What One Prospective Parent Wants to See from Colleges on Facebook

You know that feeling you get when you get a long private message on your university’s Facebook page? For me, it’s mixed – is it going to be a request to post something? Did I do something wrong? Did I do something great? Is it some kind of emergency?

Last week, it was a message from a prospective student’s mother who had some questions about our university and wanted to know about our arts programs and hadn't found much on Facebook. I messaged her back, answered her questions and thanked her for her feedback. Then I asked if there was anything else I could help her with. She asked why some colleges post certain types of content and others don’t. I looked at this as a fantastic opportunity to pick her brain a little bit, and after telling her a little bit about what I try to do with our Facebook page, I asked her what she, a prospective parent, is looking at and for when she is researching a college on Facebook (because yes, this proved to me they are researching colleges on Facebook).

These are some of the highlights (in the order she mentioned them):

• What’s NOT in the glossy handouts: Like students, parents want a real-feel for our campuses, and that perspective often comes from anyone but the colleges themselves (even though we try!). She spends time reading comments to get a sense of how authentic a college is being based on their community’s reactions to their posts (and also noted how we, as a university, respond to those reactions and comments). She also looks at what other people post to the page – not just posts by the university.

• How a community responds to tragedy. How quickly do you post during an emergency or following a tragedy affecting your campus? She noted that some schools she’s looked at try to shy away from sharing tragic news and she took note of this in a negative way, but applauded others that did post - and did so in a timely manner. She also said she could get a sense of the college and its community by how people commented and responded to such news. Did a lot of people comment? How did they comment? Were they reacting negatively to the timing of the news being shared (was it posted too late)?

• Show me the student experience. This parent wanted to know more about what Orientation is like, the community service opportunities, the town (or city) the college is located in and where students could study abroad. Are sports popular? I read this as: Will my child fit in? 

• Current campus news. Who are your professors and what are they doing? What are your students up to? Is there construction? What does that look like? When will it be completed? I got the sense she’s looking for a college moving forward and that the college regularly showcases that through news and photos. (No mention of rankings.) 

• What are the hot issues? She mentioned she enjoys reading articles from the college’s student newspaper so she could get a real sense of what the college and students are like without the marketing/PR filters on them. (Do you see a pattern? Authentic content is critical.)

• Campus photos. We know this one. (No girls under trees, please.)

• Photos and videos taken by students. Again with the authenticity!

There aren’t many surprises here, but it was refreshing to get an outside perspective from a constituent I don’t often hear feedback from. It reaffirms our work in trying to be as authentic as we can be but was also a good reminder that it’s often what people are saying to us and about us - and how we respond to those comments - that tells people outside our community who we really are. 

Ensuring Value and Purpose in a College's Instagram Contest

Knowing Instagram was the most popular platform our students were using on a daily basis and getting inspiration from several colleges (most notably Elizabethtown College and Donna Talarico's work),  my student social media team and I decided it was time to do something fun on the photo-sharing platform. So in April, we hosted our university's first ever social media contest - an Instagram photo-a-day challenge.

We joined Instagram in late October. I spent the first five months listening to, learning about and educating our audience on there, so I was excited to try this. But I didn't want to do it just to do it, or to get more followers, or something else that didn't mean anything. So how could we do something fun AND have it be valuable for both our audience AND the University?

Strategy

For our audience, it was a game: post a photo every day using #SLUphotoaday that correlated to that day's theme. For my team and myself, it was strategically planned. We chose April for a few reasons:

• April is the first month in Northern New York that you  might - MIGHT - see signs of spring and not a whole lot of snow.
• Our University's birthday is April 3.
• It's a busy month on campus with Springfest Weekend, sports contests, end-of-year concerts, etc.

While these factors definitely played a role in why we chose April, the biggest thing for me was that April is a critical month in the admissions cycle. Why not encourage students to post content every day that you can feature all over the web at the same time high school students are making their college decisions?

The other part of the strategy was deciding on each day's theme. (I should note - they had the best ideas. Another reason to get students involved!). The pride our students and alumni have in this place is incredible; playing off that was going to be key to making this 'cool' and something our students would participate in.

