The average American uses three social media platforms; young adults use five or more. Today’s teens and nontraditional students are on the go and eager for attractive visuals and relevant content that answers their questions. But “doing social media” isn’t as easy as posting pictures and collating content on Twitter. Successful social media strategies are built around your audience, your business goals and a never-ending curiosity for what’s working and how to improve.

A solid social media strategy offers the opportunity to:

• Establish expertise: Share your knowledge, stories and perspectives; your target market is looking to the experts (like you) to share their expertise.
• Target particular audiences: There are a lot of channels – focus on where your current and potential students spend time. If they are on Twitter, add to conversations. If they are on Instagram, participate.
• Show your personable side: Talk like people talk. Provide quick responses; empower your team; reduce editing touches.
• Drive business results: Results are long-term (compounding, not campaigns – it does not work overnight).

Social Media Changes All the Time

Across platforms, the algorithms and best practices that determine content prioritization are in constant flux.

How does one stay up-to-date on current best practices? Stay active on social media and don’t hesitate to try new options and platforms as they emerge. For example, Twitter pioneered the use of hashtags to collate conversations online. Today, hashtags are a mainstay across nearly every platform. Audiences on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn can follow specific hashtags to view content that is personalized to their interests.

The Stamats content marketing team regularly tries new social options, from Instagram TV to Twitter live audio. Some efforts are successful, and others don’t work as well as expected. However, each time we try something new, we learn more about what our audiences want, where they are and how we can improve our communication with them.

Invest, Assess and Measure

If you want current and prospective students to find and engage with your content, investing in paid promotion should be part of your ongoing strategy.

Start with a set budget (we recommend $200 for a starting point) and assess the reach and engagement your post receives. From this baseline, you can hone your messaging and try targeting the ad to audience segments based on their user demographics, such as personal interests and geography.

Just like any other paid or organic promotion, it’s important to measure conversions – what happens after a user clicks through your social media content. Monitoring conversions helps you prove return on investment to your stakeholders. Also keep in mind that many users don’t click at all. We recommend having an on-network goal as well.

Regular assessment of your platforms, content and strategy offers a chance to rectify poor user experience issues, such as broken links, unclear directives or mismatching of content to audience needs. Questions to consider include:

• Do they complete their goal on your site, then leave?
• Do they check out other pages on your site?
• Are there barriers to conversion?
• Are the conversion points clear, and do they make sense?

Where Should You Post?

Most higher ed organizations don’t have the bandwidth to use every social media platform. We recommend originating your content on a platform you own, such as your blog or website, then pushing it out on two to three social media channels your students use most as a starting point. Sometimes link back and sometimes use pieces of your content and adapt it to the social media networks.

When considering which platforms to use and what to share, consider the following questions:

1. Who is your target audience?
2. What are your short-term goals?
3. What are your long-term goals?
4. What is your area of expertise and your value proposition?

Doable, quick-win business goals in the short term might include increased brand awareness, such as reach and engagement. Over the long term, you can prove return on investment if you strategically track conversions and keep a pulse on changing audience needs. Bonus: Consistent publication of relevant content improves your status as an industry expert and thought leader.

Syndication, Workflow and Tools

Winning content can only perform well with strategic syndication. We recommend the COPE method – Create Once, Publish Everywhere. In other words, publish a piece of content on a central location and distribute the content through your priority channels.

A common practice is to post a blog about a trend, then share posts, images and media files across Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Marketing automation tools and social media scheduling platforms can help you publish and monitor posts and engagements across multiple platforms.

One person will have difficulty doing all these things themselves. Collaboration becomes key, either with an internal team, a trusted agency partner or a combination of both. Your brand voice is like your baby: It can be difficult to hand over responsibility to someone else. Surround yourself with partners you can trust to reduce the need for multiple edits, overproduction of images and visuals and other rigid process that slow syndication and foster suboptimal results.

