Why?

Because teens – in other words, the ideal target audience for most higher ed marketing campaigns – use social media a lot.

According to Common Sense Media, US teenagers average over 8.5 hours of screen time daily, with about one-sixth of that time spent browsing social media. A further 32% say they wouldn’t want to live without YouTube.

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It’s hardly surprising usage is so high, given that 95% of teens now have smartphones.

So, clearly, social media is a massive opportunity for higher education marketers.

Looking to get more from your own social media efforts? Check out these 30 top-notch campaigns from universities across North America.

1. University of Nebraska-Lincoln

A big piece of the higher education marketing puzzle is figuring out how best to position a given town, city, or state to prospective students.

Do you highlight the fantastic social life? The history and culture? The beautiful scenery? The friendly attitude toward students? Or something else entirely?

Rather than just discussing this in a few throwaway posts, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has built a whole social content campaign around it.

The Discover Nebraska series features native Instagram videos that combine clean, striking design, engaging imagery, and attractive graphics to showcase the best that the state has to offer.

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It also allows the university to promote highlights of its events calendar, feature profiles of former students, and get more eyes on its news stories.

2. University of Manitoba

Universities are some of our oldest institutions.

Take the University of Manitoba, which was founded back in 1877.

While all that heritage has many benefits from a higher education social media marketing perspective, it can also have its downsides. How on earth do you rebrand an organization that was around when Billy the Kid was still stalking the Old West?

The University of Manitoba decided to use social media to communicate and explain its recent rebranding:

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This campaign showcases visual elements of the new branding and directs viewers toward a dedicated landing page that explains in-depth the new logo and how it came about.

3. Baylor University

Baylor University tops the tree regarding its social media marketing strategy—or at least it did in 2016, according to research from Engagement Labs.

The study awarded Baylor a higher score than any other college for its Facebook presence and placed the university in third place for its X strategy.

In particular, Baylor was applauded for its “high-quality content,” which focused predominantly on campus life and the successes of its sporting teams. This helped it rack up the most likes and comments per 1,000 fans of any university.

This approach is clearly still central to Baylor’s higher ed marketing plans – and it still bags the university a ton of engagement:

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The lesson here? Once you’ve found what resonates with your audience, keep doing it!

4. University of Phoenix

The biggest reason for going to college is to get a better job.

That might sound obvious, but it’s important to remember what your audience actually wants to hear. What would persuade them to choose your institution over a rival?

The University of Phoenix recognizes this. It’s been running a Facebook ad campaign to promote its Career Optimism Index, which the university says was created to “address broad, persistent and systemic barriers to career advancement.” Potential students are obviously massively interested in this area.

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This whole campaign is a fantastic example of thought leadership on social media. Those ads are littered with juicy stats, all generated from original research.

The ads link to the Career Optimism Index landing page, which contains many additional insights on the theme of career progression.

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This paints the University of Phoenix as a real authority in career development and as an organization that genuinely cares about helping people get more from the world of work.

5. University of California Los Angeles

Want a simple example of how universities can tap into current events to boost brand awareness? Look no further than this higher education marketing campaign from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA):

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UCLA ran this ad campaign across Facebook and Instagram from late March to early April 2020, which, as you’ll likely remember, was right at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

This ad invited people to download images showcasing iconic UCLA buildings and locations to use as backgrounds for video calls.

The timing on this is perfect because late March was precisely the point when so many of us first started working (and learning) from home, causing search interest for the phrase “Zoom background” to spike through the roof:

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Think about it: whenever someone downloads one of those images and uses it as their video call background, they promote the university. It’s an amazing tactic!

6. Binghamton University

Humor is a powerful tool in higher ed marketing (provided you get it right).

That’s not just an opinion – it’s a scientific fact.

For instance, one study from the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice discovered that viewers receive humorous social video content more favorably than serious entertainment.

When you think of humor on social media, you naturally think of memes.

Whether memes are a good fit for your strategy depends heavily on your audience and tone of voice, but Binghamton University is comfortable with using them, such as when it jumped on the Bernie Sanders meme that blew up in January 2021:

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This post worked for a couple of reasons:

1. The university posted it before the meme format became played out.
2. There’s a legit reason for posting this – Bernie taught at the university in 1990, so it makes sense for Binghamton to get involved in the conversation.

In other words, this post managed to get the “funny” bit right while advancing the university’s message.

7. University of Michigan

Sticking with the humor theme is the following example from the University of Michigan.

Like Bernie’s example above, the University of Michigan proves that sometimes the best opportunities on social media are the ones you don’t plan for.

For anyone struggling to recall obscure moments in social media history, this Twitter post references how a picture of an egg became the most-liked image on Instagram back in January 2019:

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Not only does this video tap into something topical, it also showcases locations around the University of Michigan, which means it’s effectively a double win for the institution’s higher ed marketing team.

8. New York University

New York University (NYU) famously doesn’t have a football team.

That seems like a massive oversight when you consider college football is a huge deal, with the average fixture attracting more than 40,000 fans.

As such, the lack of a football program could put off potential students – not just would-be college athletes but regular students craving the social side of college sports.

However, the NYU marketing team has had plenty of time to accept this (the football program was discontinued in 1953, so it isn’t exactly a recent occurrence).

Rather than ducking the issue, the university leaned into it with a Facebook video series highlighting all the other incredible sports on offer at the university:

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Highlights include a World Archery competitor, an award-winning baton twirler, and a Nascar driver.

9. University of Central Missouri

This University of Central Missouri campaign demonstrates the value of understanding your audience’s pain points in higher education social media marketing.

So what are prospective students’ biggest concerns?

Well, according to research from Mission.org, their top two concerns are:

1. Choosing the right major
2. College fees and debt

This Facebook and Instagram ad speaks to both of these pain points while adding a third – the length of time taken to graduate:

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That’s a compelling piece of copywriting.

Furthermore, the ad reassures its audience by speaking to the university’s heritage: “Trust 150 years of quality education.”

It effectively says: “We understand your concerns, and we’re here to help you out.”

10.University of Iowa

According to RivalIQ’s Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, the University of Iowa has been America’s top university for social engagement for five successive years. So, we simply had to include it on our list of the best higher education social media accounts.

The institution performs strongly on Instagram and Twitter, but its Facebook presence is the true standout.

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So what’s it doing so well?

Lots of things. But one especially smart tactic is its use of high-profile alums to promote the university:

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Research from Common Sense and SurveyMonkey found that teens are just as likely to listen to celebrities, influencers, and personalities as friends, family, and news organizations.

Showcasing big-name former students can be a highly effective promotional tactic. If you can encourage them to tell their followers how much they loved their college experience, all the better!

11. James Madison University

According to RivalIQ, Virginia’s James Madison University (JMU) is the top dog in higher education Instagram.

Artsy campus shots are its specialty. But it’s not just about the images themselves; it’s about the format in which they’re posted.

Specifically, JMU is a big fan of Instagram carousels. In a highly unscientific review of the account’s 50 most recent Insta posts, we discovered that 42% were carousels.

For comparison, the University of Iowa—which RivalIQ ranked third for Instagram engagement and first overall—incorporated carousels in 34% of its 50 latest posts.

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Why does JMU lean so heavily into carousels?

When you add multiple images to a carousel post, Instagram re-serves those posts to users who didn’t interact with them the first time. That makes them a fantastic vehicle for driving social engagement.

12. University of Georgia

When it comes to higher ed social media, everyone loves a winner.

RivalIQ’s research discovered that posts featuring big “wins” produced engagement lifts across all the social platforms it studied.

As the home of the national championship-winning Bulldogs, the University of Georgia is more fortunate than most when it comes to winning big.

And it’s not afraid to shout about it, as a glance at its Instagram account will confirm.

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Of course, only one school a year can have the country’s top football team. Many institutions are far more renowned for their academic prowess than their sporting achievements (remember, NYU doesn’t even have a football program).

But “wins” don’t have to be confined to the sporting arena.

If one of your students has received a big art prize or you’ve won a significant award, that’s absolutely something to celebrate.

13. University of South Carolina

Despite having over 100 million users in the US, TikTok is still comparatively underutilized by higher ed institutions.

The University of South Carolina is one of relatively few schools to have developed a solid TikTok presence.

That’s because it takes time to create native content that resonates with users on TikTok. A great example is this cheer video, which has notched more than 270,000 views at the time of writing:

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14. Central Michigan University

Sticking with the TikTok theme, Central Michigan University (CMU) is another school that’s smashing it on the fun-sized video platform.

Despite having just 25,000 TikTok followers, the school has more than 1.3 million likes, with one of its videos generating a staggering 5.5 million views:

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This highlights TikTok’s strongest suit: its ability to help brands reach new audiences that don’t follow them and might never have heard of them.

Sure, not every video you produce will generate millions of views. CMU’s second-highest performer has a comparatively paltry 10,800 views. But the more you create, the more likely you will learn what works and bring in big numbers.

15. Brigham Young University

Another institution that excels at generating likes, shares, and comments is Utah’s Brigham Young University, which has over 88,000 followers on X/Twitter. Much of its success comes down to the school’s effective use of video.

Admittedly, X/Twitter isn’t known as a video platform, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be effective. The platform’s figures show that there are more than two billion video views daily, with video posts generating 10X more engagements than non-video posts.

Brigham Young is aware of this.

It regularly posts video content on Twitter, such as this bird’s eye view of LaVell Edwards Stadium, which has generated more than 12,000 views:

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That means roughly one-sixth of its Twitter followers have watched it.

16. Harvard University

Harvard is one of the most followed higher education institutions in the US, with 6.5 million followers on Facebook alone.

In reality, there’s no big mystery to Harvard’s success. It does what you’d expect a higher ed Facebook account to do: showcasing news and events from around the university.

A good example is this post, which highlights members of the class of 2026 during their first day on campus:

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This simple collection of images has generated 28,000 reactions and more than 7,000 shares at the time of writing, demonstrating the value of having “boots on the ground” creating content when anything important happens at your school.

17. Berry College

The phrase “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” applies to higher ed social media.

We’ve examined how the University of Georgia has happily showcased its sporting achievements.

Another Georgia institution, the tiny Berry College — with a total enrollment of just 2,200 students — might not have the country’s best football program.

However, few schools can compare to its campus’s sheer size and beauty, which covers an astonishing 27,000 acres and everything from rolling foothills to babbling rivers to forested parkland.

Unsurprisingly, this is a prominent feature of the school’s social media content, especially on visual platforms like Instagram:

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The message here is clear:

Every school is great at something. Figure out what you do better than most, and make that the focus of your social strategy.

18. University of San Diego

Another school that makes the most of its surroundings is the University of San Diego (USD), which is famed for the aesthetics of its campus.

Based on real student ratings, Princeton Review regularly names USD among the most beautiful campuses in the US.

As you might imagine, USD isn’t shy about highlighting this trait, particularly on Instagram:

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Who wouldn’t want to spend their time at college surrounded by palm trees and striking Spanish Renaissance architecture?

19. Tarleton State University

Social media can be a great leveler.

With some smart strategy and a little (okay, a lot) of effort, smaller institutions can totally outperform their larger rivals in engagement.

A great example is Tarleton State University (TSU), one of the smaller institutions that made RivalIQ’s list of the top 10 schools on social media.

Look at Tarleton State’s Facebook page, and it’s clear that the school’s marketing team has paid close attention to branding.

TSU’s purple-and-white color scheme is apparent across pretty much every image on its feed:

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This might seem like a minor point, but branding matters. It helps followers pick out your posts from their busy social feeds, which makes it easier to build an online community.

20. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) takes a different approach to many of the institutions in our roundup. Rather than showcasing campus life, its X/Twitter account is dedicated to highlighting the unique research conducted by its scientists.

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This approach generates plenty of reach and engagement and helps cement MIT as a world leader in science and technology.

It’s certainly worked hard to build that reputation, with many scientific and technological advances coming out of the college — including the discovery of quarks and the development of radar.

21. The Ohio State University

The Ohio State University (OSU) is regularly recognized as one of the top-performing higher education institutions in the US regarding TikTok content, generating over two million total engagements on the platform from June 2022 – May 2023.

OSU gets a lot of things right on TikTok. But it’s especially effective at showcasing the achievements and credentials of its faculty. (It’s fair to say that tasks get slightly easier when you’ve got a recent Nobel Prize winner on your staff!)

@theohiostateuniversityIt’s great to have you back, Dr. Agostini! Round of applause for this 2023 Nobel Prize winner! Learn more about this Buckeye’s incredible scientific achievements at the link in our bio.♬ space song sped up – autumn &lt3

22. Southern Connecticut State University

Getting your content mix right is essential to any social media strategy. Southern Connecticut State University’s Instagram does this better than most, sharing a relatively even split of post types with its audience of almost 13,000 followers.

You’ve got photo carousels showing off life on campus…​​

 

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A post shared by Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) (@southernscsu)

…Reels highlighting student achievements…

 

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A post shared by Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) (@southernscsu)

…and single-image posts promoting upcoming events:

 

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A post shared by Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) (@southernscsu)

Its posting strategy is satisfying the Instagram algorithm because, from June 2022 – May 2023, the school’s posts generated an average engagement rate of 5.71% — almost double the median for D2 institutions.

