with the college, that’s one step closer in the decision process. However, it goes way beyond just using social media for posting photos. Small parts from hashtags to blogs are also very important. College will be some of the most transformative years in most students’ lives, and the most successful schools on social media are using social networks to collect and share these experiences. Two popular ways schools are curating student content are blogs and hashtags. “Vital can’t emphasize enough how important it is for schools to have a blog. It’s a place where all your content can live, driving visitors back to your website and boosting your SEO rankings. Jason Boucher sees the value in their student blog as an engagement tool with current students, but also a recruitment tool for prospective students. “UNHTales gives students the opportunity to speak in their own words and to be published, which is good for building their resume and getting some real-world writing experience,” says Jason. “Our audience for UNHTales is not only students, but prospective students and their parents read the voice of the student and what their experience is like at UNH coming from actual students not the administration, so it’s genuine and authentic.”These different parts of the process are very vital in a college succeeding in the future, because with the ways things are going, social media is our future.