Promotion

We started promotion just five days before April 1. We printed a 120" x 45" banner and hung it in our student center with each day's theme. We posted the contest on Instagram and Facebook. We made fliers for the residence halls. Other than that, I charged the team with sharing the news word-of-mouth.

What happened?

The next month was a whirlwind (hence the month-long delay in posting this). I could go day-by-day, but this post is already long enough. Here are some highlights:

• We had more than 135 people play (I know there were people I couldn't see playing because of private accounts) and close to 1,200 submissions.
• In the first seven days, we had over 500 submissions. On Day 3 (our university's birthday), I tallied over 100 photos posted - the most of any day.
• Our followers grew 27.3% in that one month.
• Not only did students play, but several alumni played (a few played every day!) and we even had a parent take part in the daily fun. That was a surprise, since the daily themes were really geared toward those on-campus. I was blown away at the lengths some alumni (and the parent) went to play every day! 

Why was it valuable for us?

In my opinion, I think this project was the first time our audience saw us giving them something fun to do and in return, it gave us some street credit with our students and younger alumni. While I've seen increased engagement since taking over our social media efforts in August, it's been more so on the alumni side than with our students. That has slowly changed, but April was sort of a mini social-revolution for us.

Since the beginning of the contest, students have been interacting and talking with us much more frequently. They are tagging us in their photos and posts. We are communicating and sharing together! When we've asked our audience for photos or content, I've seen a jump in the number of submissions we get. For me, it was a great way to end a year of social media growth on campus and I think set the stage for an even bigger social media 'boom' here this upcoming year.

I think it's important to point out here that while we saw an exciting jump in followers, this was not a goal for us. We didn't get 230+ new followers because we ran a contest; we earned the trust of 230+ new followers because we provided exciting and relevant content in an engaging way and encouraged others to join us in doing so.


Other Fun Points to Note

• When sharing photos on Facebook and Twitter, I saw a jump in new people playing or others playing again.
• I saw a slight increase in new followers on Admitted Student Days, most likely because students visiting saw the large poster in the student center and heard tour guides talking about the contest.
• Really thinking about the daily themes and how they could help us share St. Lawrence with others paid off incredibly for us in terms of re-purposing content. For instance, on our university's birthday, the theme was "What I love about SLU." We had more than 100 posts and shared the best in an album on Facebook later that week as it was the perfect way to capture why our audience loves us, instead of us preaching about why we're so great.
• Remember that "official" Instagram hashtag I spent a long time educating our audience on? Before April 1, less than 350 photos used the tag. By the end of the month, we were close to 700. Far more students are now using the hashtag than they were before, which means I'm finding their awesome content faster and easier (and others are, too).
• We've had several requests to do it again - so people liked it!

Why was it valuable for them?

You mean besides the prizes? We used a ton of student content we got from participants on other platforms and a number of students took to social media to express their happiness about it. By liking their photos, commenting on them and sharing them, we validated their efforts. They felt appreciated, which was great - because they were (and are).

People also enjoyed seeing how others saw St. Lawrence. Why did their friend love St. Lawrence? Where is everyone's favorite view? Our community learned more about each other in a fun way.

Again, I think because we spent the time to make sure the themes were centered around what makes SLU special and because it was done at the end of the semester, it offered our audience a chance to reflect and appreciate this place. We even heard as much from participants on the last day.

For the Next Time

Of course, this wasn't perfect. We will definitely make adjustments, but based on the number of requests I've gotten from students and departments to do something similar, we'll be doing more things like it - keeping in mind the value to us and the value for them.

Another lesson learned? The weather gods are never on your side. We chose our daily themes six weeks in advance and we picked one day to be themed "Today's Weather," hoping it would be a gloriously sunny day. What we did was jinx ourselves.

Technically, our contest had 15 winners, but I think St. Lawrence and - more importantly - our audience won.

Have questions about what we did? Insights on other successes? I'd love to hear them! Feel free to reach out to me or leave a comment.

