Best Social Media Strategies for Universities

Universities leverage social media to attract prospective students, engage current students, and maintain alumni relations.

If you’re looking to make some decisions about the best social media strategies for your University, you’re in the right place.

Here are some social media ideas and examples for Universities for you to consider:

 1. Platform-Specific Content Strategies

– Facebook: This is a great platform to reach parents because of Facebook’s demographic.
According to Pew Research Center, 69% of U.S. adults use Facebook.

– Instagram: Instagram allows you to effectively engage with prospective and current students through visuals and video.
Instagram is used by 73% of adults aged 18-24, it is therefore ideal to target prospective students and reach alumni.

– LinkedIn: Connecting with alumni and promoting professional achievements. LinkedIn is effective for career-oriented content and networking.

Example: Harvard University uses Instagram to showcase campus life, student achievements, and events, attracting high engagement from prospective students.

 2. Engaging and Interactive Content

– User-Generated Content (UGC): Encouraging students to share their experiences can help your University create original content that engages and spreads fast.
UGC campaigns can increase engagement by 28% (Adweek).

– Interactive Stories and Polls: Using Instagram Stories to create polls and Q&A sessions can help you engage and educate. It can also help you understand your audience better.
According to Instagram, 500 million accounts use Stories every day, making it a powerful tool for engagement.

Example: The University of Michigan frequently uses Instagram Stories for interactive polls and Q&A sessions, which enhances student engagement.

 3. Influencer Partnerships and Student Ambassadors

– Influencer Collaborations: Partnering with student influencers to reach a broader audience can help you reach more people at a great price in record time. Influencer Marketing Hub reports that influencer marketing can deliver 11 times higher ROI than traditional digital marketing.

– Student Ambassadors: You can tap into current students’ online following to create content and share their experiences.

Example: The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) uses student ambassadors to take over their Instagram account during special events, providing a first-hand look at student life.

 4. Targeted Advertising Campaigns

– Facebook and Instagram Ads: Utilizing targeted ads to reach specific demographics makes it easy to reach prospective students.
Hootsuite indicates that social media advertising spending is expected to reach over $102 billion by 2023.

– Lookalike Audiences for Social Ads: Using data to create lookalike audiences of students who enrolled creates more effective targeting and higher conversions.

Example: Arizona State University uses Facebook Ads to target prospective students with personalized content based on their interests and demographics.

 5. Live Streaming and Virtual Events

– Virtual Campus Tours: Offering live and recorded tours to give prospective students a feel of the campus. According to a study by Wyzowl, 84% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

– Live Q&A Sessions: Hosting live sessions with faculty and students to answer prospective students’ questions.

Example: Stanford University frequently hosts live Q&A sessions and virtual tours on Facebook, attracting hundreds of prospective students.

 6. Content SEO and Hashtag Strategies

– SEO for Social Media: Optimizing posts with relevant keywords to improve visibility.

– Effective Hashtags: Using popular and university-specific hashtags to increase reach.

Example: New York University (NYU) uses specific hashtags like NYUAdmissions and NYULife to categorize and promote content, making it easily discoverable.

 7. Alumni Engagement

– Alumni Networks on LinkedIn: Creating groups and networks to keep alumni connected can also provide you with a referral network.

– Showcasing Alumni Success: Posting stories and achievements of alumni to inspire current and prospective students to share and recruit others.

Example: The University of Oxford regularly features alumni success stories on LinkedIn, showcasing the diverse career paths of its graduates and reaching like-minded connections.

 At TAYB.SA we help our clients create highly effective social media marketing campaigns. We can also implement HubSpot Marketing Hub to provide detailed data dashboards for clear measurement and decision-making.

Contact us here to learn more.

 Sources:

1. [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/)

2. [Adweek](https://www.adweek.com/)

3. [Instagram Business](https://business.instagram.com/)

4. [Influencer Marketing Hub](https://influencermarketinghub.com/)

5. [Hootsuite](https://www.hootsuite.com/)

6. [Wyzowl](https://www.wyzowl.com/)

7. [Harvard University Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/harvard/)

8. [University of Michigan Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/uofmichigan/)

9. [UCLA Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ucla/)

10. [Arizona State University Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/arizonastateuniversity/)

11. [Stanford University Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/stanford/)

12. [New York University Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nyuniversity/)

13. [University of Oxford LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/school/oxforduni/)

14. [University of California, Berkeley Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ucberkeley/)

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