23. Texas A&M University

Texas A&M’s X/Twitter presence effectively showcases the school’s proud heritage of helping its local community by highlighting volunteer initiatives like the Big Event, America’s largest one-day, student-run service project.

Since it was established by six former Aggies in 1982, the project has racked up over 1.1 million total hours of service and expanded to include 130 events across the US. Hence, it’s the sort of thing any higher-ed social media marketer would love to promote.

In 1982, Joe Nussbaum ’84 led a group of 6 Aggies in cleaning up a local cemetery.

Since that first project, The Big Event has expanded to 2,250+ job sites in Bryan-College Station, 100+ universities across the nation, and internationally in Spain, Italy, and Germany. pic.twitter.com/JLkOFe7dw6

— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) March 23, 2024

But Texas A&M isn’t a one-trick pony.

Current and former students have been involved in many projects that have benefited the school’s local area and much further afield, from Nobel Peace Prize-winning alums…

On what would have been his 110th birthday, we celebrate the legacy of Norman Borlaug, a #TAMU Distinguished Professor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient!

His life dedication to agronomy has been estimated to have saved billions of lives, and his legacy continues at @BorlaugTAMU. pic.twitter.com/TyzdYzKAXD

— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) March 25, 2024

…to researchers striving to solve the next pandemic before it emerges:

Bats’ swarming behavior may hold the key to solving the next pandemic.

Researchers at @tamuvetmed shed light on how bats build up their immunity, which could help us beat the next deadly viruses. https://t.co/R99Bmoi30X

— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) March 25, 2024

All of which are perfect for sharing on social media.

24. Texas Christian University

Texas Christian University (TCU) takes a high-volume approach to Facebook, posting about twice as often as the average Division I school.

This strategy doesn’t guarantee results. In fact, many social media marketers find that the more often they post on Facebook, the fewer comments, likes, and shares they generate. But that’s not a problem for TCU, which saw a Facebook engagement rate of 0.63% from June 2022 – May 2023 — that’s about three times the average for a D1 school or college.

Part of TCU’s success stems from its ability to paint the university as one big, happy family, like in this post about its annual Easter egg hunt:

Amy Peterson, the school’s assistant director of social and multimedia strategy, explained, “Our social media strategy reflects the experience that our audiences expect from TCU—a celebratory focus on our campus experience, plus a deeper look at impactful academic research, service, and scholarly activity.”

25. Fayetteville State University

Like Texas Christian, Fayetteville State thrives on Facebook by sharing more content than its rivals. Between June 2022 and May 2023, the school posted about 2.5X as frequently as other Division II schools on Facebook while maintaining roughly three times the average D2 engagement rate.

So what, exactly, is it posting?

As with most higher ed institutions, there’s a ton of sports-themed content celebrating the successes of teams and individual students:

The school also does a great job at celebrating key announcements and milestones, like the third anniversary of Chancellor Darrell T Allison:

26. Northern Michigan University

Northern Michigan University (NMU) is more active on TikTok than most higher ed institutions, sharing an average of 2.2 videos per week.

This approach helped it earn over 4.8 million total views in the year to June 2023, compared to a median of just 336,000 views for all Division II schools.

Committing to posting all that content is challenging for any higher ed social media marketing team. But NMU gets it right by keeping a close eye on TikTok trends, like this montage of students attempting to guess each other’s majors:

@northernmichiganu Guess that major!!! #nmu #college #collegelife #univeristy #northernmichiganuniversity #wildcats #major #degree #getthatdegree ♬ nintendo wii (mii channel) song – julie on the internet

27. Stanford University

Stanford is one of the world’s most-followed higher ed institutions on Instagram, with a community of over 1.1 million followers.

The school’s stellar reputation stems from its long history as a leading research university, reflected in its Instagram content. Stanford’s social media marketing team regularly highlights the school’s most interesting and ground-breaking insights and innovations — like TidyBot, a robot that “learns to clean your space just the way you like it.”

 

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A post shared by Stanford University (@stanford)

At the time of writing, this Instagram Reel had notched up close to 400,000 views, demonstrating a huge audience eager to learn about the school’s latest research.

28. Colorado State University

One of the most effective ways for higher ed social media marketers to foster a sense of community is to discuss the shared experiences and characteristics that unite fellow students and alums.

Colorado State University does a great job of this on its Instagram account, where it regularly highlights (and sometimes pokes fun at) the realities of campus life. Just like in this Reel, which replicates the “of course we…” meme format seen across Insta and TikTok:

 

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A post shared by Colorado State University (@coloradostateuniversity)

This approach helps Colorado State build a real sense of belonging — an effective tactic for boosting social media engagement among current and former students and attracting future students to study at the institution.

29. Carson-Newman University

If you’re fortunate enough to have a well-known alum, you should shout about it on social media.

That’s doubly true for smaller, less famous institutions like Carson-Newman University, which can count Dolly Parton among its former students:

We want to wish a big happy birthday to a unique C-N alumna!

Did you know Dolly Parton holds a degree from Carson-Newman? On October 21, 1990, we conferred upon Dolly a Doctor of Letters Degree for her contributions to the educational and economic welfare of East Tennessee! pic.twitter.com/ieXmKnboui

— Carson-Newman University (@carson_newman_u) January 19, 2024

Posting about the Queen of Country Music (among many other things) helped Carson-Newman achieve more than 5X the median Division II engagement rate on X/Twitter from June 2022 – May 2023.

30. Louisiana State University

Posting about your sports teams is hardly the most revolutionary higher ed social media tactic, but Louisiana State University (LSU) does it better than most.

LSU posts a ton of TikTok content, much of which is themed around its various sporting programs — from showing off its packed football stadium to sharing clips of its basketball teams in action.

And, like many other institutions in our roundup, Louisiana State also takes the time to shout about famous sporting alums. And they don’t come much bigger than basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal:

@lsu ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? #lsu #geauxtigers #collegelife #shaq #shaquilleoneal #mood #school #finals #test #exam #trending #meme #relatable #foryoupage #fyp ♬ original sound – LSU

Conclusion

This is a diverse selection of social campaigns despite them all coming from higher education institutions.

We have humor, heritage, sports, and an egg rolling along the ground in Ann Arbor.

This shows that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media in higher education marketing. What works for you might not work for anyone else—it all depends on your audience and brand.

That’s why it pays to research what your audience wants and to try a wide range of tactics to learn what resonates.

Are you interested in more content like this? Make sure to sign up for our social media conference.

When each unit, team, faculty, and degree has its own account, it’s near-impossible to figure out who’s sharing what and when. And creating a holistic social media strategy becomes a serious headache.

It makes it hard for students to know where to turn for information.

If all that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place. Christina Chin, Social & Digital Content Strategist at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC’s) Okanagan Campus, spoke at the Social Media Strategies Summit for Higher Education about building a coordinated, portfolio-wide communications strategy.

In this article, we’ve collated her top tips and insights, including:

• A framework for streamlining university social media communications
• Best practices for enhancing your team’s social media processes
• A real-life case study to support your attempts to consolidate accounts and align social media strategies

Let’s get into it.

Review and Streamline Active Social Media Accounts

Christina and her team’s efforts to build a coordinated student communications strategy began in summer 2022.

But even before then, they had long been aware that UBC had too many Instagram accounts — not just on the Okanagan Campus but also in Vancouver.

“It was really confusing for students,” Christina says. “They didn’t know who to follow or where to get information from, and there was no way to manage the information that was going out.”

In addition, it took a lot of work to find out who controlled each account. Students were running some, and when they graduated, there’d be no one to take over — so the account would become inactive.

“Many accounts were being overlooked and were having low impact, even though there was quite a bit of effort being put behind some of them,” Christina notes. “So the opportunity that we saw here was to create a coordinated, portfolio-wide strategy.”

The first step of the solution was to audit all active accounts and delete those that were unnecessary or underperforming.

But where to draw the line?

They couldn’t just delete accounts with low followings because those profiles might just be struggling due to a lack of resources.

Instead, Christina and her team decided to set a limit of one account per “directorate,” or student service area.

This resulted in them deleting more than half of their accounts, reducing the number from 19 to eight:

For instance, they consolidated all wellbeing and accessibility services — which used to have multiple separate accounts divided between the health clinic, counseling services, disability resource center, campus wellness, and more — into a single account.

All of this meant that a strategy and a dedicated delivery team backed up each remaining directorate account.

Get Buy-In From Stakeholders

Of course, deleting a bunch of accounts wouldn’t automatically fix the school’s student communications strategy.

Next, Christina and her team had to persuade the stakeholders at each directorate that a new, unified approach was necessary to provide better student service.

To do this, they capitalized on the growth of the university’s central Student Life Instagram account.

When Christina’s position was created, the account had 2,800 followers. Fast-forward to today, and it has more than 10,000.

Sure, it’s hardly the world’s biggest higher ed social media account, but it’s impressive given that fewer than 12,000 students are on the Okanagan Campus.

“We’re looked at as the number one source for all student information on campus,” Christina says. “We’ve really been able to build trust and credibility with students on our channel by being relatable and authentic.”

As well as using the account to raise awareness of the eight streamlined directorate accounts, it acted as a real-world case study for what Christina was trying to achieve.

This helped her to persuade stakeholders within each directorate that less is more when it comes to student comms. “We were able to explain to these staff members that we’re consolidating accounts to eight, but we’re going to provide extra support to each of these eight accounts,” she says.

Set Rules Around Account Activity

Before Christina’s overhaul, some of UBC’s social media accounts were accessible by multiple people, each of whom simply posted whenever they wanted to.

“There was no real strategy,” Christina explains. “It was hard to connect with someone about a post if you needed to because you didn’t know who was behind it.”

Something needed to change.

Their solution was to impose a three-person limit on access to each account.

Not only did this eradicate the previous scattergun approach to posting, but it also effectively created a team of “social people,” Christina says.

Even though these people weren’t professional communicators, there was a clear opportunity to help them create better, more helpful social media content by sharing best practices and educational resources.

Create Support Systems and Learning Resources

Next up, Christina developed best practice documents covering key areas of running an effective social media account, such as building a content plan and creating on-brand graphics in Canva.

But simply bombarding people with documents wouldn’t instantly change their behaviors.

Christina realized that another key element of her plan to develop a portfolio-wide social media strategy was to improve the lines of communication between her team and the people running each directorate’s social media account.

So, she created a Microsoft Teams channel and added everyone with access to one of those accounts. It gave her an easy way to answer questions, communicate changes in the social media landscape, and share important university messaging.

“Through this, each of these people went through a social media workshop, best practice training, and stuff like that so they could have a basic understanding before being able to post on one of our channels,” Christina explains.

Develop Account-Specific Strategies

Christina’s next task was to help the individual directorate accounts create dedicated social media strategies.

This included developing:

• Purpose statements to ensure everyone understood why their channel exists and its main goals.
• Voice depictions to guarantee a consistent tone of voice, no matter who shares content via each account.
• Content buckets to help define and silo the types of content each account would share.

“We discussed what works on the feed, what works in stories, and how we can batch content to help it make sense for students,” Christina explains.

Share On-Brand Design Assets

Because the people running each directorate account weren’t professional designers, they often relied on Canva templates when they needed to create branded social media graphics.

Sure, Canva is a fantastic tool. But its templates aren’t on-brand with UBC (or any other university) and are heavily overused.

To illustrate her point, Christina gathered examples of similar — or even identical-looking — content shared by different higher education institutions across North America.

“It wasn’t hard to find different accounts that were sharing the same templates because they’re so overused and oversaturated on Instagram,” she says. “It really makes it hard to stand out in the feed to make yourself look like an official communicator.”

Christina wanted the directorate accounts to share less generic content and was eager to ensure posts were accessible and contained proper calls to action where relevant.

On top of that, she was generally keen to make them look more fun.

With that in mind, Christina and her team assigned unique color palettes and branding patterns for each directorate account, with variations for individual units within a directorate.

They also developed custom icons and illustrations for each team.

“The goal is for everyone to look like they’re part of the same suite,” Christina explains. “We’re all part of the same institution, same campus, while still having our own look and feel.”

These branding efforts haven’t just made the university’s content look more attractive; they’ve dramatically affected engagement.

Case Study: UBC Okanagan Academic & Career Development

While Christina’s approach has been chiefly about creating better content on fewer accounts, she did launch one new profile as part of the process: UBC Okanagan Academic & Career Development.

It was converted from a defunct account that only had 600 followers — mostly staff and former alumni who would likely unfollow when it rebranded. Christina and her team deleted all the existing posts and then handed it over to three academic and career development unit members who had been through Christina’s social media workshop.

As such, this account provides the perfect case study for Christina’s strategy because all its growth can be directly attributed to the systems and best practices she’s implemented.

The results have been impressive.

Within its first year, the account attracted over 2,000 followers, and it’s now consistently generating 60,000+ monthly impressions. This compares favorably with UBC’s older, more established directorate accounts.

Importantly, students save and share the account’s content hundreds of times a month, showing they find it valuable.

“We’ve had great feedback from students on letting us know that this is super helpful, and we’ve just been really happy to see the success of this channel under the strategy,” Christina says.

