How Colleges and Universities are Leveraging Social Media

Harsh Ajmera

September 29, 2015

The colleges and universities you went to study, now they’ve an honours degree in social media. Earlier on it was difficult to gain information about the course you were looking for (be it social media courses or otherwise as well), you had to either call or pay them a visit to gain in-depth understanding. But now they are online and developing outreach strategies to connect with their students from the form filling process to alumni’s.

If your college or university is thinking of taking the social class, now would be the perfect time. Let’s take a look at the examples of how these top educational institutes are leveraging social media in a positive and measurable way and collaborating with all their departments to be of service to their students.

1. Notre Dame – Highlight your events

Every college has a ton of events taking place from extra-curricular to academic activities. Make your students aware about the same by announcing through a status update, showing behind the scenes footage and also highlight past events. This will get them a feel of what to expect!

notre-dame

Notre Dame announced about an event which took place in their premises and had given an itinerary in detail as well. They’re giving a fair idea to their students by walking them through the entire program. Great way to increase awareness and participation.

2. Princeton University – Promote beyond academics

All work and no play makes a person extremely dull. Don’t keep sharing about courses, professors and new academic courses on your channel. Mix up your content calendar and involve some fun as well. Students get attracted to the culture and showcase that through means of visuals.

princeton-university

Princeton University on their Facebook page has shared this album of students playing dodge ball and seeing these vivid images gives you a fair idea of the fun they’re having.

3. Cornell University – Educate your readers

Education is not only limited to your classrooms, share meaningful information with your community. It can range from – How-to articles, informing about industry trends or even tips. Don’t limit yourself to topics pertaining to specific subjects, share interesting facts and that will have your fans/followers coming back for more.

cornell-university

Cornell University on their Google+ page is educating their students about Nano-style sheets, with the link which opens up to a detailed article. Their following will definitely click on it once, and glance through.

4. Boston College – Personalize with Alumni stories

When you meet your college friends, we all take a walk down the memory lane and start reminiscing the good old days. Similar give a shout-out to your ex-students and share their stories – be it about their success, college anecdotes, or just fun images. Make this as personal as possible, so seeing this students and recruits will feel even more connected to you!

Boston College has shared an extremely personal moment with their followers and threw shade at their alumnus. It cannot get more personalized than this, seeing this post will make the college more human and friendly.

5. Harvard – leverage Video Content to drive Complex Information

Videos are an effective medium to get across complex information, without overwhelming your viewer. Text unfortunately cannot be entertaining your readers will definitely hit the snooze button and won’t even understand what they’ve gone through.

Harvard University on their YouTube channel, shares a lot of informative videos which are easier to comprehend. The video you can see above is about robotic water striders, if there was no video it would have taken longer to visualize and understand the concept.

6. IIM A – Share your milestones

Consider social networks as your notice board, as whenever something important happens you pin it up. Don’t shy away from sharing your milestones. That only ups the credibility of your college in front of your students and applicants.

IIM Ahmedabad has shared with their followers on Twitter, that they were ranked 15th at a global level. Seeing this will make their existing students extremely proud to be studying there and those applying will double up their efforts as who wouldn’t want to be a part of this renowned college.

7. Indian School Of Business – Push Interaction beyond Classroom

Classrooms are a great place to have one-on-one interaction with your students, once they leave the session you won’t see them again until the next scheduled class. You can reverse that situation and continue the communication through your online properties; Twitter is the best platform to do so. You can hold special chats or just ask questions randomly to keep the flow of conversation going.

Indian School of Business is wishing all the faculty members a Happy Teachers Day and are asking their students who their favourite professor is and how they’ve inspired them. Thus, breaking the barriers and letting the engagement take place without any hiccups.

The goal of your university and college should be to engage with your students, potential recruits and alumni’s. Make use of this amazing opportunity to showcase the culture, and faculty and bring it to life in their minds through the art of storytelling.

Are you connected with your college/university on social media? Do share their social profile below if you think they are really doing something great.

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