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Social Networking: you should, sure, but why?
James Runkle
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FacebookFacebook. Twitter. MySpace. Social networking is the coolest new thing out there. But, is it right for your institution's marketing mix? This month, we bring you both a cautionary tale and stories of success to help you make that decision.
Beware of change just for the sake of change
If your university doesn't have a page on Facebook then you are missing out! You'll never recruit your next class! The world will end!
Or, at least that's what you'll hear many people saying, or Tweeting, especially those speakers at conferences who make a lot of money if you jump on the social networking bandwagon and pay their company to come up with a social networking strategy for you. "PHEW", you exhale, "we're on Facebook now. Everything will be fine."
But WHY are you part of the social networking scene? Are you on Facebook just because it's something new and cool? Do you have a plan? Did you identify your target audience and are you sure you're attracting attention from the right kind of person?
Are you ready to take the good comments with the bad? And, most importantly, are you spending resources on social networking that could be more effective if spent on traditional advertising?
In reality, how important is social networking to your university's marketing mix? Consider some of the following stats from the latest Harris Interactive poll and Statmats before you dive headfirst into the social networking pool.
51% of Americans do not Twitter or have a MySpace or Facebook page. If you are an undergraduate institution, the number of users increases, of course. But, for those graduate programs out there? This might not be the right space for you.
While the media has certainly found Twitter, real people have not. Only 5% of Americans are currently "tweeting" (that's what a post on Twitter is called, by the way).
If you're looking to reach adult students, Twitter's a better bet. For that matter, Facebook's greatest recent growth comes from the 35-49 age range. And that research also finds that people are spending more time on social networks.
Tweeting isn't the only way to measure engagement on Twitter. There are a host of ways to use Twitter without students realizing you're using Twitter (and without them Tweeting at all, for that matter), including posting a Twitter feed for general short updates and even using Twitter to text students. A few institutions are currently trying this out.
At the same time, 94% of marketers are using Twitter. So, 94% of marketers are talking but only 5% are listening. Do you want your message caught in that clutter?
Many institutions are using social media technology before they even define their objectives leading to wasted time and effort. For example, a school with a student population of 16,000 current students (not even including prospects) only has a Facebook following of 1,000.
Social networking does not have a direct impact on your enrollments. "Helped close sales" was ranked last (at only 35%) in a list of social networking benefits. Remember that Facebook does not replace a campus visit.
Beware of inertia
In some ways, we take a greater risk in not changing our marketing strategies at all, especially given drastic shifts in our economic environments and changing demands from the public. As Brian Niles of TargetX puts it: "the way students search for the right college is very different than the way colleges market and communicate with them."
Fiscally: traditional marketing is expensive. Electronic marketing strategies can be cheaper, especially if you have the right people on staff.
Many traditional-aged current and prospective students practice a common form of radical transparency: what they share online in part defines who they are. That sharing can include personal data that you probably want for your prospect database, and after they enroll, they'll often talk about the experience with their friends online, whether or not your institution is involved. They can be your most active proponents—and should be.
Scholarly work is developing in the area: danah boyd's work is a prime example. Among many other findings, she found that MySpace is not dead among teenagers (PDF), despite what many higher ed marketers and vendors might tell you. Its population has changed, though, becoming more concentrated in students headed toward trade schools and community colleges, as well as those that consider themselves outside the norm or are minorities, like artists and Hispanic or gay students. So if this describes a population that might be interested in your school, you might reconsider your disregard of MySpace in favor of Facebook (or, worse yet, no social presence at all).
Social networks have become more popular than email, according to a recent Nielsen study (PDF). So if that's the only electronic medium you're currently using, it's time to think more comprehensively.
The students you want to reach are absolutely online (at least some of them), and those students expect to find answers online, whether those answers are from you or from their peers. It's your choice whether to participate: but in today's environment, if you don't, you may lose out to other institutions that choose to meet students where they prefer to be.
Nor is just having a presence a solution. There are certainly easy social networking aspects to implement. But the best results come from continued effort, time, and resources. I won't be one to argue that social presence is a shortcut. But I will argue that it's an essential part of any marketing/communication mix today.