Key Learnings

Unsurprisingly, Christina has learned plenty of lessons while developing and implementing her portfolio-wide social media strategy:

• When there’s a unified strategy that aligns with the mission, vision, and value of the area in which you work, your content will have a larger impact.
• Consolidating accounts to have fewer places for students to look results in higher engagement with events and programs. However, people can be very attached to their social accounts and may feel like you are taking something major away from them.
• Consistent communication through a community of practice to keep everyone updated on trends, social media updates, and university messaging changes the game.
• Most people just seek support to make things easier for their communications. If they seem resistant to change, remind them that you’re here to help and support them in your area of expertise so they can put all their energy behind their priorities and areas of expertise.
• This isn’t a one-and-done process. It’s something that needs to have someone leading it long term, who can ensure that content and designs stay fresh and new, someone who can onboard all new staff, and someone who can lead the community of practice. Social media is always changing — and your strategy will need to evolve.

Do you want more strategies, tips, and insights for higher ed social media marketers? Look out for our next social media conference!

Featured image by Freepik.

But what can you actually do about that?

One of the best people to answer this is Dr. Carrie Phillips, the Chief Communications and Marketing Officer of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

For her dissertation, Dr. Phillips researched marketing strategies that universities can use to mitigate the looming cliff. She shared her findings with an audience at our 2023 Social Media Strategies Summit Higher Education Virtual Conference.

Let’s dive into her key learnings and takeaways.

What Is the Enrollment Cliff?

First off, let’s clarify what we’re talking about.

The Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education warned about a forthcoming enrollment cliff, predicting that the number of students graduating from higher education would drop by 350,000 – 400,000 annually.

To understand why, you must rewind the 2007 – 2008 financial crisis.

The economy tanked, and people who might have thought about having kids decided to put it off for a couple of years. Some agreed that bringing a child into the world wasn’t such a good idea.

The US birth rate still hasn’t recovered, which has inevitably brought us to the enrollment cliff we face today. 

Image source

What’s the Impact of the Enrollment Cliff?

A potential 400,000 fewer students sounds scary. However, Dr. Phillips wanted to dig deeper into what that number actually means for higher education institutions.

To do that, she made two assumptions:

1. The number of students will remain constant, so there won’t be a sudden influx or decline in high school graduates. “It’s a pretty safe assumption,” says Dr. Phillips.
2. The average cost of college tuition is going to stay the same. “That’s a little bit less of a safe assumption,” she notes. “But I think it works for this purpose.”

She predicts that the enrollment cliff will have an impact in three main ways:

1. Demographic Changes

“It’s not just that we’re going to have fewer students,” Dr. Phillips explains. “We’re going to see the demography of the students that are still graduating change.”

Take a look at how student numbers are expected to rise or fall across different demographic groups:

In other words, the enrollment cliff will lead to a very different student body than the one we’re used to today.

2. Financial Impact

Perhaps the biggest impact of the enrollment cliff will be financial.

Based on the average cost of public education tuition and the headline figure of up to 400,000 fewer students, Dr. Phillips says the impact on the higher education industry will be $4.2 billion.

But that’s only scratching the surface because she also expects it to cost more to graduate these students.

First, we need to consider cultural factors.

“For those groups of students that are going to be increasing, chances are their culture has a very strong family focus. They have a culture that may look very different from what our campuses, and the communities where our campuses are located, look like,” Dr. Phillips explains.

“They may have family members who don’t speak the language that is prominent on our campus. And they may have experiences where they haven’t felt welcomed or felt part of a community.”

Adjustments to help them feel like part of the campus and community will require financial investment.

What’s more, Dr. Phillips says those “new” students are more likely to be first-generation college students. First-generation college students are about a third less likely to graduate if they don’t have access to things like:

• Academic support
• Wraparound services
• Tutoring
• Advising

All of which cost money.

“So I would argue that the enrollment cliff cost of $4.2 billion is actually going to be a bit higher,” Dr. Phillips states.

3. Geographic Impact

Every part of the US will experience a decline in student numbers.

However, within each region, there will still be places that see an increase in enrollments. So, does that mean those areas are immune to the enrollment cliff?

Unfortunately not.

“Those places where there is a significant decline are going to start going to those states where there are increases to recruit students there,” Dr. Phillips predicts. “Contiguous states, neighboring states, states in the region are going to start looking to those states to try to grow their own numbers. That is really scary.”

So it’s no surprise to see forecasts that as many as 14% of small institutions could be forced to close, like Cardinal Stritch University.

“Historically, universities have just gone out and recruited more students. And the reality is they can’t do that anymore,” Dr. Phillips says. “So now institutions are having to balance budgets, make changes that make the university flat from a fiscal perspective.”

Those that don’t adapt are at serious risk of bankruptcy.

4. Marketing Strategies To Prepare for the Enrollment Cliff

So, the enrollment cliff is here, which has severe ramifications for higher education institutions.

However, marketers are well placed to prepare for and mitigate the likely impact.

To understand the most effective strategies, Dr. Phillips visited with 15 chief marketing officers at regional public universities, as she believed these institutions had the most to gain or lose from the enrollment cliff (although the tips and tactics she identified apply to any institution).

She examined their marketing plans, budgets, brand pillars, and messaging guidelines. She analyzed the data to devise four key strategies that higher education social media leaders can use to become the change agents their campuses desperately need.

Strategy #1: Build Collaboration With Campus Partners

Social media is a collaborative environment. But who, exactly, should you be collaborating with?

Dr. Phillips recommends focusing on four key areas:

• Admissions: “They need great messaging, they need great email content, they need great pictures and video. Guess what we have? Great pictures, video, and messages.”

• Advancement: “They’re looking for success stories of our students. They’re looking for what faculty are up to. They’re looking for those great accolades, and those are all things that our office has.”

• Athletics: “Athletics is a front door to so many institutions, so if you have a great athletic team, that’s a great place to start building collaboration.”

• Academics: “I give you a little bit of caution here because every department on campus thinks their academic programs are the most important. However, if you have someone in a leadership role in academics that can help set that priority, it’ll make working with academics so much better, helping you highlight the students, the successes of the programs, and really tell that story in a meaningful way.”

Your goal here is to make it as easy as possible for other teams to get involved in marketing.

That could involve building a content team comprising people from admissions, advancement, athletics, and some of your academic units. “Instead of just guessing what content is relevant to them, work with them and develop that content plan,” Dr. Phillips says.

Another method she recommends is to run lunch-and-learn sessions and share ideas with other teams, helping them understand what effective content looks like.

Dr. Phillips also advises social media marketers to develop brand templates and digital assets that other departments can use to share their stories.

Finally, she suggests holding monthly content planning meetings with key partners, where you sit down with them one-on-one and work through their content needs.

Strategy #2: Double Down on Branding

With so many priorities on your plate, it’s easy to overlook the importance of quality branding. But Dr. Phillips insists it should be a key focus.

“We are competing against everything that is out there on social media,” she explains. “That means it’s really important for things to look and sound consistent.”

Of course, the siloed nature of higher education institutions can make consistency hard to achieve.

You might have one team typing in all caps and using exclamation points, one just reposting blanket flyers that don’t get any engagement, and one that tries hard but uses all the wrong names and logos.

While prospective students might not consciously notice all those differences, Dr. Phillips is confident they affect their impressions of your institution.

Apple is a fantastic case study into the importance and effectiveness of branding.

For about twenty years, Apple proclaimed itself innovative, forward-thinking, and at the cutting edge of technology. This message became ingrained in our perceptions of the company.

Dr. Phillips tried to do the same thing at UA Little Rock. Take a look at their brand pillars:

“We want every message on our accounts across campus to tie into these branding pillars and messages with the idea that, over time, that’s what people are going to start to think,” she explains.

If you don’t have brand pillars, don’t worry; developing them is pretty simple.

When Dr. Phillips started at UA Little Rock, she met with many people across campus. At the end of those sessions, she asked them to write down what the university meant to them.

She took those notes, pinned them on her whiteboard, developed them into broad themes, and started finessing them with her team.

Next, she took those concepts to other stakeholders throughout the institution and ran social media training on creating content that aligned with their new core messages.

“Then we went one step further and tried to provide training on images,” Dr. Phillips adds. “What did it look like to have an image that supported the ideas we were sharing?”

Strategy #3: Personalize Everything You Possibly Can

Today, consumers are used to seeing content that perfectly aligns with their viewing, reading, or listening preferences. Dr. Phillips warns that if higher ed marketers don’t try to do the same, they miss a big opportunity.

Here’s how to do it:

Leverage Social Listening

Social listening tools help you understand what people say about your institution — even if you’re not tagged in the conversation. Sharing content around those recurring talking points is one of the most effective ways to build a more curated social media presence.

Invite People To Share Their Journeys

Social media marketers can enlist students and campus members to create highly engaging content in various ways.

For instance, Dr. Phillips notes that UA Little Rock runs a contest several times a year for students to become the next “face” of the institution.

“We capture those students’ stories — what they’re interested in, what they’re studying, but also the services they’ve used,” she says. “It gives us great opportunities when we’re looking to capture imagery on campus.”

Check Your DMs

You must continually monitor your social messages and respond to current and prospective students’ questions.

Or you can go one step further and hold public ask me anything sessions, which have become a core strategy at UA Little Rock.

“It’s become such an important part of our visit days as we lead up to moving-in day,” Dr. Phillips says. “We continue to do them again and again because we know it matters to those students.”

Strategy #4: Show the Value Social Media Brings

Increasingly, higher education marketing leaders report directly to presidents and chancellors, giving social media marketers greater opportunities to demonstrate their impact.

“The more that you can show the value social brings, that’s going to really help marketing leaders highlight the value that the entire office and division brings,” Dr. Phillips explains.

Here are her tips for demonstrating the critical role played by social media teams:

Schedule Time With Leadership

The first step is to book time with your institution’s marketing leader to discuss your:

• Vision
• Social strategy
• Brand messages
• Trending topics

In these sessions, there’s also an opportunity to share areas in which you need support, whether that’s more resources or a specific tool or piece of equipment.

“You may not get those things, but presenting your vision is really important for leadership to help understand the importance of social,” says Dr. Phillips.

Share Social Media Wins

Don’t be shy about sharing your team’s biggest success stories.

For instance, at one of Dr. Phillips’ previous institutions, a graduating student got a surprise visit from his serviceman brother right as he walked across the stage.

Unsurprisingly, the footage went viral and even appeared on the Today show, so Dr. Phillips rounded up all the outlets that reported the story and shared them with her leadership team.

“It was really fun to get to send that email and say, ‘Hey, that piece of content that we had, here are some places that you may not have seen it,’” she says.

Be the Canary in the Mine Shaft

Unfortunately, social media marketers don’t always have good news to share. You’re also like the canary in the coal mine for your institution, highlighting potential issues before they escalate.

“We have to be the person that raises our hand and says, ‘Hey, I’m seeing a lot of grumbling about this thing that’s happening,’ or ‘Hey, we’ve got a problem over here. This is something that students are saying a lot about,’” Dr. Phillips points out.

While this might not be the most fun part of the job, it’s another clear demonstration of social media’s value.

Frame Your Reporting

Social media reports are full of data. But while those figures might be super clear to you, your leadership team might have different opinions.

“We don’t ever want somebody to just look at a bunch of numbers and not understand and then maybe make a wrong assumption,” Dr. Phillips explains. “I think it’s so much more important that we provide the context, provide the framing, and let the metrics tell the story that you think is most important.”

Sure, that takes more work than just sharing a spreadsheet full of digits, but it helps to highlight your vision and the results you’re generating.

Next Steps

Dr. Phillips believes in leaving conferences, workshops, and webinars with actionable takeaways.

To that end, she suggests three immediate steps you can take to navigate the enrollment cliff:

• Find a way to personalize a message on social
• Reach out to one department to start discussing opportunities for collaboration
• Start working on your branding efforts to increase consistency

Do you want more strategies, tips, and insights for higher ed social media marketers? Look out for our next social media conference!

Featured image by Freepik.

Have you missed an important update to a key tool? Is there a high-performing tactic, channel, or platform you’re not currently using? How are external trends and events going to affect your broader marketing strategy?

Figuring that stuff out can be tough.

Fortunately, plenty of smart folks can provide the answers: higher ed thought leaders who regularly post about what’s happening in the industry (and what it means for people like you). Here are ten higher education marketers you should start following right now.

1. Carrie Phillips

Who Are They?
Carrie Phillips is chief communications and marketing officer at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and was previously director of university marketing and communication at Arkansas Tech University. She’s been working in higher ed marketing for 15+ years.

Where Can You Find Them?
Carrie is active on LinkedIn, posting on average at least a couple of times a week.

Why Should You Follow Them?
We love how Carrie shares best practices on topics like content ideation and how to get the best out of marketing conferences:

Her advice tends to be succinct and practical, which isn’t always the case on LinkedIn! And she also shares thought-provoking content on topics and trends beyond the immediate world of higher education, such as the marketing lessons you can learn from the Barbie movie launch.

