So now that we know a bit more about our personas for higher education, what’s the most effective way to attract, engage, and delight them? This is where you will want to evaluate the current state of your social media strategy to determine just how “student-centered” it is. We’ve got some tips for what you can do to get the most out of your student’s UGC and increasing student engagement to make the most out of your social strategy.
1. Student social contests
Social media contests are one of the best ways to increase your brand awareness and interact with your students. Not to mention, it encourages students to take a break from the books and become involved. Whether you choose to do a sweepstakes, photo contest, “caption this,” vote contest, or video, there are plenty of themes you can do to make a social media contest fun for students—rather than filling their Instagram feed with one brand awareness post after another.
2. Working with specific departments
Featuring the work of different schools or departments at your university is appealing and student-persona specific. It can be difficult for a university’s marketing department to appeal to so many different students at their university on social, that’s why gaining content that is school or department specific can be helpful in showcasing the value of a certain target market. Work with a design class to allow the students to showcase their capstone video projects or let the business school host a Facebook Live seminar for an event. What’s more, the content you create and the UGC you gain can be used as micro content… time and time again.
3. Snapchat and Instagram take-overs
Such a simple idea can have an overwhelming effect on the student-body as a whole. Not only is this a great opportunity to get current students involved, but it also serves as a way to increase awareness for potential students during the “attract” stage of their inbound student buyer’s journey. Not to mention, we know how much Gen Z appreciates the authenticity that comes from real students sharing about their school.
4. Student-perspective interns
You might not think of hiring student interns as your school’s social media strategist, but c’mon, who better to help you understand Gen Z than a Gen Z’er themselves? Not to mention, doing good for a student intern gives them experience and a chance to spread positive word-of-mouth feedback to promote your school.
Conclusion
There you have it, four simple ways to increase student engagement and strategize your social to make it student-focused. If you want to learn more about how to “student-center” your social strategy or are looking for more information to help increase brand awareness for your university, contact us at [email protected]. We’d be happy to help.
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