An efficient larger schooling social media technique has to enchantment to varied audiences: present college students, potential college students, alumni, employees, donors, followers, households and extra. Every of those communities is exclusive, but all of them contribute to 1 shared faculty expertise.
Addressing the wants and pursuits of a number of audiences requires a dedication to knowledge, collaboration and tailor-made messaging. Fortunately, every of those commitments helps the others. At the very least, that’s what Gettysburg Faculty’s social staff discovered after testing and studying.
Kailey White, assistant director of Social Media & Digital Technique, and Staci Grimes, director of digital advertising and marketing are the driving drive behind Gettysburg Faculty’s social media technique. Collectively, they’ve remodeled digital areas into on-line communities the place key viewers segments can deepen their engagement and advocacy with the school.
We spoke with Grimes and White to get the within scoop on what it takes to develop a high-impact social media technique for larger schooling establishments. Preserve studying for his or her prime suggestions, plus a behind-the-scenes have a look at their pupil intern program.
The advantages of social media technique for larger schooling
Social affords what a brochure or campus tour can’t. It’s a possibility to take part within the broader conversations surrounding your college’s model and status.
Over the previous two years, Grimes and White have labored collectively to affix related areas and form new ones, growing the school’s on-line presence and fostering significant engagement with key audiences. Listed below are a number of of the methods Gettysburg advantages from these efforts:
It builds group and advocacy
Gettysburg Faculty’s social media technique discovered its candy spot in serving to audiences discover which means within the imaginative and prescient of the establishment.
“Neighborhood constructing is admittedly central within the work that we do, particularly in natural social media,” says Grimes. “We’re all the time in search of alternatives to make use of totally different sorts of content material to craft digital areas the place our group members can discover footing to have interaction.”
The top objective is to information potential college students who have interaction on-line via the Admissions cycle towards enrollment. Different audiences—like present college students, dad and mom, alumni or followers—are guided via the philanthropic funnel, encouraging them to volunteer extra, attend extra occasions and provides extra at larger ranges, all whereas growing their delight within the establishment.
It strengthens messaging
At Gettysburg, college students obtain “A Consequential Training”—an experiential strategy to studying that conjures up college students to “Do Nice Work”. That is each the school’s promise, and a key messaging pillar used all through advertising and marketing supplies.
Based on Grimes, seeing college students undertake and embrace this message is among the most vital impacts of the school’s social technique. “It’s extremely rewarding to see our audiences utilizing our model language in conversations concerning the faculty or inside their very own networks. It demonstrates that they’re embracing and figuring out with the mission, including to their sense of belonging.”
It helps recruitment
Beginning in 2025, there’ll be fewer highschool graduates in the USA, a pattern generally known as the enrollment cliff. This demographic shift is leading to an more and more aggressive recruitment surroundings, the place each interplay with a potential pupil carries extra weight than ever.
Social’s affect is on an upward trajectory. Based on a Q1 2024 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 78% of customers agree {that a} model’s social media presence impacts their belief in a model greater than it did a yr in the past. This determine rises to 88% for youthful audiences, making social media a significant channel for connecting with and recruiting potential college students.
Universities and schools with a constant, audience-driven social presence are higher positioned to construct belief, showcase their distinctive worth and entice extra college students.
5 larger schooling social media suggestions from Gettysburg faculty
Advertising groups in universities and schools handle numerous components of their technique, together with division and program objectives, viewers wants and an overarching advertising and marketing plan. The next suggestions will assist you stability these elements to create a cohesive, value-driven larger schooling social media technique.
1. Create network-specific social media methods
Gettysburg Faculty’s largest viewers is their present pupil inhabitants. It’s a key viewers, but when they solely created social content material with conventional faculty college students in thoughts, they’d miss the chance to have interaction different vital teams, like dad and mom and alumni.
“Understanding audiences and their preferences permits us to ship extra customized experiences throughout channels,” says White. “For instance, TikTok attracts a youthful demographic, which requires a special content material technique than Fb, the place dad and mom and households are our key viewers.”
Sprout’s network-specific social media reporting choices assist White preserve an up to date understanding of every profile’s distinctive viewers. “Our technique actually acknowledges the totally different wants of our various stakeholders, and we attribute that viewers perception to Sprout.”
2. Join advertising and marketing objectives to college imaginative and prescient
If you wish to create an efficient larger schooling social media technique, it’s not sufficient to hunt engagement for engagement’s sake. Plans ought to align to your faculty’s objectives for the long run.
The Gettysburg Faculty social staff helps the establishment’s strategic imaginative and prescient by enhancing its status and increasing its attain, whereas fostering an surroundings that strengthens recruitment and philanthropy.
“Our workplace makes use of an built-in advertising and marketing plan yearly, and we map that on to the Faculty’s strategic route,” explains Grimes. “We’ve recognized the important thing metrics that enable us to know whether or not or not our work is being impactful. That’s how we be sure that the work that we’re doing is advancing the imaginative and prescient for the establishment.”