2. Josie Ahlquist

Who Are They?
Josie is a higher education digital leadership consultant who spent 12 years working on college campuses before branching out independently. She wrote the book Digital Leadership in Higher Education: Purposeful Social Media in a Connected World, which was listed as an Amazon #1 new release for college and university student life.

Where Can You Find Them?
Everywhere! Josie has a website, a YouTube channel, and Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. But her biggest platform is LinkedIn, where she’s amassed around 160,000 followers.

Why Should You Follow Them?
Josie frequently shares polls on LinkedIn. Given her substantial following, these are a helpful way for higher ed marketers to gauge the pulse of the industry and understand what their peers are thinking.

Image source

Of course, she also links to plenty of her content. Best of all, if you don’t have time to read a full blog post, Josie always includes some of the key learnings within the post itself:

That way, you can pick up valuable takeaways without leaving your LinkedIn news feed.

3. Liz Gross

Who Are They?
Liz is the founder and CEO of higher ed-focused social listening agency Campus Sonar, having previously worked in various insight and strategy roles at the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation and Affiliates. She was also director of university marketing and communications at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee at Waukesha.

Where Can You Find Them?
Liz is a frequent tweeter, and you can find her on LinkedIn, too.

Why Should You Follow Them?
As you might expect from someone who heads up a higher education social listening company, Liz is attuned to pretty much everything that happens in the industry, making her a valuable source of information (and analysis) on big news, trends, and other developments:

The hot water the Stanford president found himself in started in online forums.

The scuttlebutt in the economics community this week about identifying toxic professionals stems from an online forum.

Forums are such a unique window to the world, and provide massive insight.

— Liz Gross (she/her) (@lizgross144) July 19, 2023

She also raises many questions with her followers (particularly on LinkedIn). It’s always worth checking the replies to discover what other people in your field think about common issues and challenges.

Image source

4. Maya Wesby

Who Are They?
Maya is a social media manager at Harvard University and a self-confessed nerd about user behavior and smart insights.

Where Can You Find Them?
Check her out on LinkedIn.

Why Should You Follow Them?
Maya is always eager to test anything new — and she’s happy to share her on-the-job learnings and thoughts:

As such, she’s a valuable resource for higher ed marketers who want independent advice on whether it’s worth investing time and effort in a new tactic, tool, or platform.

5. Jenny Li Fowler

Who Are They?
Jenny is the director of social media strategy at MIT and was previously the web editor and social media manager at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. And she’s the author of the book Organic Social Media: How to Build Flourishing Online Communities.

Where Can You Find Them?
Jenny is on LinkedIn but is more active (and has a larger following) on Twitter.

Why Should You Follow Them?
As an old hand when it comes to higher ed social media, Jenny has a wealth of valuable insights about how best to reach and engage your target audience through social platforms:

In all the years I’ve been working in #HESM I’ve never once recommended a social media platform solely to reach current students.

— Jenny Li Fowler (@TheJennyLi) July 19, 2023

She also posts a bunch of relatable and motivational content:

Some days, I think my work is SO good . Others, I think it’s all . It’s all part of the process.

— Jenny Li Fowler (@TheJennyLi) May 18, 2023

Which you’ll appreciate when you’re not feeling your best self!

6. Ryan Morabito

Who Are They?
Ryan is a brand marketing expert with over two decades of higher education experience. He’s worked with more than 125 colleges and universities, helping them develop and implement various branding and marketing-related initiatives.

Where Can You Find Them?
Connect with (or follow) Ryan on LinkedIn, where he’s built a network of 10,000+ followers.

Why Should You Follow Them?
The first thing you need to know about Ryan is that every one of his posts starts with the sentence: “I’m going to tell you another truth about higher ed marketing.”

Some of his “truths” are thought-provoking; some will give you a new perspective on common higher ed marketing goals and challenges; others are just interesting. And they’re always succinct, making his content enjoyable to engage with.

7. Bart Caylor

Who Are They?
Bart is the president and founder of Caylor Solutions, a higher education-focused marketing consultancy. He also co-hosts the Higher Ed Marketer Podcast.

Where Can You Find Them?
Other than the podcast above, you can find Bart on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Why Should You Follow Them?
Bart is big on offering straightforward, practical advice on specific marketing challenges, such as how best to use Instagram Reels or level up your email marketing.

And as a podcaster, he speaks to a bunch of guests from around the world of higher education, and he shares some of their top insights through video and text posts:

Even if you don’t have time to listen to an entire podcast or dig into a video, you can still pick up some practical, bite-sized takeaways from his LinkedIn content, packed with easily digestible, bullet-pointed tips and tricks.

8. Brian Piper

Who Are They?
Brian is director of content strategy and assessment at the University of Rochester. He co-authored the book Epic Content Marketing alongside Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute.

Where Can You Find Them?
Brian has a website where he blogs about content strategy and creation, focusing on using data to enhance your marketing. Social media-wise, he’s most prolific on LinkedIn.

Why Should You Follow Them?
As a serial podcast guest and blogger, Brian is a one-person content curation machine for any higher ed marketer:

So, if you’re looking for a constant stream of new articles and podcast recommendations, he’s well worth a follow.

9. Teresa Valerio Parrot

Who Are They?
Teresa began her professional higher ed marketing career two decades ago as director of donor relations for the Boulder Campus at the University of Colorado Foundation. Since then, she’s founded TVP Communications, a public relations agency focused on issues specific to higher education.

Where Can You Find Them?
As well as hosting the Trusted Voices podcast, Teresa shares her thoughts on all things higher ed on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Why Should You Follow Them?
Unsurprisingly for the head of a PR agency, Teresa loves conversation; she’s always asking her audience about their challenges and goals (and wading in with her own opinions, too):

Her LinkedIn is also a treasure trove of thought-provoking content about planning and leadership:

10. Jaime Hunt

Who Are They?
Jaime is vice president for university communications and chief marketing officer at Old Dominion University in Virginia and previously held similar roles at Miami University and Winston-Salem State University.

Where Can You Find Them?
Find Jaime on her website, The Higher Ed CMO, and her podcast, Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO. Or follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Why Should You Follow Them?
Whereas most of the higher ed marketers in this article are all about short, punchy content, Jaime is a big fan of long-form posts:

This approach helps you get a deeper insight into her thoughts on higher ed marketing.

As a podcast host, Jaime regularly shares takeaways from conversations with her guests, covering everything from branding and culture to measuring the effectiveness of your strategic enrollment planning.

Are you seeking higher ed social media marketing tips, insights, and best practices? Register for our next social media conference for higher ed!

Featured image by Freepik.

According to TINT, three-quarters of consumers find reviews and testimonials submitted by real people more credible than brands talking about themselves. Meanwhile, 93% of marketers agree that consumers are more likely to trust UGC than brand-created content.

But what, exactly, do we mean by “user-generated content”? And what does it look like in the field of higher education? Read on to find out.

What is User-Generated Content?

User-generated content is original content created by people rather than by brands themselves. Brands then share this content via channels like social media and email marketing.
Common UGC content types include images, videos, and reviews.

In a higher ed context, user-generated content is most likely to come from one of these sources:

• Students. Students generate the vast majority of higher ed-related UGC because there are so many of them. Examples include campus tours and day-in-the-life videos.
• Faculty. These subject-matter experts play a key role in attracting prospective students. They might discuss their expertise or offer their take on developments in their field.
• Alums. Former students are an essential source of funding. They might create content reminiscing about their college days, from their favorite lecturers to iconic campus locations.

10 Top User-Generated Content Examples

Okay, so we know what user-generated content means and understand where you can find it. Now, let’s look at 10 UGC marketing examples from the higher ed world.

1. Harvey Mudd College

What better place to start than the classic student day-in-the-life (DITL) video? This format — probably the most common form of higher ed UGC — involves a current student showing what it’s like to live and study at a college.

Harvey Mudd College enlisted one of its sophomore engineering students to create this video, which the institution shared on Instagram and TikTok:

@hmcadmission A day in the life of an HMC sophomore! #harveymuddcollege #harveymudd #claremontcolleges #college #collegelife #stem #engineering ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

This post is the perfect DITL example because it shows a variety of activities and settings. The student in question spends plenty of time with friends, but they’re also hard at work — against a series of aspirational-looking on-campus locations.

2. Baylor University Athletics

If you’re fortunate enough to have some high-profile former alums, featuring them in your social media content can be a highly effective way to drive reach and engagement (especially if they’re prepared to share the content themselves).

But, as we already know, audiences often find branded content inauthentic and untrustworthy.

User-generated content is the perfect solution. In our following example, Baylor University Athletics shared an interview between legendary former Olympic sprinter and Baylor alum Michael Johnson and a current Baylor student, high jumper Moorea Long:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Baylor Athletics (@baylorathletics)

Combining a famous alum and a current student makes this video feel natural and engaging rather than overly promotional, making it a more valuable marketing tool for Baylor’s athletics program.

3. UC San Diego

Sure, user-generated content is seen as trustworthy and credible. But that’s not the only marketing benefit it provides. On a practical level, it also allows marketers to share content they’d otherwise have missed out on, which is particularly helpful when covering timely events.

For instance, UC San Diego leveraged UGC to show off a twice-yearly phenomenon that’s become known as Scrippshenge, when the sunset perfectly aligns with the pier columns at the university’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by UC San Diego / UCSD (@ucsandiego)

Without UGC, the institution’s marketing team would have had to send someone to the pier to capture the perfect shot. Instead, they got to share someone else’s work — while still enjoying all the other benefits that UGC provides. It’s a no-brainer!

4. Harvard Graduate School of Education

An alternative to the ever-popular day-in-the-life video is combining user-generated clips captured over an extended period. That way, viewers get an insight into your campus’s appearance throughout the year.

Again, user-generated content is the perfect format for this content type. Branded videos can often look over-produced and too salesy, whereas videos recorded by students come across as far more natural — making for a more engaging piece of content.

Here’s an excellent example courtesy of Harvard Graduate School of Education and student Deepak Ramola:

@harvardeducation Deepak Ramola shares a few memories made so far – here’s to even more fun in 2023! | Audio courtesy of Extreme Music #harvard #hgse #harvarduniversity #ivyleague #gradschool #harvardlife #college #harvardstudent #yearontiktok #yearinreview #fallsemester #2022recap #recap ♬ original sound – HGSE

There’s something extremely wholesome about this video, which would be hard for the university to recreate itself.

5. Michigan State University

Another popular UGC format for higher ed is the campus tour video. As you can probably guess, this content type is about highlighting popular spots around your university, giving prospective students a feel for what it’s like to live and study there.

Michigan State University consistently uses this format to show off some of its best on-campus attractions, such as this video featuring the school’s dining hall:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Michigan State University (@michiganstateu)

Admittedly, a dining hall might not seem like the most thrilling setting for your next TikTok video or Instagram Reel.

But put yourself in the shoes of future students: they will be interested in learning about some of the more mundane elements of university life. They won’t get much insight into the student experience if all you post is aspirational, professionally captured shots of sunsets over your campus buildings.

6. Carnegie Mellon University

No breaking news to share, no upcoming announcements to tease, and nothing in your content calendar; all higher ed social media marketers have days when they’re scratching around for content ideas.

On the (hopefully rare) occasions when that happens, user-generated content can be an invaluable source of evergreen content — the type of stuff you can post whenever you need it. Carnegie Mellon University shows us the value of having a bank of UGC you can rely on at these times:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Carnegie Mellon University (@carnegiemellon)

Of course, this isn’t just about posting for the sake of it. Sharing user-generated images and videos taken around your campus is always a valuable tactic for higher ed marketers, helping prospective students get a closer look at your university and imbuing alums with nostalgia that might ultimately prompt them to donate.

7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

It’s easy to forget that current students aren’t your only source of UGC. Getting faculty members and leadership involved in the content creation process has plenty of benefits.

For one thing, audiences like it when senior leaders are engaged in social media. One study discovered that 70% of consumers feel more connected to brands when the CEO has an active social presence. It’s also extremely valuable from a higher ed perspective, given that “quality of academics” is consistently named as one of the top factors for students choosing a school.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology clearly understands all this. It recently launched a podcast in which the school’s president speaks to newly tenured faculty members on critical challenges facing their areas of expertise (and the world at large).

This podcast is a fantastic example of how user-generated content can help position your faculty members and senior leaders as thought leaders, enhancing the school’s reputation.

8. Columbia University

Between reaching out to alums and persuading future students to choose their schools, it can be easy for higher ed marketers to forget that current students are also a key audience.

After all, they’re your biggest advocates. If they love attending your institution, they’ll tell the whole world about it. And there’s nothing more valuable than word of mouth spreading your message. So it’s clearly in your best interests to help students have the best possible time.

One useful approach is to share tips about what to do on campus. For instance, with finals approaching, Columbia University shared a bunch of UGC imagery highlighting some of the best spots to study on campus:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Columbia University (@columbia)

9. Brandeis University

Brand-created content can only ever give a superficial view of what it’s like to study at your school, whereas UGC gives your audience a behind-the-scenes look that can be far more informative.