More Ways to Use Social Media During the College Search

It's almost May 1 and deposits are rolling in at colleges across the country. The yield period has become an important part of my year even though I don't work in admissions. As our university's social media coordinator, this is a critical time in the year for me, too. I know students are watching, listening and deciding based on our posts and interactions. It's honestly one of the best parts of the gig.

That's why when I was perusing Twitter for the 127th time yesterday and came across this USA TODAY College article, "5 ways to use social media to choose a college," the social media nerd in me got excited to read it. "Am I making all of these things happen?" I thought before reading it. "Am I helping students in the ways they need to be helped?"

But by the end of the article, I found myself a little frustrated for the students who are really trying to look for ways to use social media in their college decision-making process. For me, I felt the list encouraged students to turn to social media in the eleventh hour to help them make a decision and that shouldn't be the case. While the writer made some good points about different sites to look through, here are some additional points I wish the article had mentioned.

Build Social Media into Your College Research at the Beginning
There are two points in the following sentence I want to emphasize: Students should be using social media as just one of the many tools in their arsenal during the entire college process.

I might be biased, but I'd tell prospective students to consistently check in with the colleges and universities they are interested in on social media throughout the 2+ years they are researching them. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to like a college's Facebook page or follow their Twitter account, but check in regularly to see what's going on - don't wait until April 1 when you have a month left to decide to start listening to what the college is promoting and doing on social media. Plus, if you're following along for a while, you'll be clued in to other really cool things the school is doing and might find a channel or avenue worth following before you make a decision.

Connect with Current Students
This is the first point the article makes and it's a good one, though I think it missed out on some key opportunities to mention some great ways to do this. Prospective students should be looking for ways that the colleges they are interested in are helping them connect. Just because a college hosts these things doesn't mean you're not getting an authentic view of life at that college. Painting the wrong picture for admitted students doesn't help them and it doesn't help the college.

Some great examples: I've been really impressed with how Connecticut College does this with @ConnCollegeLive, what St. Mike's does with their student blogs and Oberlin's most recent endeavor with a Google+ panel. It might take a little time and some research on websites and social media to find these types of outlets, but it's worthwhile if a student is able to make a connection.

Look for Ways to Connect with Potential Classmates
Is it important for students to get a "real" sense of campus life from current students? Of course. But it's the accepted students who will enroll and ultimately shape the next four years of the college's story who are really important. Get to know them.

By now, a lot of colleges and universities are creating class hashtags on Twitter and open, closed and private groups on Facebook. Some schools are even creating their own homegrown communities for accepted students. Once a student is accepted to a college or university, they should search for these groups and opportunities.

One thing I loved about our closed incoming group was that one of the first posts by an admitted student was a "10 fun facts about myself" and now everyone does it when they join. This happened organically and some posts have 40+ comments of students talking with each other about similar interests. This is their space to get to know each other - after all, these are the people they'll be spending the next four years with!

Ask Questions
Throughout the college search process, ask questions. Do it on social media, during your interview, during your campus tour and continue doing it until you don't have any more. If a prospective student is still trying to make a decision with 24 hours to go, they can reach out on social media or call the Admissions office and see if they can help. Don't be afraid to do this - we all want to help students make the best decision for themselves. [Side note: My best advice is to go with your gut instinct.]

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Our incoming class has seen it all from colleges and universities when it comes to marketing and social media. What resonated with them? What helped as they researched? What didn't? What was missing? I work at a small school and am hopeful when the Class of 2017 arrives in August I'll find students interested in social media who might have some thoughts on this.

My note to admitted (and future) students: If you choose a school but wasn't overly impressed with their social media presence as you researched them, try and find the social media manager on campus when you arrive and talk to them. I'd set aside hours to hear from you about your thoughts and I'm betting others would, too. We're always looking for ways to make it better, and who knows? Your efforts to reach out and offer up your insights might land you some cool opportunities on campus. I'd add you to my student social media team in a heartbeat.

Did you think something was missing from the USA TODAY College article? What's missing from mine? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.