Two-thirds of online adults (66%) use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn. These internet users say that connections with family members and friends (both new and old) are a primary consideration in their adoption of social media tools, according to Aaron Smith, Senior Research Specialist at Pew Research Center.

In Why Americans Use Social Media, roughly two thirds of social media users say that staying in touch with current friends and family members is a major reason they use these sites, while half say that connecting with old friends they’ve lost touch with is a major reason behind their use of these technologies.

This report is based on the findings of a survey on Americans’ use of the Internet. The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from April 26 to May 22, 2011, among a sample of 2,277 adults, age 18 and older.

Middle-aged and older adults place a relatively high value on social media as a tool to connect with others around a hobby and interest. Sixteen percent of 30-49 year olds and 18% of 50-64 year olds cite connecting with others with common hobbies or interests as a major reason they use social networking sites, compared with 10% of 18-29 year olds.

Despite the increase in celebrities, athletes, and politicians connecting with the public through social media, less than 11% of the respondents cited reading comments from these groups as a major reason for their use of these tools.

The study does not investigate how respondents use social media to connect with brands and institutions.

While there are no ground-breaking findings in this report, its a good reminder that social media works best when you think about goals – your audiences, not yours.

Download Why Americans Use Social Media (764.8K)

I enjoyed reading a recent piece from Rebecca Ruiz, entitled The Medium is the Message: Should a College Call, Text or Tweet? According to Ruiz, members of the millennial generation may be stereotyped as rabid text messagers, but a group of nearly 10 high school seniors and college freshmen agreed on Saturday that they would most like to hear from a college they are interested in by phone. The group of students, all from the New Orleans area, spoke during a session called “Technology in the College Process: The Student Perspective,” held as the curtain came down on the annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

In one exchange, a bewildered counselor asked, “You don’t want us to text you?”

A 12th grader replied, “If you’re going to use the phone, taking the time to call is a lot better, a lot more personal.”

Another revelation for counselors came when the students expressed little interest in connecting with colleges on Facebook, suggesting that a university’s presence on their news feeds was invasive.

“Colleges say, ‘Like us on Facebook’ — but that’s my personal time, I’d rather not,” one high school senior said. “I’d like to find a time in my day where I don’t think about the college process,” she said to soft applause from a few sympathetic audience members.

And I say, finally.

Over the last few years, we’ve researched and reported on the communication preferences of high school and adult students. At the same time we’ve spoken to a number of enrollment professionals who are incredulous when they see the results.

For example, students prefer using search engines, receiving direct mail and email messages to learning about your institution through Twitter and Facebook.

But, how can this be? Students live on Facebook, they don’t use email anymore, and as other vendors have told us in years past, they spend their time blogging and listening to podcasts. No, not if you compare their online behavior:

We’ve updated this research for high school students and we will be releasing the results this fall.

What I can tell you is the trends are the same. Focus on connecting with students and building relationships. Stop letting technology lead the conversation.

Thanks to all who participated in last week’s webinar on creating a social enrollment plan. We received a number of questions/statements that we didn’t get to. As promised, here are your questions and our answers.

I apologize for any typos or grammatical errors in advance!

Question: A recent study showed that people spend much more time on Facebook than Google etc. Doing pay for click ads are very cost-effective.

Tim Copeland: I would also imagine that most people spend more time watching television also. So perhaps you should advertise more??

The great – and underutilized – capability of online marketing is measurement. From your question, it sounds like you have a good understanding of the ROI on your pay-per-click ads. You can do some wonderful things using testing methods on various channels.

When people go to Facebook they do so to socialize, catch-up with old friends, and to share. People using search engines are there to find specific information regarding a need. Which channel is more likely to yield ready-made purchasers?

With any research – ours or from any other source – you should always confirm the findings in your market and with your audience. In other words, don’t apply the commonly accepted (and wrong) “direct mail produces a 2% return” assumption and apply it in rote. Test, test, test.

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Why CIVIL? ‘Everybody’s doing it’ is not a good reason to start using social technologies in your enrollment marketing efforts. Simply opening another channel adds complexity to already stretched organizations. Shouting at students through another channel is what students tell us is what they want LESS of.

What’s needed is a more systematic approach to change your student relationships.

Consider C.I.V.I.L, our five step methodology to developing a higher education, social enrollment plan:

1. Choose objectives
2. Investigate participation
3. Validate strategies
4. Identify metrics
5. Look for social technologies

In this model, strategy drives technology.

Learn more by downloading our white paper on using Facebook for enrollment marketing, How to Lose Friends and Alienate Students. This paper contains primary research we conducted of college and university groups on Facebook. After speaking directly with the prospective students who joined these groups, we share eye-opening findings on how students want to be engaged on social networks and provide you with next steps for making the most of your presence on Facebook.

If we’ve heard it once from customers this year, we’ve heard it one hundred times. “My [insert name of college official here] wants to know what we are doing on Twitter.”

With the media hype, celebrity attention, and general curiosity, this funny-named phenomenon that simply lets us answer the question, “what are you doing?” is riding the tidal wave of novelty. So, is Twitter a channel that works for higher education marketing and recruitment?

Here are two thoughts to keep in mind if you choose to leap into the Twittersphere:

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Social technologies?

With the interest in Twitter and Facebook, colleges and universities are understandably interested in participating. But what are your students ready for? How do they want to learn about you? Do you know?

It’s easy to jump off into the deep end of the pool with the popularity of social technologies. Many are free, and in 15 minutes or less in some cases, you can have your college or university in the middle of the social fray. You have many ways to attract and engage students … the key question is which ones makes sense?

Today, we announced some research we are doing in the adult learner market to better understand: 1)  how this student population wants to learn about colleges and universities through interactive marketing channels, and 2) how they participate online. We have ten research partner institutions from across the country involved in the effort.

The purpose of this study is to understand how adult-learners WANT to communicate with institutions at various points in their decision process, from initial awareness, to registration or application. We will also look at how this student population participates in online activities ranging from posting social status updates and listening to podcasts, to using email. Understanding behavior as well as what students want may provide some guidance (or perhaps restraint) in the social ‘arms’ race.

The official study will be released in early 2010.  We will be sharing some early results later in the fall. At the time of this posting, some 4,000 adult-learners have responded to the survey. The results so far … are enlightening.

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.’

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