For instance, Brandeis University challenged current students to participate in a dorm decorating competition. In this video, winner Rubaiya Nasim gives the school’s TikTok followers a guided tour around her room:

@brandeisuniversity Rubaiya Nasim ’23 is the winner of the Room Decorating Competition 2022, and got to give us a tour of her comfy, relaxing, & reenergizing space. #brandeis #brandeisuniversity #campus #collegelife #residencehall #room #studentlife #student #fyp ♬ Vibes – ZHRMusic

Showing your audience behind the doors of a real dorm helps them get a more realistic and meaningful impression of your school (even if Rubaiya decorated her room far more beautifully than your average college living space).

10. Stony Brook University

Of course, you want to be honest about student life at your institution. But you also want to demonstrate that your school is an enjoyable place to spend time.

Again, user-generated content is the perfect solution. Stony Brook University regularly shares video compilations showcasing the various events and activities taking place on campus:

@stonybrookuniversityLast Campus Lifetime of the (pre-finals) semester: Smashed. Car Smash hosted by Fraternity & Sorority Life, Center for Prevention and Outreadh & TKE. Diversity Day x Strawberry Fest hosted by FSA, USG, & Office of Multicultural Affairs.♬ So Much Happiness – Lux-Inspira

These videos make it feel like there’s always something going on at the university, positioning Stony Brook as a fun and friendly place to study.

Want to learn best practices in social media marketing from leading colleges and universities? Book your spot at our next social media conference for higher ed!

Here are some similar articles you might enjoy:

• How Higher Education Institutions Can Find and Work With Influencers
• The Higher Ed Social Media Tips and Tricks You Can’t Google
• Leveraging Students to Support Higher Ed Social Media Initiatives

However, it’s most popular in e-commerce, where brands can leverage influencers to recommend apparel, beauty products, tech, and more.

Things become a lot more complex when the “product” being promoted is a school or college.

Are you planning your first higher ed influencer marketing campaign or looking to optimize your existing strategy? Read our top insights on how higher ed institutions can find and work with influencers.

How Influencer Marketing Is Unique for Higher Ed Marketers

At first glance, “traditional” influencer marketing doesn’t feel like a great fit for higher education institutions. A survey of marketers and creators found that the number one goal of influencer marketing campaigns is to generate sales:

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That’s rarely applicable to higher ed marketers, who typically target two primary objectives:

• Boosting student enrollment
• Driving donations

But that’s not to say influencer marketing can’t be effective in the context of higher education.

Plenty of evidence suggests that influencers are incredibly relevant to the audiences higher ed marketers are trying to reach.

Leveraging Influencers for Higher Ed Recruitment

According to enrollment and fundraising management company Ruffalo Noel Levitz, 63% of high school juniors believe social media sites provide helpful information for learning about a college.

This data suggests a significant opportunity for higher ed marketers to reach prospective students through social media-based influencer campaigns.

Research from Morning Consult found that 23% of Gen Zers and Millennials follow “many” social media influencers, rising to 26% among 17 to 21-year-olds and 30% of those aged 13 – 16:

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What’s more, Gen Z-aged consumers are more likely to learn about purchases through social media posts by influencers than their Millennial peers:

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While you’re not technically asking anyone to “purchase” your institution, this demonstrates that influencer marketing plays a crucial role in the decision-making process for many younger consumers, making it a valuable tactic for reaching prospective students.

Leveraging Influencers for Fundraising Campaigns

But that’s not the only way influencers can help higher ed marketers achieve their goals.

Research shows that young alums are most likely to donate to their alma mater when they feel very connected to the institution.

Yet unfortunately, only one in five reports feeling very connected, while one in six feels not very connected or not connected at all.

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This all boils down to the quality of your marketing. If you can make alums feel like part of a community, you stand a strong chance of winning their donations. Influencer marketing can definitely help with this — you just need to find the right influencers.

Other Benefits of Higher Ed Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing can support your efforts to attract new students and generate donations, but it can also help higher ed marketers in other, less direct ways, including:

Capturing User-Generated Content

According to Stackla, four in five consumers believe user-generated content (UGC) is highly influential in their purchasing decisions, compared to just one in eight who say the same about brand-created content.

Sure, influencer content isn’t exactly the same as UGC. But it can look remarkably similar — particularly in a higher education setting, where the influencers you work with might be the same as the audiences you’re targeting (e.g., existing students and alums).

Generating More Relevant Content Ideas

Again, because higher ed influencers are often very similar to your target audiences, they’re uniquely positioned to develop highly relevant content ideas. So it’s well worth getting them involved during the ideation stage rather than expecting them to execute a pre-planned campaign.

Boosting Website Authority

A niche (but relevant) point: if you’re working with bloggers and pure social media influencers, they might be happy to link to your website. And because backlinks play a key role in SEO, an influencer campaign could also benefit your search rankings.

Types of Higher Ed Influencers

There are various types of influencers that higher ed marketers might want to work with:

Current Students

No one knows better than your current students what studying at your institution is like. That makes them uniquely well-positioned to act as influencers, persuading future students that your school is the right choice for them.

Not only that, but current students will (mostly) be just a couple of years older than the prospective students you’re hoping to target, which means they can better communicate with them authentically.

Faculty Members

According to research from Inside Higher Ed, “quality of academics in the area of interest” is one of the top decision-making factors in choosing which school to attend. So it makes sense for higher ed marketers to leverage faculty members with large social followings to promote their institutions.

What’s more, reminding alumni of their favorite professors can play a part in encouraging donations.

Alumni

Remember: alumni are more likely to contribute to your fundraising efforts when they feel connected to your institution. And what better way to build a feeling of connectedness than to target them with messaging from their peers?

University Leadership

There are a couple big benefits to leveraging university leaders as influencers.

Firstly, they’re some of the highest-profile people within your institution, so your audience is more likely to pay attention to them.

And secondly, consumers enjoy hearing from senior leadership. Indeed, one study reveals that 70% of consumers feel a closer connection to brands whose CEOs are active on social media, with 65% agreeing it feels like there are real people behind the brand.

How Higher Education Marketers Can Find Relevant Influencers

We know the types of influencers you might be working with; now, let’s discuss how to track them down.

Search for Influencers Within Your Ambassador Program

Many higher ed institutions operate ambassador programs made up of existing students who are happy to capture and share their experiences via social media. These ambassadors are an obvious first port of call for your influencer search.

But what if no one in your ambassador program has a five or six-figure follower count? Don’t worry; size isn’t everything in influencer marketing.

Research from HypeAuditor discovered that so-called nano-influencers — those with 1,000 – 5,000 followers — generate a far higher average engagement rate than larger influencer accounts:

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In other words, you could see better results teaming up with several nano-influencers, each with a couple of thousand followers, than a single mid-tier influencer with a far larger following.

One of the best things about building influencer relationships with students is that you can (hopefully) continue working with them once they graduate, helping you tap into the alum audience.

Reach Out to High-Profile Faculty Members

Chances are there’s someone in your faculty team who loves posting on social media. They might share research, offer their opinions, and discuss the latest trends in their field. These faculty members are a strong fit for your influencer program, even if they don’t have huge followings.

Ask Colleagues to Open Up Their Contact Books

Higher education institutions are often large organizations employing hundreds of people. There’s a good chance some of those people will know high-profile figures in your area who could be a strong fit for your influencer campaigns. So try asking your colleagues if they’d be happy to recommend any of their contacts as future influencers.

3 Examples of Higher Ed Influencer Marketing

Enough theory; let’s take a look at some real-world examples of higher education influencer marketing:

1. Syracuse University Teams Up With Notable Alum for TikTok Promo

When generating results from influencer marketing, your job becomes much easier if you have positive relationships with a few notable alums.

For instance, Syracuse University collaborated with one of its former students — NFL Network anchor and reporter Scott Hanson — to promote the launch of a TikTok filter featuring the school’s mascot, Otto:

@syracuseu show us your best dance moves ? @nflnetwork #scotthanson #syracuseuniversity #cusetok #syracuse #nflredzone ♬ original sound – Syracuse University

2. Oxford Uni Works With A High-Profile Graduate to Reach Future Students

Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, AKA DJ Cuppy, celebrated her graduation from the University of Oxford by announcing a £100,000 gift to the institution’s Africa Oxford Initiative to support fellow African graduate students:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The University of Oxford (@oxford_uni)

You might think the university has a sufficiently high profile not to need influencer marketing. But Otedola’s Instagram following is more than seven times larger than the university’s, demonstrating how influencers can help higher ed institutions tap into new audiences.

3. UCLA Centers Academics in Research Publications

Rather than releasing research reports as anonymous publications produced “by the university,” UCLA placed the spotlight firmly on the report’s authors:

Check out the piece that Dr. @darnell_hunt and I wrote in our @forbes column to accompany the release of our latest UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report 2023, Part 1: Film. https://t.co/NPciQ4LOnV

— Ana-Christina Ramón, PhD (@DrAnaChristina) March 30, 2023

This approach is smart because it highlights the expertise of the institution’s academic team — which, as we know, is a key consideration for prospective students choosing which colleges to attend.

Featured image by Freepik.

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This data poses a few challenges for higher education marketers. How do you engage students who are spending less time on campus? And how do you reduce “melt,” whereby students who’ve applied and paid a deposit don’t turn up for their first day of classes?

The American University School of Public Affairs quickly realized their existing strategies wouldn’t cut it, so they developed an innovative social media campaign that delivered their highest-ever engagement rate.

Two of the school’s marketing leaders — Sabiha Afrin, Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications, and Chay Rao, Director of Strategic Communications & Public Relations — told us how they did it.

Read on for their most valuable insights.

1. Get Buy-In at the Brainstorming Stage

The campaign planning process allows you to get buy-in — from faculty leadership and the people executing the work.

Chay recommends getting people involved as early as possible, ideally during the brainstorming, creating a feeling of accountability.

“There’s a sense of ownership that comes with that,” he explains. “We brought the Dean of the School of Public Affairs, Vicki Wilkins, in early to this process, and she really had some great ideas and helped us move this project forward.”

Dean Wilkins was happy to sign off on the campaign strategy and played a crucial role in helping Chay and Sabiha manage the content creation process.

“She helped when we started to reach out to faculty or when we started to decide how we were going to distribute this content,” says Chay. “If there were roadblocks or if we needed her help, she was willing to pitch in and was very quick to do it.”

2. Turn Your Faculty Into Brand Ambassadors

“One thing we learned really quickly is that the real hook for our students, the reason they would want to come back, is our faculty,” Chay explains. “They are, to some degree, our product.”

Once they arrived at this realization, it became clear to Chay and Sabiha that AU’s faculty should be the focal point for their campaign, which they called #FallforSPA.

That could have created a problem. After all, faculty leaders are busy people who can be tough to pin down.

Fortunately, having secured buy-in from the Dean, it was comparatively easy for Chay, Sabiha, and their team to get other senior faculty members on board.

“We did the legwork to get that buy-in, they got really creative, and it was really a fun exercise for them,” says Chay.

3. Identify Platforms & Content Formats

During the audience research phase, Chay and Sabiha found that most of AU’s students are on Instagram.

That’s hardly surprising, with 18 to 24-year-olds representing one-quarter of all Instagram users in the US.

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As we all know, the Instagram algorithm loves video content.

And with research from Mention discovering that, on average, Instagram video posts generate over twice the comments of image posts, it became clear that video needed to be front and center in the #FallforSPA campaign.

But this campaign couldn’t live solely on Instagram; the content also needed to be repurposed for other social media platforms to deliver the highest-possible reach.

That meant Chay and Sabiha needed to answer questions like:

• What’s the ideal length? Instagram Video posts can be up to 60 minutes long, but that’s not the case on other platforms. For instance, Twitter’s maximum video length is 2 minutes 20 seconds; the campaign videos couldn’t be longer than 240 seconds.
• How can we collect the various campaign assets? After looking at different options, they decided that the best option was to create a Dropbox folder for faculty members to upload their video content.
• Which tools should we use? Learning to use tools like Splice, iMovie, and various other apps helped the team stitch videos together into a single asset.
• What training do faculty members need? Chay and Sabiha had to teach faculty ambassadors basic best practices for filming themselves on iPhones, so they ran training sessions and created tip sheets.

4. Brief Your Ambassadors

As well as training faculty leaders on how to film themselves, Chay and Sabiha had to give clear instructions for the type of content they required.

After all, each video needed to look more or less similar to create a coherent campaign.

They also decided that anything too “salesy” was unlikely to resonate with their audience because social media creates communities, not markets.

“We didn’t want the students to feel like we are trying to be insensitive here, when there is a pandemic happening, and that we just wanted their money,” Sabiha explains. “We wanted them to feel like … part of a community, and we just wanted to be sensitive about the situation.”

For that reason, they decided the best approach was to make the content fun.

That meant telling faculty members to avoid selling their courses and instead focus on some of their more exciting, eye-catching plans for the coming semester.

The faculty ambassadors were happy to play ball. One promised that students would learn how to sue people; another compared public affairs to cake baking.

But that wasn’t the end of the briefing process.

From previous testing, Chay and Sabiha knew that videos accompanied by high-quality custom thumbnails saw higher click-through rates. To that end, they asked faculty members to share a selfie to use for video thumbnails:

Again, the ambassadors fully bought into the brief. “They were very creative,” Sabiha explains. “Some of them did some poses; some of them put flowers on their heads.”

