Monday, November 3, 2008
Facebook for Online Student Recruitment
Are the days of billboards, radio, and direct mail over for higher education recruitment? I don't think so, but we can't afford to dismiss the burgeoning opportunities for Web 2.0 marketing. In the past year, there has been an increased entry of universities on Facebook. In many cases, it appears that these sites are university-sponsored, but benefit from unedited postings by students. Many are using their Facebook sites to include RSS feeds of campus news and events. While they may appear to serve as a retention and community-building tool for present students, the use of Facebook is also a recruitment tool when used properly - such as appropriate inbound links. Clearly, the appearance of the site is critical, particularly for online programs where the student may never actually see the campus. Another use of Facebook (and similar social networking sites) for university recruitment is for advertising. Facebook allows for easy creation of ads (though it requires pre-payment by credit card rather than invoicing), and allows the option of pricing per click. It would seem that the use of Facebook as a recruitment tool would be even more useful for online programs as it so directly targets potential students who seem to enjoy spending time online.
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Facebook as a recruitment tool has received mixed reviews. Schools love it because it is cheap, directly meets their target audience, and in most cases self-manages.
However, the thought of losing control of your message is daunting for some. From the student lens, they can obtain information from others about the school but short of that, the pages typically fall short in offering relevant content. Students are also a bit weary of university administrators trying to cozy up to them on Facebook and other social networks.
Facebook can be used, but carefully. One thing we're about to roll out is the ability for students to tell schools what their interests are on a Facebook page, and the student can then pull personalized content directly to their own Facebook page automatically (defendant on their interests).
Very good points. But I think we will lose control of the message whether we plan to or not in this age.
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