What’s Your Social Enrollment Plan?

Earlier this summer, Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, revealed that he had recently left Facebook. Why? Too many ‘friend’ requests. Gates commented, “…that technology has been hugely beneficial but, all of these tools of tech waste our time if we’re not careful.”

Similarly, colleges and universities – encouraged by a rising number of higher education (ahem) social experts – too are rushing into social technologies to ‘friend’ their students with little idea of how they participate, what objectives they will accomplish, and with no strategy … well, other than ‘everybody’s doing it.’

I’m an unabashed advocate of social technologies if viewed within an interactive marketing framework.
That is, we learn something from our prospective students during the recruitment marketing process, and act in ways that demonstrate we are listening. It’s a dialogue, not the fire hose of communication most engage in today.

Consider These Questions Before Going Social …
From our research at DemandEngine, many higher education institutions are applying the same enrollment marketing playbook of irrelevance to social channels with poor results.

Rather than signing up for the latest free internet tool, ask yourself the following questions:

·    How you want to change your institutional relationship with students?
·    What is your audience ready for?
·    What are your objectives? Listening? Embracing? Supporting?
·    What strategies will support your objectives?
·    Then and only then, ask what technology tools support your plan?

‘Going social’ is not simply a process of pushing your college or university message out in new ways (see “Trust Me … You No Longer Control the Message).  It requires a lot more thought than your typical direct mail campaign in order to engage and nurture an online relationship.

Note to higher education enrollment managers and marketers; social technologies are not a panacea. You need a social enrollment plan.