5. Create a Hub for Gathering Content

With so many people creating content for the campaign, it was essential to have a central hub for gathering all the assets.

Chay and Sabiha decided to use OneDrive and Dropbox. “We made a dedicated folder where they could go to upload their content without signing in,” Sabiha explains. “That was important to make their life easier.”

6. Choose User-Friendly Tools

From production to editing to scheduling, Chay and Sabiha relied on many tools to cut down on busy work and deliver high-quality assets.

When it came to editing the faculty videos, creating thumbnails, and adding sound effects, they used the following tools:

• Canva
• Splice
• OpenShot
• iMovie
• Adobe Premiere

Splice allowed them to edit footage on their smartphones while away from their desks, while Adobe Premiere was their tool of choice for handling longer, larger video files on their desktops.

Although Instagram was the central platform for the campaign, Chay and Sabiha decided to use YouTube as their primary hub for live content, creating a single playlist containing all the finished video assets.

They also used Sprout Social for content scheduling, which helped them determine the best times for sharing content.

Sabiha also recommends many other social media management tools she’s used previously, including Buffer, HootSuite, and PromoRepublic.

“Something that works for us might not work for you, or there might be something better that could work for you,” she notes. “So I would do your research during your brainstorming and researching session.”

7. Prioritize Native Video

Despite using YouTube as the primary content hub for #FallforSPA, Sabiha recommends sticking to native video content wherever possible.

Why? Because it performs better. Indeed, research from Kantar discovered that native video offers many benefits, including higher awareness and improved favorability, consideration, and brand image.

To that end, they prioritized native videos rather than simply sharing links to the content on YouTube.

“When you are repurposing content, it’s good to use YouTube links, but the first time you’re using content, share the native one,” Sabiha advises. “And then once that generates your engagement, go use the YouTube links, so your YouTube gets some love too.”

8. Develop a Plan for Amplification & Repurposing

After producing, editing, and posting a bunch of high-quality video assets, it was important for the AU team to get as many eyes as possible on their content.

In short, they needed an effective content amplification and repurposing plan.

As with most higher education marketing teams, they leaned heavily on internal resources.

“We would encourage retweets from our professors that are very active on Twitter,” Sabiha explains. “And we have an email newsletter which goes out every week on Thursday, so we included the video and the YouTube link in our newsletter as well.”

9. Measure Performance Against Campaign Goals

The #FallforSPA produced some eye-catching results in reach and engagement, with YouTube views increasing by 216% and the average reach per post across all platforms at an impressive 11,050.

But they didn’t design the campaign to get the broadest possible reach; it was about reducing melt. Chay and Sabiha had to find meaningful metrics to demonstrate the campaign had delivered against this crucial objective.

For that reason, they used UTM codes to track visitors who clicked through to the school’s website after seeing the campaign on social media.

“We could see that they came to our site and looked at the community pages and modality pages that we set up,” Chay explains. “They started to learn about how our faculty are going to be teaching these great classes, that we’re moving this culture online.”

They also looked at the school’s retention figures. Again, the results were positive.

“Our retention for first-year students was 3% higher than AU’s overall,” Chay says. “So clearly, this campaign helped influence more students to stay at SPA than AU in general.”

Featured image by Freepik.

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The trouble is, only some of those articles consider the unique challenges faced by higher ed social media teams. You might have a small team, serious time constraints, and dozens of accounts to manage.

We were lucky to have Moriah Walker, Social Media Manager at UNC Charlotte, give us her un-Googleable tips for social media in the world of higher education at our annual summit. Read on to learn:

• Why you should create graphic templates for your team
• What it means to design for mobile
• How to more efficiently prepare your content calendar
• Why there is no actual “best time to post”
• Why you should be doing more than just answering your DMs
• Why engagement rate is a superior metric

1. Create Graphic Templates for Your Team

Accessing high-quality visual assets is a common headache for higher ed social media marketers.

You might not have access to photographers or videographers, forcing you to rely on stock imagery or tiny link previews.

But there’s a simple solution: creating graphic templates that you can adapt to multiple content types and platforms.

Moriah’s team developed a bunch of templates when they started running UNC Charlotte’s flagship Twitter account:

“We originally created these to make up for that lack of quality imagery — but found that they were significantly more useful than that,” she explains.

There are various benefits to creating graphic templates:

• Improves time management: Whether you’re super busy or dealing with a last-minute announcement, you already have a graphic that you can pull from, throw your information on, and schedule quickly. And you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time something happens.
• Make up for lack of quality imagery: Can’t find a suitable stock image? Only have a tiny, pixelated headshot of a professor? No problem — you’ve got templates for all scenarios.
• Help new employees create correctly branded graphics fast: New starters can immediately create on-brand graphics after a single tutorial — they just have to understand your software.
• Make life easier for non-designers: Making high-quality graphics is as simple as moving elements around on a template.
• Ensure consistency across multiple designers: You can have multiple people creating graphics, and you won’t be able to tell who made what.
• Share assets across campus: You can share templates across campus and your unit, ensuring a consistent look and feel for all your social media accounts.

Moriah and her team use templates for everything from articles and editorials to events and awards announcements. And when a new, recurring content series comes along, they’ll quickly design a template to match.

This prestigious award reinforces our commitment to creating diverse, equitable, and inclusive clean energy technology. More on the groundbreaking initiatives making Charlotte a greener city for all https://t.co/69Yi72DQ5P pic.twitter.com/Ko3VcMjI4G

— UNC Charlotte (@unccharlotte) November 10, 2022

They’ve also created templates in multiple sizes for different platforms and use cases, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram Stories.

2. Consider User Experience in Mobile Design

Regarding mobile-friendly design, there’s a lot of contradictory advice out there.

On the one hand, we’re advised to stick with the recommended image sizes for individual social platforms, many of which are horizontal. On the flip side, we’re told to design with mobile in mind — and most users hold their mobile devices vertically.

So what’s the solution?

Moriah recommends considering the user experience: “Users are adapting to vertical images on Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. Are the other platforms truly that much different?”

For instance, consider the following images from UNC Charlotte’s Twitter:

The one on the left uses Twitter’s current recommended image size of 1200 x 675 pixels, while the one on the right has a vertical layout. As you can see, the professor on the right generated four times the engagement and over three times as many link clicks.

Of course, numerous factors could explain the vertical image’s stronger performance.

But Moriah asks us to think about how this looks to the user. Both posts contain a lot of copy, but the horizontal layout has a comparatively small image that’s easy to scroll by.

The vertical image takes a little longer to scroll past, so it’s more likely the user will notice the eye-catching information about the $1 million grant. “If they read that one sentence out of everything, that’s an impression. And I have created value and helped add to my university’s reputation with just that one impression.”

3. Add Subjects or Themes to Your Content Calendar

Content calendars are nothing new, and an astonishing 96% of all social media managers use them.

However, there’s one essential element you might not have considered adding to your calendar: the content theme or subject matter.

Moriah says this is the number one element of her content calendar for several reasons:

• Supports planning: Adding themes allows you to plan for holidays and important university dates — even six months out.
• Helps multiple people work in your calendar: By providing top-level information about the post’s subject matter, you allow other team members to go in, write copy, and gather assets.
• Keeps you organized: Even if you’re a small team juggling multiple events and announcements, you can keep tabs on what needs to happen (and when), all in a single document.

To get started, Moriah recommends scheduling time to plan out your month and add content themes to your calendar. Start with important holidays, awareness dates, and founder’s days, then add more evergreen topics — campus life, research, and academic profiles.

Finally, don’t worry about being too granular: “Just know that you can insert those notes, those assets, those more specific subjects as the time comes and as you find more information.”

4. Consider Multiple Factors When Identifying the “Ideal Time to Post”

Again, there’s no shortage of advice on the best time to post on individual social media platforms.

But Moriah suggests taking guidance with a grain of salt; it’s not tailored to the habits of your various audiences and the content of your posts.

To illustrate her point, let’s take a look at the recommended posting times across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter according to Google and UNC Charlotte’s social media management tool:

As you can see, the guidance varies widely. And it rarely aligns with the actual timing of UNC Charlotte’s top posts across each platform.

Rather than posting based on generic best practices, Moriah advises higher ed social media managers to consider various factors:

• Will the right audience be online? Your social media tool might tell you your audience is online at 3 pm, which may be true for students. But if you’re creating a post targeting higher ed leaders, will they check social mid-afternoon?
• Are you sharing time-sensitive information? Some posts need to be communicated promptly. If it’s the first day of class or your founder’s day, it makes no sense to save your post until later.
• Do you have the bandwidth to worry about post timing? If you’re managing several accounts, you likely don’t have time to consider the ideal timing for each platform. Scheduling content can help, but it’s a risky approach for flagship accounts.

Moriah insists that content quality is far more critical than post timing. Excellent content will fly at almost any time of day, whereas a bad post will always flop — even if you post it during peak hours.

“If you are focusing on content quality, it’s going to perform regardless of what time of day it is posted,” she explains. “I have never been in a situation when I am reviewing my data and have been able to look at a post and say, ‘The only reason that did not perform well was because of the time of day it was posted.’ There’s usually something else.”

5. Elevate Community Management Beyond Answering DMs

Community management boosts your content in social media algorithms, creates experiences for your audience, and demonstrates that you’re paying attention to the stuff that matters to your followers.

But you’ll only enjoy those benefits through true, authentic community management. That means going beyond simply responding to DMs, monitoring replies, and answering questions.

To Moriah, authentic community management involves seeking out accounts that:

• Tag you
• Mention you
• Wear your university logo
• Use your location

Once you’ve found them, it’s a case of liking, commenting, and engaging with their content the same way you’d want them to engage with yours.

“When you comment on someone else’s comment, when you comment on their post, you are more likely to spur a conversation, and this is going to be a natural way for you to boost your own content within the algorithms without paying for it,” she explains.

But what does that look like in practice? Moriah shares her top dos and don’ts of social media community management:

• DO – Respond where it makes sense to do so. If someone mentions your university in any capacity, getting involved is okay.
• DON’T – Enter into conversations where you aren’t invited. If you crowbar your way into irrelevant conversions, you risk looking inauthentic.
• DO – Adjust your approach based on sentiment. When a significant event happens, or there’s a lot of external sentiment about your university, you adapt your tone and cadence.
• DON’T – Ignore external events or assume some members of your community are unaware of what’s going on. Just because someone isn’t posting about a crisis or major event doesn’t mean they aren’t affected by it. Even if they haven’t heard about it, other people who see the conversion will have.
• DO – Add a touch of personality. Social media is one of the few opportunities for universities to be informal, so don’t be afraid to add a human touch to your comments.
• DON’T – Forget branding guidelines. Your community management must align with your overarching marketing strategy and your university’s priorities.

6. Prioritize Engagement Rates When Monitoring Social Metrics

You can use many social media marketing metrics to measure performance. But not all are equally valuable.

Consider the following graphic comparing the performance of two imaginary institutions, Green College and Gold University:

Many people would look at this data and say that Gold University has better accounts because they have more engagements per post and more followers.

But that’s not how Moriah sees it because Green College has a higher engagement rate.

“This engagement rate is going to show that your content is providing value. And that is why we have a job,” she says. “Our jobs are to find and create content that resonates with our audience and builds the reputation of our university, of our unit, of our office, of our program.”

Looking at engagement rates also helps you compare accounts of different sizes because it’s not helpful to look at total engagements per post for an account with 40,000 followers vs. one with only 5,000 followers.

“If you run a unit account or a program account and you only have 3,000 followers, look at your engagement rate,” Moriah suggests. “You may be providing a lot of value for your audience — and that’s what’s really important, more so than those overall totals.”

Featured image by Freepik.

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They must ensure that each department consistently creates and posts suitable types of content and find reliable, scalable strategies for centering important messaging on top-level brand accounts. You can’t do it all alone.

We gathered five leading higher ed social media marketers to discuss how to manage social accounts across an institution’s various departments. Our panel was hosted by Aliza Rosen, Assistant Director of Social Media at Johns Hopkins University, and included:

• Kayla Bosco, Social Media Strategist, Syracuse University
• Dani Dean, Associate Director of Social Media, The Ohio State University
• Jenny Li Fowler, Director of Social Media Strategy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Nykiera Thomas, Social Media Coordinator, Oakland University

They discussed various issues related to collaboration, including how to ensure cohesive branding, maintain effective communication, break down silos, and share best practices with university social media managers. Read on for all the key takeaways:

Overcoming Common Higher Ed Collaboration Challenges

Silos can be a challenge in any industry — let alone one with as many decentralized departments and units as higher ed.

Breaking down those silos has been a key challenge for Dani Dean at The Ohio State University, which has over 2,000 institutional social media accounts, more than 200 undergrad majors, and 500+ specialized programs.

“It was a lot coming into the role and trying to figure out who’s the right contact,” Dani admits. “How can we collaborate the best when people have different strategies and different goals?”

One way Ohio State has overcome silos is by creating a social media community of practice group led by Dani’s team. Made up of over 200 marketers from across the institution — including specialist social media managers, marketers, and people for whom social media is just one aspect of their role — these bimonthly meetings are an opportunity to discuss current campaigns, different strategies, and new policies.

