While digital communication is at the center of many recruitment planning discussions, the focus should be on student preferences and actual online participation behaviors. When considering eight potential interactive marketing channels, high school students overwhelmingly prefer direct mail, email, and search engines as sources of information.

In a survey of more than 1,000 high school students nationwide, DemandEngine found that 73 percent of respondents use text messaging, while 66 percent check email, daily. In contrast, 61 percent rarely or never read blogs, while another 40 percent report the same inactivity with chat or instant messaging. Despite regular use of social media — 62 percent are on social networking sites at least daily — students are largely unreceptive to informational contact through this medium, with only nine percent stating they definitely would use the sites this way. We also found what behaviors students engage in most often online and what devices they use to get there.

In our newest research report, The Interactive Marketing Profile Of  High School Students — 2012, our findings include:

• Inquirers prefer direct mail, email, and search engines as information channels
• Communication preferences increase as the relationship grows
• Students prefer channels they can control
• While students associate with college Facebook groups or pages, most activity is spectator-based
• Other online behaviors do not measure up to the hype
• Laptops and desktops still matter

College and university admission professionals seeking to earn the ‘strategic’ in the strategic enrollment management moniker should take a more calculated to their recruitment marketing efforts by:

Understanding the online participation profile and preferences of their students

By viewing high school students through a different lens — their behavior and preferences —making marketing and technology investments becomes evidence-based, rather than opinion-, or worse yet, hype-based.

Matching interactive marketing channels to support the student decision cycle

Search engine marketing works best to identify students who are actively looking for educational opportunities, while social media, texting, and phone calls are better suited to applicants — when a more definitive relationship exists. Direct mail search is still a winner to engage standardized test takers early in their decision process.

Developing a content plan

A content plan moves recruitment communications from the typical stream of visit, apply, or deposit messages to a dialogue that helps students evaluate their options and make decisions.

Open interactive channels when they can be scaled

Discuss the internal implications of each channel initiative to ensure your team, department, and institution can deliver a positive student experience.

Build a foundation first

Consider your own internal production process for a print publication versus creating and sending a promotional email. In most cases, an admission professional would never dream of printing or mailing a brochure using the same approaches that many use for email today.

The report is currently available for download.

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)

How do adult learners (ages 22 – 50) prefer to communicate with colleges and universities at different stages of their decision process? What behaviors do they engage in online? Discover the answers in the following PowerPoint deck presented at the 2010 Noel-Levitz Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing, and Retention.

Download size - 8MB