The increasing role of social media in choosing a university

A while back I posted some thoughts on how social media -  and in particular location based services – might shape the future of property buying. Today i’m back in similar territory but this time considering education, and in particular how one selects a university, especially if one is thinking of applying to a university in a foreign country. In much the same way as one is inclined to want to use social media to better get to know a location before buying property in it, comitting one (or in some cases 3-4) years of ones life to study in a foreign country can be daunting and once again social media can be an important tool in making the right decision.

During our work with Education UK we learned a number of things about the social media behaviours of students seeking information about studying abroad, and this past week I happened upon a study by American site Global Campus looking in to the practices of academic institutions trying to lure cash-rich foreign students through the doors of their universities and colleges. The key take-outs from the study were that:

1. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (in that order) are the most popular platforms to reach out to prospective foreign students
2. Videos, photos and blogs (again, in that order) are they key content types that universities have found most effective to engage prospective foreign students with

Neither learning is all that surprising: point 1 reinforces that going to the locations one’s audience are already ‘hanging out’ in enables more interactions (as, unsurpringly, there are more people there!). Point 2 reinforces how shared personal accounts and experiences can play a key role in helping us make informed decisions (afterall, most of you will have used Amazon’s user reviews to help inform a purchase decision).

In the case of education and choosing an academic institution (be it in one’s country of citizenship or further afield), students are increasingly looking beyond the prospectus and using social media to further investigate what life might really be like at a given academic institution: accomodation, courses, tutors, cost of living/price of a pint, night life all being potential topics of interest.

Smart universities should be thinking about how they can adapt their recruitment procedures to put a greater emphasis on social media. This might include:

• Facilitating interaction online between former and current students and academics
• Curating the experiences of current and former students
• Sharing (and optimising) existing information locked up in prospectuses via social media platforms

Those institutions which fail to do this will quickly find themselves left behind as prospective students increasingly turn to social media as a means to help guide their choice of university.