These meetings aren’t about the social media team instructing their colleagues on best practices. “I love it if our team isn’t even talking,” Dani says. “We like to have other people from departments share their success stories, different trends that they’ve tried, or different platforms that they’re finding success on — and how they’re doing that.”

Maintaining consistent standards is another common challenge for higher ed social media marketers with hundreds of different accounts to keep tabs on.

Kayla Bosco at Syracuse University needed to find a way to ensure all university-related accounts looked and “felt” the same, from the graphics they post to the handles they use.

Attending this Saturday’s football game? Bring a warm winter coat to donate to individuals and families in need in our local community.

? Learn more: https://t.co/Rbn4czPQJc pic.twitter.com/b0Q3e0DYiH

— Syracuse University (@SyracuseU) November 7, 2022

Her solution? To sit down as a team and put together a “giant document” covering all elements of social media governance. “It’s like a holy bible that everyone at the university will be able to point to. We’re going to launch it this semester, but it deals with account management, brand guidelines, best practices, tips, and tricks.”

Using Creative & Organizational Tools to Facilitate Collaboration

There’s no shortage of tools to support marketing collaboration, from project management platforms to file-sharing software. Choosing the right ones can significantly help manage social accounts across a higher ed institution’s various departments.

But how do you separate the platforms that will aid collaboration from those that create unnecessary noise?

Jenny Li Fowler at MIT has demoed “a ton of new tools,” from Airtable to Discord to Gilded. Her takeaway: “Just use what your team likes. If you find something that’s working and that everyone seems to like, why reinvent the wheel?”

For instance, MIT uses Flickr as an image library because it’s free and easy for everyone to use. “Our office will pay for a photographer to capture fresh photographs of our campus. We upload it to Flickr, and all our partners can download it freely.”

Image source

Similarly, she encourages her team to collaborate with text messaging when attending (and promoting) live events.

One tool that received near-unanimous acclaim from our panel is Sprout Social. Kayla at Syracuse University says her team “lives and breathes” the platform, so she encourages other schools and colleges to join to help with social media planning.

Image source

“They can see what we’re doing on our end when it comes to our editorial calendar, and then we can also see what they’re posting,” she explains. “It’s been really helpful to see what other units have planned, and they can see what we have planned. And the reporting and analytics are great. You can do specific reports and pull data for your deans and leadership.”

Kayla is a big proponent of Microsoft Teams. “We have a giant Teams group with our campus communicators, specifically those who run social media accounts for different schools and colleges. And we just bounce a lot of ideas around in that Teams group. We share best practices; we share articles to help people stay up to date on the latest trends.”

Building Trust With Other Teams & Stakeholders

With so many accounts and departments to support and monitor, relationship management is a crucial for any higher education social media marketer. What can you do to build trust — especially with colleagues who aren’t social media experts?

For Nykiera Thomas at Oakland University, most colleagues she works with daily have little or no social experience. She’s a believer in building trust through facetime. “I try to create that meeting to say, ‘You can bring me any issues. If you have any questions with what we’re doing, let me know so that we build that trust. You know me, and you have that direct contact with me.’”

Dani at The Ohio State University is equally happy to take a consultative approach to support colleagues. “As we know, the platforms constantly change, so for people that aren’t always in them or working with them, there can be a lot of questions that come up.”

She also uses her specialist knowledge to find the most beneficial ways to promote content through social media.

For instance, her data has shown that long-form written content tends not to play well on social, so it’s up to Dani and her team to find effective ways to amplify it. “How can we take little pieces of it to make maybe a quick video featuring students? We come in with an open mindset of: ‘Okay, we have one thing in this format, but how can we change it in different ways to still get that message across and still reach the goal?’”

Overseeing the Creation of New Social Media Accounts

But that doesn’t stop departments from creating more accounts. Do you just let them get on with it or put controls in place to slow the sprawl?

Our panel had a couple of different approaches to this challenge.

Ohio State has a process for all institutional social media applications whereby anyone wanting to create a new account has to complete a Qualtrics form that outlines the following:

• Their goals for the account
• What unit they’re in
• The unit lead (i.e., who will manage the account in question)

They also ask applicants to provide a handful of content examples too.

“The main purpose of it is just to set people up for success,” Dani explains. “Myself or one of the social managers on my team will review it, and then we’ll do a quick email or call to go over what their strategy is, their goals, the audience they’re trying to reach, just to make sure that’s really top of mind.”

Kayla at Syracuse University is another fan of this strategy. She’s currently in the process of creating a similar form that will ask questions about the account’s goals and how the “owner” plans to ensure a consistent flow of content.

On the other hand, Jenny at MIT takes a more hands-off approach. She doesn’t police new account creation but incentivizes account owners to follow best practices by amplifying those who get it right.

MIT has a social media hub that aggregates content from almost 200 accounts — but Jenny’s team only selects the best of the best for inclusion in the hub. “I think it incentivizes people,” she explains. “If you want to be included and amplified, then there are some standards we want you to meet.”

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Nykiera at Oakland University falls somewhere between those two extremes. She doesn’t use a form or strictly police new account creation, but she also doesn’t just leave people to get on with it.

Instead, she runs through a presentation with new account managers to discuss best practices and encourage consistency with the main OU brand account. “We talk about best tips and tricks, and we break down each platform based on the audience that we have — who’s on our Facebook, who’s on our Twitter, our LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and so forth.”

Nykiera also shares useful resources, such as a logo form, messaging guidelines, and a content calendar template, and adds them to the university’s social media directory. “But if it becomes inactive, we reach out and say: ‘Hey, just wanted to make sure we don’t have to take you off the page if it’s something that you guys are not going to keep up.’”

Sharing Best Practices In an Ever-Changing Social Landscape

Social media moves fast. Algorithmic changes and new feature launches mean best practices can quickly become obsolete. How can you ensure everyone — even people for whom social media is only a small part of their day-to-day — keeps abreast of the latest developments?

Kayla at Syracuse University recently started pulling together and sharing short slide decks on each social platform, covering things like Facebook best practices, how to boost a post, and Instagram changes.

Kayla’s team leans heavily on students to curate these platform-specific tips and tricks, particularly regarding newer platforms and features like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and BeReal. “They know those platforms best,” she explains.

 

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Dani at Ohio State has a similar process that involves sharing best practices, tips, and emerging trends with stakeholders.

Because her team only meets with departmental social media managers twice a month, she relies on weekly emails to share more time-sensitive updates. “It’s like the top five stories or updates around the industry that you should know,” she explains. “We send that out every Friday to that community, and people can forward it or share it any way they want.”

Featured image by Freepik.

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Here are some similar articles you might enjoy:

• Leveraging Students to Support Higher Ed Social Media Initiatives
• How to Create & Manage an Effective Content Calendar in Higher Ed
• 10 Great Examples of TikTok Content for Higher Education

• 72% of consumers believe reviews and testimonials submitted by customers are more credible than brands talking about their products
• 93% of marketers agree that consumers trust content created by customers more than content created by brands
• Six out of 10 marketers feel their audiences engage more with UGC in marketing and communications channels

UGC is especially effective in higher education. Marketers at schools and colleges are trying to reach and engage current and prospective students — and who better to do that than students themselves?

However, leveraging students to support your social media initiatives is easier said than done. Not all institutions can afford to pay their interns. And students lead busy lives; many don’t have the time to pursue social media content opportunities in addition to their studies.

With that in mind, we gathered an expert panel of higher ed marketers to discuss the best practices, key learnings, and unique challenges related to working with students. Karla Fung, Social Media Manager at UC Davis, hosted our Higher Ed Summit session and featured expert insights from:

• Sarah Barnes, Associate Director, Communications and Marketing, Harvey Mudd College
• Lawerence Synett, Director of Social Media, University of Colorado Denver
• Kelly Bennett, Social Media Manager, University of Cincinnati

Read on to learn about their favorite student-driven concepts, their methods for recruiting student interns, and how they give their teams creative freedom (without letting the guardrails down completely).

Placing Trust in Students is Vital

When our panelists discussed previous projects and how they work with their existing teams, a common theme was the importance of trusting your students.

Lawrence Synett at the University of Colorado Denver believes trust is crucial to building relationships with student employees. “They are the most important aspect of what we’re doing, especially on the social media side.”

This emphasis on trusting students was central to the success of one of Lawrence’s favorite social media projects — an Instagram campaign from his time as Director of Social Media at Carnegie Mellon University. PiperTV was made for IGTV and was run and shot by students, focusing on student-driven topics rather than executive communications and university announcements.

 

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PiperTV blossomed out of various student-led projects on Facebook and Instagram. “To see it come from start to finish solely from the students’ ideas was so much fun to be a part of,” Lawerence shares.

For Kelly Bennett at the University of Cincinnati, trust has been integral to her career in higher ed social media marketing, dating back to her first role as a social media specialist at Miami University. In those pre-Instagram days, Kelly’s leadership team had little understanding of social media but was happy to trust her expertise. “Because at that time, I was closest to who we were trying to reach — current students and prospective students.”

Ten years later, things have come full circle. Kelly accepts that her students often have a better grasp than her about what will resonate with a student audience — particularly when it comes to TikTok.

Recently, a student came to her with an idea for a TikTok post involving Kermit the Frog. Kelly fully admits that she didn’t totally get it. But she trusted the student’s insight into what plays well on the platform, and it became one of the university’s top-performing TikToks.

“A learning [experience] for me is just trusting the students and their gut,” she explained. They’re on the platforms. A lot. And they know the things that are going to land. Just letting the students run with some of their ideas definitely empowers them to take risks and come to us with really great ideas,” she says.

@uofcincy POV, you’re a University of Cincinnati grad. Enjoy this moment! #UCGrad21 #graduation #GoBearcats #uofcincy ♬ original sound – University of Cincinnati

The same goes for Karla Fung at UC Davis, who was happy to put her faith in a student’s idea for a podcast called Generation Aggie. Inspired by a conversation with her elderly aunt, the student’s concept involved highlighting commonalities between older alums and current (and prospective) students.

Karla shares, “She thought it was really interesting. So she pitched us the idea, wrote out a whole plan, and then she took the lead on working with the guests, getting it filmed, and doing a lot of the production work. And then we brought in more students to finish the whole product.”

Balancing Creative Freedom With Content Control

Higher ed marketers face a dilemma when it comes to working with students.

On the one hand, they want to give students the freedom to express themselves and pitch their wildest, most creative ideas.

But on the flip side, they don’t want to let go of the reins entirely. No institution wants to have its reputation damaged because a social media intern posted something inappropriate or inadvertently offended a follower.

For Sarah Barnes at Harvey Mudd College, the biggest challenge has been around consistency. Harvey Mudd has a comparatively small student body, and as a STEM-focused institution, its students often need more bandwidth to help her out.

As such, she took a soft-touch approach to manage the students who ran the college’s Instagram: “We gave them a best practices sheet. We never had any trouble with them posting inappropriate things; they did a great job. They just didn’t have the time, so it wasn’t consistent enough for us.” While Harvey Mudd students may not have the time to spend several hours a week working on social media, they do regularly contribute photos, which has been an incredible asset to the college’s marketing team.

Kelly faces the opposite problem. The University of Cincinnati is one of America’s largest schools, with almost 50,000 students. She has no trouble generating the content, but her team can quickly become overwhelmed with community management-related activities around big events like graduation, homecoming, and acceptance letters.

@uofcincy Nothing better than seeing new Bearcats being accepting into the family ? #BearcatsBound #uofcincy #college ♬ I Lived – OneRepublic

She typically keeps a close handle on the school’s accounts but gives students greater control at times of high demand. “It’s been super helpful to have a student that I can pull in and say, ‘Hey, on some of these bigger weekends, would you mind just helping with some of that community management?’”

Kelly also takes a less hands-on approach to the university’s TikTok account, leaving it to one student. “We collaborate on ideas, but she’ll actually go in and engage with other accounts on that platform. She’ll come back to me every week and say, ‘These are the things that I did.’”

Recruiting Students to Support Your Social Media Marketing

Every higher ed social media manager would love to work with a larger team of students. But recruitment takes time. How do our panelists find and hire the right people for the role?

Often, it’s a case of finding a Marketing or Communications student looking for a relevant extracurricular activity. But Harvey Mudd College is a STEM institution, so Sarah Barnes doesn’t have that luxury.

Instead, she engages with college societies, such as the amateur rocketry club. She’s joined their Discord server and attended rocket launches so she can get to know them — and they get to know her.

 

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Harvey Mudd also has a budget to pay interns, which has unsurprisingly helped to drive student involvement in the college’s social media initiatives. Sarah was able to recruit one or two interns this way but soon found herself receiving applications from other students eager to join the team. “I started the ball rolling, and then they kind of self-select and present themselves.”

Sarah’s comments highlight how different institutions face diverse challenges in recruiting students to their social media teams.

This point resonated with Lawrence Synett, who recently joined the University of Colorado Denver, having previously been Director of Social Media at Carnegie Mellon. One is a public urban research institute; the other is a prestigious, long-founded legacy institution. Unsurprisingly, their student bases have different priorities.