3. Share social media efficiency knowledge proactively
Grimes and White present as much as each planning assembly with related social insights, irrespective of who it’s with. This observe helps extra collaborative work with a number of totally different organizations on campus, growing the general effectiveness of their technique.
“We collect particular knowledge so we could be as strategic as attainable when consulting with totally different departments and applications,” says Grimes. “Our concentrate on efficiency and viewers insights affect the cadence and supply of messaging throughout the establishment.”
White shares month-to-month studies with the Gettysburg content material staff to allow them to incorporate social insights into upcoming work. Grimes gives an evaluation of social KPIs for studies that their Chief Communications & Advertising Officer, Jamie Yates, delivers to the college’s board of trustees a number of instances a yr to showcase the influence of their technique. These studies could have totally different objectives and audiences, however one supply of fact informs them: Sprout Social.
“One of many issues that I actually recognize about Sprout is the truth that all of our distinguished model accounts are connected to our Sprout dashboard,” shares Grimes. “It aggregates insights, permitting us to have a look at every little thing via the identical lens.”
4. Work with campus companions
As the school’s social media presence grows and evolves, extra applications are inquisitive about getting concerned. “We’ve positively seen an inflow of our campus companions becoming a member of social media areas,” says White. “Our library, our eating companies division, totally different tutorial applications—they’re all very concerned, and so they look to us to search out out what they might be doing higher.”
Grimes and White collaborate to assist these requests by educating campus companions on tips on how to navigate social media. They’ve created and shared displays on representing the Gettysburg model on social, launching a strategic social media presence and growing pupil engagement.
These efforts create new alternatives to showcase the worth of social media with strategic companions. Because of this, the school continues to strengthen its on-line presence and foster a extra related campus group.
5. Use social listening to remain forward of the dialog
Based on Grimes, social listening is essential for retaining the Gettysburg social media technique audience-centric. “We use listening instruments to guage the timing of various campaigns, assess the optimistic mentions of the school in digital areas and measure our work in opposition to business benchmarks.”
It additionally performs a key position in disaster administration. When a difficulty—whether or not it’s native, nationwide or international—is unfolding, the Gettysburg staff makes use of Listening to find out whether or not they need to pause scheduled posts or develop messaging across the subject. The instrument gives an summary of the dialog at giant, together with useful sentiment evaluation knowledge to offer a clearer understanding of viewers opinions.
“Typically, a difficulty will really feel very distinguished to us as a result of we’re within the feedback and studying conversations. Then, we’ll have a look at Listening knowledge and see that the dialog’s influence is fairly restricted. It helps us perceive from a very practical perspective what actually is going on and whether or not or not we have to both take motion or resume regular enterprise.”
– Staci Grimes, Director of Digital Advertising, Gettysburg Faculty
How Gettysburg Faculty manages their pupil intern program with Sprout Social
The information outlined above will assist refine your technique, however there’s nothing to refine with out content material. At Gettysburg, college students aren’t solely featured in social media posts—they’re additionally concerned in planning and producing them.
The Gettysburg Faculty advertising and marketing workplace hires a dozen or so interns each tutorial yr. These roles mimic the duties of the school’s skilled employees, together with copywriting, video manufacturing, images and graphic design.
This isn’t your common internship. College students obtain unique coaching and networking alternatives with earlier intern cohorts. Additionally they get the chance to collaborate on a professional-grade content material manufacturing effort.
“The scholars use their skills to assist one excessive profile occasion on the faculty yearly.” explains White. “For the previous two years, Gettysburg Faculty and group companions hosted Ken Burns for the Gettysburg Movie Competition, and our workplace interns have been extremely concerned in executing the protection methods for these occasions.”
White creates every pupil’s particular person social media report utilizing Sprout Social’s Tagging function, which permits customers to label items of content material for extra tailor-made reporting choices.
“We create a selected Tag for each pupil intern,” says White. “That approach, we are able to filter our studies with their identify Tag to create their distinctive report. We are able to even drill down into their particular speciality. For instance, if their focus is images, we are able to filter the report by their identify together with a content material kind Tag.”
These studies do extra than simply spotlight their achievements—they assist them stand out in a aggressive job market. “The lead intern through the pageant’s first yr talked concerning the expertise in a job interview, and the interviewer referred to as our program director to share how impressed they had been.” shares White. “She ended up touchdown the position, which was superior to listen to.”
The Gettysburg advertising and marketing internship program gives mutual advantages for each the social media staff and the collaborating college students. The scholars achieve real-world work expertise, whereas their contributions generate related, genuine content material that drives larger engagement with key audiences.
Create a wiser larger schooling social media technique with Sprout Social
When schools and universities spend money on their social media technique, they do greater than arrange one other communication channel. They foster a way of group and construct connections with college students, alumni, followers and extra.
Curious to see how different faculties are utilizing social media analytics instruments to raise their methods? Learn the way Texas A&M College earned 8.3 million content material impressions in 6 months utilizing Sprout.
