“I am excited to have been consulted on this hot topic that continues to keep college campuses across the country abuzz,” explained Maas. “The primary target audience for higher education institutions includes alumni, prospective and current students who belong to a generation that has become accustomed to the most popular social media and online communication technologies to-date. To these groups, social media has become a part of their everyday lives. Higher education institutions would significantly benefit in leveraging the social media phenomenon as a recruitment, advancement or brand awareness tool.”
Kolowich’s “The Social Media Maze” article focuses on the importance of online social media applications and their users. In using these social technologies, the institutions can give the students an outlet that allows them to feel connected with the school itself whether it be through courses, teams or organizations – in other words, a community within a community. Enabling these tools, institutions can hook its students for staying connected before, during and even after graduation.
Many colleges, however, are particularly concerned about being unable to control the chatter surrounding their institutions according to Kolowich. Fortunately, there are tools available to monitor and flag the negative buzz, providing campuses enough time to counter potentially negative buzz.
“While social media connects students, EMG has developed social monitoring tools that will provide schools a comprehensive overview of the conversations taking place in popular social media websites like Facebook and Twitter,” added Maas. “Knowing real-time and authentic information is invaluable among our higher education clients because it gives them time to immediately react and be proactive rather than just sitting back while waiting for results. Waiting too long could potentially damage your institution’
Even though social media is still in its infancy, more and more schools are jumping the bandwagon to fully engage with their targeted student audience. Bottom line – choosing the most appropriate social media platform, formulating the right strategy behind it as well as selecting the right monitoring and management tools is critical for success within the social media front. Stay tuned for EMG’s up-and-coming social monitoring product as it rolls out within the upcoming year.
About Inside Higher Ed (www.insidehighered.com)
Inside Higher Ed was founded in 2004 by three executives well-versed in higher education journalism and recruitment through decades of professional experience. The site offers news, daily commentary with room for feedback from readers, career columns and a large collection of suite tools for professionals and colleges. The site was founded on three principles: excellence,accessibility and community.