Still, it all boils down to making students want to work with you, Lawrence explained. “We want the students to think this is a great job, whether it’s working with our student ambassadors or just getting out there in the community and letting them know that we’re here. We all have to find our own kind of individual ways.”

Of course, there’s an obvious communications channel at our fingertips, one perfect for reaching prospective student interns: social media.

Kelly Bennett noted that the University of Cincinnati’s athletics department manages a 40-strong student team, 95% hired through posting vacancies on social media. She recommends “just using the platforms themselves and reaching people that are already following and engaging with the accounts.”

Dedicated Equipment vs. BYOD

Higher ed institutions have a choice when it comes to equipping students with the necessary gear to create content:

• Let them use the institution’s equipment.
• Encourage a “bring your own device” (BYOD) approach, with students using their smartphones to capture images and video.

For Kelly, the simplest approach is to forego the University of Cincinnati’s “closet of old equipment” in favor of BYOD. “For most of what we need our students to do, just having their own iPhones that they shoot on has been the most beneficial. And then we use a shared cloud folder that we will share pictures through.”

On the other hand, Karla at UC Davis sees the benefit in giving her students access to in-house equipment, including a team iPhone, microphones, and camera stands. “What’s nice about having some dedicated team items is that they can be logged in on the platform and not have to share passwords.”

Using Tech Platforms for Collaboration & Project Management

From Airtable to Asana to Google Drive, there’s no shortage of collaboration and project management tools at our disposal. But which platforms do our panelists use to work more closely and effectively with their student teams?

For Sarah at Harvey Mudd, the answer is simple: email. Her team has a group email thread for handling comms and uses Google Drive for sharing content. “Each student has their folder, and then they have a system of dropping in their photos with caption information, background information, and dates.”

Using collaboration tools doesn’t just help you work more efficiently — it also gives your students valuable insight into the world of work. For that reason, Kelly works with her student intern through Asana and Slack — the same platforms used across the marketing team. “In case she goes to a job, and they’re using those tools, she’ll have some familiarity with project management and the communication tools that we use day-to-day.”

She applies the same thinking to offline interactions, using an Asana-based agenda to guide weekly in-person meetings with her intern, just as she does with her supervisor.

Planning for the Future

Regarding future goals and aspirations, our panelists were eager to develop more robust student teams and systems of working to boost their content creation capabilities.

Growing their student-led teams was a particular priority for Sarah at Harvey Mudd. She was excited about hiring a new team member to give her the bandwidth to try new, innovative platforms and tools. “I would love to start using all the tools that Instagram has. There’s so much cool stuff you can do, and right now, all we’re able to do really is post photos and articles.”

 

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“Robust” is a word that also resonated with Lawrence, who is building the University of Denver Colorado’s social media capabilities from the ground up.

He’s been reaching out to students, building trust, and understanding what they want to see from the institution’s social media accounts. “The number one thing that we’ve been hearing is: students want to see other students. That’s not as easy at one institution as it is at another. So that just happens to be our unique challenge.”

 

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Meanwhile, Kelly is eager to scale up her team. She already has a student primarily focused on TikTok content and is keen to do the same for other platforms and tools, such as Instagram Stories. In December, the University launched their Student Creative Agency, in-house, student-powered agency working on real-world marketing campaigns.

Kelly is also investing more time in zero-click content, which offers standalone, in-platform insights. Increasingly, users want to stay on social platforms rather than click away. In turn, social platforms reward users — and publishers — for creating this type of content.

But creating zero-click content can be tricky. “It takes a lot more time than just sharing a link and blasting it everywhere,” Kelly explained. “So I think growing a team, having more hands on deck to be thoughtful and robust about each platform and how to utilize them to their fullest potential, is our goal and next step.”

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Today, marketers face various social media-related challenges, from figuring out the right platforms to post on to developing new content ideas and turning them into engaging posts.

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But, as with any difficult task, social media marketing becomes much more approachable when you plan effectively.

We held a panel discussion at our Higher Ed Summit on how to create and manage an effective content calendar, hosted by Kimberly Moniz — Assistant Director of Content Strategy at Harvard University — and featuring three fellow leaders from the world of higher education social media marketing:

• Dave Tyler, Social Media Director at Rochester Institute of Technology
• Deanna Stevens Ulrich, Social Media/Community Manager at Kent State University
• Laurie Roberts, Social Media Manager at Johnson & Wales University

Read on for some of the key takeaways.

Planning Content In Advance

Every social media marketer dreads starting work with no idea what they will post throughout the day, week, or month. For that reason, effective planning is essential.

But “effective” doesn’t mean constructing a watertight content calendar that leaves little room for creative freedom, trending topics, or last-minute announcements. Our panelists were unanimous in supporting an approach that combines a broad, big-picture vision with more granular details where necessary.

Laurie Roberts and the Johnson & Wales University team aim to plan content at least a month in advance, meeting at the start of each semester to highlight major campus events, holidays, and traditions that they must cover.

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— JWU Providence (@JWUProvidence) November 19, 2022

They also have broader goals for each semester, covering the programs they plan to promote and the student activities they intend to highlight. “We brainstorm a lot at the beginning of the semester and then parse things out on our calendar and give ourselves space to reach these individual goals,” she shared.

Part of this process involves building time for video content creation. Once they’ve developed an idea, they’ll reach out to students as needed and schedule filming times. The actual filming takes place about a week before the post goes live. “We are using that time in between to edit, apply trending audio, write the caption, choose the cover images, and all that other detail work that goes into that final post.”

Similarly, Deanna Stevens Ulrich at Kent State University plans “day-to-day content” — such as news and announcements — about a week in advance. In contrast, they might plan bigger holidays and campaigns months ahead. “It gives us a lot of flexibility having that day-to-day content about a week ahead of time, and then we’re able to maneuver that as we need to.”

For Dave Tyler at Rochester Institute of Technology, it’s important to distinguish between planning and scheduling. He plans ahead but tries not to schedule posts too far in advance to ensure flexibility.

Furthermore, Dave takes what he describes as a “content bucket” approach to social media strategy based on planning around themes that align with the university’s marketing goals.

“You’ll hear our president say a lot of things about how our IT is positioned on creativity and innovation at the intersection of technology, the arts, and design,” he explains. “So we take those keywords, and we plan around them.” This strategy ensures they’re not locked into a specific piece of content, say, about the mechanical engineering program. As long as the content fits into one of the identified themes, it’s a win.

Developing a Mix of Content

Unsurprisingly, our panelists flagged the importance of crafting native content for individual platforms. After all, what resonates with your Instagram audience may not appeal to followers on Twitter or LinkedIn.

For Laurie, Instagram is the platform that best attracts prospective students to JWU. Typically, this translates to content that skews heavily toward showcasing student life, helping potential attendees answer questions like:

• What do the classrooms look like?
• What does life look like on campus?
• What does day-to-day life at JWU involve?

As such, the school’s Instagram strategy incorporates a lot of user-generated content (UGC), including account takeovers and day-in-the-life film segments.

 

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Meanwhile, JWU gears its Facebook and Twitter strategies toward an older audience of parents, families, faculty members, and community partners. That might involve sharing blogs, discussing the application process, promoting emerging academic programs, and more.

UGC is also a big part of the content mix at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Many of the school’s students are required to go out and undertake a co-op at some point during their studies, so much of their content features students undertaking internships.

Dave also sees a lot of value in reviewing the calendars of other partners across campus when planning potential content ideas. “We’re looking at what they’re doing and knowing whether there’s something that we want to elevate.”

Deanna at Kent State typically uses highly visual platforms — Instagram and TikTok — to showcase student life and campus beauty in a way that appeals to current and prospective students.

@kentstateu Living life in color at Kent State? #KentStateUniversity #LifeInColor #Fall ♬ original sound – ufdeltazeta

Kent State reserves its Facebook and Twitter for university news and campus announcements. Deanna has also seen a lot of success in sharing faculty updates and success stories on LinkedIn. “Things are tailored to the various platforms, based on all the stakeholders we’re trying to reach, whether it be alumni, donors, students, prospective students and their families, and giving them a really good feel for what it’s like to be on campus.”

Encouraging Student Involvement in Content Creation

All higher ed social media marketers face a key challenge: finding an effective way to get students involved in the content creation process. After all, prospective students (and other audiences) don’t want to see endless videos featuring various members of your social media team; they want an accurate snapshot of student life.

To this end, each of our panelists has developed their own systems and workflows for driving student participation.

For Dave at RIT, it’s about making life easy for students and alums who want to create and share content. As such, the school has set up Google Forms for content submissions. “We can go back after they’ve filled out the form and fill in the blanks if we need to for these kinds of posts. That helps us build a stockpile [of content] to plan ahead.”

Deanna says content creation is “very much a group project.” Her team collaborates with a group of four social media-focused students who get involved every semester, offering insights on the types of content and themes that resonate with them.

She also works closely with different units on campus, such as admissions and student affairs. This helps her team find relevant students to feature in specific campaigns. “A lot of times, we are looking for a student who can be a face for a particular program or initiative. It’s been really helpful to say, ‘We’re trying to pinpoint somebody who can show us what it’s like to be in this program or what it’s like to be a first-generation student.’ Those relationships are vital.”

For Laurie at JWU, maintaining open lines of communication with key stakeholders is the best way to find students who are doing exceptional work or have interesting stories.

She holds a student involvement fair at the start of the semester to connect with students interested in creating content for the school’s social channels. She also does regular outreach to faculty members, asking them to highlight star students that would make for interesting case studies and success stories.

“From there, it’s just about finding out what that student’s story is. What are they passionate about, what are they studying, what are their career objectives? How can we connect the dots of their story to the JWU story? And how can we tell it in a way that prospective students can see themselves in the story and think, ‘Maybe this is the place for me’?”

Factoring Holidays & Awareness Days Into the Content Mix

There’s no shortage of awareness days. Dave says, “You could look at one of those online calendar sites and find something for every day of the year.” But just because next Tuesday happens to be World Gopher Day or National Take an Egg to Work Day, that doesn’t mean you have to get involved.

When discussing holidays and awareness days, our panelists hit on two key themes:

• The importance of focusing on events that align with your brand
• The need to support your words with meaningful actions

First up, Dave urges social media marketers to only reference events that closely match your brand and audience. “We know we have an active community of kids who are doing live-action role-playing and hosting a conference about it on campus. So Star Wars Day is a natural thing for us. Pi Day. Things like that. But am I going to go find a post for National Ice Cream Day just because? Maybe not.”

May the Fourth Be With You, today and always, Tigers! Happy Star Wars Day! #MayTheFourth #Starwars#RIT #Legos pic.twitter.com/Oy42u8zRD8

— RIT (@RITtigers) May 4, 2018

Meanwhile, Laurie explains how JWU has created a dedicated working group for discussing holidays and awareness days. The team meets twice a month to identify upcoming events and hone in on those that the school should be talking about and sharing.

When it comes to JWU’s public social channels, they gear their approach toward referencing observances, holidays, and awareness days that are supported by on-campus events. “We don’t want to post about a date and then have nothing to show for it because, in this day and age, it’s really important to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.”

For example, 2022 was the first year that JWU observed Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an official holiday. As well as posting a message of support for the day, the school shared information about supporting and celebrating indigenous communities and cultures.

 

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Responding to Breaking News & Crises

All your planning gets thrown out the window when a crisis breaks. At these times, it’s vital to have a system or process to define what to post (and what not to post).

Clear, transparent communication is vital at these times. Dave explains how he reaches out to other account holders when a crisis develops, instructing them to speak to his team before posting and delaying any scheduled posts. “If there’s a national event or tragedy, we want to make sure we’re not looking insensitive, so I’m communicating as soon as the feeling comes into my head that we need to make that call.”

For Deanna, it’s about gauging the scale and severity of the crisis and taking appropriate action. “Some things can just be shifted. Some things can still go out, but maybe you’re adjusting the wording. Other things you’re pausing altogether. The National Ice Cream Day post, you might want to save that one for next year!”

Top Tips for Optimizing a Content Calendar

To wrap up, Kimberly Moniz asked each panelist to offer a single piece of advice for anyone looking to develop a more effective and efficient content calendar.

Strategy was a key focus. Deanna urges social media managers to communicate their strategy and goals so that all stakeholders understand your brand and the types of content you post. If they come to you with a post idea that doesn’t work, you can workshop something more appropriate. “You’re not banging your head against the wall with something that does not fit your audience. Because ultimately, that’s what’s important.”

Laurie also recommends starting with strategy, writing down your audience, goals, and content buckets. Speaking about content buckets (or pillars, or themes), she explains: “You want three to five at most, and they need to represent your brand, be true to who you are as a business, and be supportive of those ultimate goals. Because then when you’re having moments of busyness or facing a creative desert where you’re not feeling very inspired, you can go back to those content buckets and use them for information.”

Dave’s number one tip is to think about content in terms of topics rather than events or departments you need to post about. “There are a lot of days when I come in, and I don’t know exactly what we’re going to publish, but I know we’ve got great content lined up because we’re thinking about things in broad terms. Give yourself the freedom and the flexibility to look at your messages and your brand and use that as your jumping-off point.”

Want to learn more about social media strategy and planning? Check out our upcoming social media conferences.