The Social Side of College Admissions

We just released our Facebook and Admissions white paper. It contains the results from our 2nd annual survey into how colleges and universities are using Facebook in their recruitment and yield efforts. We had 150 schools participate in this year's survey.

It's packed with great data on what admissions offices are doing on Facebook, what resources they are dedicating to these efforts, how they are promoting their presence, and what sort of impact they feel this presence has had. This year, we also added questions to find out how schools are using current students and how they're measuring the impact of their Facebook efforts.

A Few Key Findings

• Facebook Use Continues to Grow
  Compared to last year's results, more schools have an admissions-specific presence on Facebook (66% in 2010 vs. 79% in 2011).


• E-mail Still Top Method for Promoting a School's Facebook Presence
  Nearly every school (97%) that uses dedicated e-mail blasts to promote their Facebook presence considers it to be somewhat or very effective.


• Allowing Customers to Tell the Story
  A majority of schools are using current students to help manage their Facebook presence, including posting new content and monitoring walls.


• Most Schools Are Happy with Their Results
  Nine out of ten respondents agreed that they are "happy with the results of their Facebook presence."


• Making an Effort to Measure Performance
  Seven out of ten respondents are measuring the performance of their Facebook efforts in some way. The most prevalent methods focus on monitoring counts of Likes / Fans / Group members or leveraging Facebook’s own Insights analytics.

Download a free PDF Copy

Labels: Admissions, data, Facebook, Marketing, Metrics, Strategy