To be more relevant and trendy in today’s digital world, educational institutes are now spending a considerable budget for social media marketing. During this time of the year, B-schools around the country are bustling for more admissions. There has been a serious effort on the path of B-schools to increase brand presence and target the ever-growing number of prospective students on social media. So, the challenge here is how could your B-school stand out among the rest? What could you do differently to engage and attract students? Some may say that B-schools should be active on social media. Yes, that’s true, but apart from being active, you also need to have engaging posts that address prospective students, current students, and alumni all at one place! Social media for B-schools allows you to do exactly that.
There are different ways you could give your B-school more social proof with user-generated content. Here are some actionable social media recommendations you could start implementing.
Team Up with Student Councils
If there’s one thing millennials are good at, it’s social media marketing. They know how it works, how to use it, and they trust it. 67% of marketers promote content with the help of influencers. A great way to expand your B-school brand awareness is to team up with the student social media committee and tag the popular students in posts to increase visibility. You could also connect with alumni that have turned into social media influencers. You could post images of your institute, fun events, social activities, sports events, and lot more to engage students daily.
You could even consider promoting specific posts as advertisements to increase audience reach and engagement. But that’s for later… as it involves a lot of social media analytics that runs parallel with the ads. (Yes, you will need a social media team)
Go Live on Social Media Platforms
Whether it’s a sports event or a live band performance, live events generate excitement among all students, be it prospective, current, or the alumni. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have the option to have live streaming of events. Social media for B-schools has been a boom to create a buzz among students about upcoming events. On the day of the event, you could go live on platforms to increase engagement and impressions. These live streams will be viewed by current students, alumni, parents, faculty, and of course, the prospective students that wish to join your institute.
You could have a personalised #Hashtag for your event where all students that post pictures on their social feed can use the same hashtag and publicise the event even more.
Post Trustworthy Content
The only audience as important as students is the parents. Students and parents always want to be informed about everything from important updates about events, exams, and holidays to admission processes, administrative details, etc. Yes, sure, they have such details printed in newsletters and college magazines, but the print medium can be easily misplaced. You could post parent/student testimonials that are currently associated with the institute.
Social media for B-schools can only give you perks if your social media accounts are updated daily. What your B-school needs next is a social guru that could handle all your social media handles and keep them fresh and relevant to students and parents simultaneously!