In today’s increasingly digital world, social media is playing a huge role. It’s no wonder, considering that an estimated 2.6 billion people are using social media, according to Statista. But what that means for almost any business or organization is that they need to have a strong social media presence to reach their target audience.
In that sense, higher education institutions are no different. They too have their goals to accomplish in the social media setting. Here’s why social media is vital to the higher education community, and how it can leverage the power of social:
Keeping In Touch with Alumni
Those higher education institutions that have clean alumni data have a way of staying in touch with their alumni through social media. It’s especially important for those institutions that rely in great measure on fundraising activities, as they can focus their marketing on the alumni via social networks. It’s relatively easy to promote the latest fundraising event to the alumni on social media, but it can pay off immensely. Staying active on social media keeps the institution in its alumni’s sights, reminding them to donate and help promote the institution they graduated from.
Social Provides a Way to Recruit
Higher education institutions naturally have a lot to compete over, but this competition is getting fiercer when it comes to student recruitment. In those circumstances, no advantage is a small one — and an excellent social media presence may be just the right way to attract the students.
Recruiting students is a type of marketing, and like any other marketing activity, you need to know how to reach your target audience. Social media platforms like Facebook provide higher education institutions with an easy way to showcase itself to those who might be interested.
Overall Promotion of the Institution
There are numerous things a higher education institution could post about on social media regularly. For example, social networks are a perfect base for institutions to inform people about the various research and innovation-striving activities, as well as post about opportunities related to the research in question.
Getting the Data You Need
Navigating social media is easier with the right tools. Since higher education institutions gather a lot of essential data on their students and alumni, it’s necessary to have a quality system that will keep track of it. With Runner EDQ’s integrated software solutions, you’ll have enhanced and verified contact information, including emails, phones, and social media handles. It’s enterprise quality data in the service of higher education institutions that can help them attract and retain the students with the highest potential. However, most of the work still falls on the shoulders of the institution itself, and their social media marketing strategy.
Visit Runner EDQ to learn more about how our student and alumni data quality solutions help higher education institutions do better on social media. Keeping student and alumni data clean and updated plays an essential role in making sure that your social media promotional efforts aren’t in vain.
