Using Social Networks to Choose a School

While the most recent post discussed employers keeping tabs on potential and current employees using social media, it is also very common for schools to scope out prospective students, as well.  It should come as no surprise, then, that students are in on the game, too - researching their future schools using social media.  

Inside Higher Ed recently published an article entitled "Social Networks and College Choices," which looks at how high school students use social media to make their higher education choices.  Not surprisingly, from their survey of 7000 students, two-thirds of used social media to research their prospective school, with one-third saying that social media influenced their choices.  Based on this survey, Facebook is the clear front-runner in student use, with three-quarters of them checking it at least once a day, while fewer than half the students used the next-closest contender, Twitter.

The article observes that schools seem to try to cast a wide net by having social media profiles on a number of sites - not just Facebook and Twitter, but branching out to Pinterest, Instagram, and more. The average school uses about 3.7 social networks, while some use up to seven.

The article goes on to explore whether using all of these networks is an efficient use of resources - if most students are using Facebook, anyway.  Whether you're recruiting through Admissions or trying to get student to attend events in Student or Residence Life, is it worth our time to make sure we are on the "hottest" new social network, or is our time better spent sticking with the old standby - Facebook?