Quick Higher Ed Social Media Tips by Platform

Facebook

This platform is still the No. 1 social media platform for adults (parents and nontraditional students) – 65 percent use it at least once a day, and more than half visit multiple times daily. Though Facebook has become pay-to-play for brands, the targeting options and potential for expansive reach make this platform relevant in 2019.

• Don’t rely on organic reach. As the old marketing adage goes, you have to spend money to make money.
• Use hashtags as relevant to your content, particularly if you are sharing posts across Facebook subsidiary, Instagram.
• Consider your targeting options. Refining the scope of your audience too narrowly can result in suboptimal reach and engagements.

Instagram

Owned by Facebook, this visual platform is home to authentic, real-time images and videos. Young people tend to use IG more than Facebook.

• Use hashtags. Users can follow specific hashtags, which serve related content into their feeds. For example, we tag #StamatsNation on company posts and add additional tags as relevant (#highered; #healthcare; #contentmarketing).
• Use filters sparingly. Authenticity is key for brands. Showcase the real people and places in your industry, not always the polished version.
• Add a relevant link to your profile. For example, to a campaign landing page or another conversion page on your website.
• Set up an Instagram Business page so you can run campaigns and promote posts from the platform.

YouTube, Blog, Vlog and Podcast

Yes, these platforms are now considered social media. Why? Because they are hubs for cornerstone content – the main creations you can parse and distribute across other channels.

YouTube is the second biggest search engine behind Google, which owns the platform. Posting here can help publishers rank high on both search engines. About 75 percent of adults use YouTube, and 95 percent of adults 18 to 24 year use it.

Blogs are traditionally text based but are being used more and more as a tool to distribute more visual content, such as infographics to audio/video media, embedded within the article. Podcasts are similar to blogs, but in audio form instead of text. And vlogs are video-based stories, with audio and text included in the mix.

Best practices for these platforms include:

• Post video and audio segments with captions to allow accessibility when playing sound isn’t an option.
• Similarly, always post a transcript with media files to allow content to be searchable.
• Avoid over-polishing. Edit out obvious errors, but keep a human, realistic vibe to connect with your audience in their terms.
• Post consistently to generate a following:
  • Consider posting at least one blog a week. Best practices in 2019 suggest 500 to 1,000 words per article on average.
  • If your primary media is video or podcast, one a week is a respectable goal.
  • Include calls-to-action in each post that tie back to your business goals (subscribe, schedule a consultation, learn more).
  • Post videos natively to your blog or vlog (upload the file there rather than linking to YouTube) to create a streamlined user experience on the front end and to improve trackability on the back end.

LinkedIn

This platform for professionals is similar to Facebook in that you can post text, images and videos in followers’ news feeds. Nontraditional and graduate student prospects are a key target audience.

However, the content users expect on LinkedIn should be business-related, including thought leadership and straight news content. About half of Americans with degrees use LinkedIn, and Pew Research suggest that 90 percent also use Facebook.

• Add captions to LinkedIn videos to improve accessibility.
• Use hashtags to allow users to follow you based on topics you discuss.
• Consider sponsored LinkedIn messaging to reach specific audience segments in their inboxes.

X Formerly Twitter

This fast-moving platform offers the opportunity to follow hashtags and contribute to larger conversations. Students and parents use Twitter to get news and quick updates.

Each post can be no longer than 280 characters, necessitating succinct and pointed posts or planned threads for longer messages.

• Use hashtags in your posts to tie to what others are talking about.
• Live tweet your webinars and podcasts to increase the reach.
• Share audio, video and images to stand out from the sea of text.
• You can talk on Twitter up to every 15 minutes since the feed moves so quickly; check in at least once a day to stay current.

Pinterest

Similar to Instagram, this platform is highly visual and geared toward adults. However, it’s more of a collating platform, pulling in items a user identifies as relevant to them based on their personal interests.

• This is an effective platform to promote specific products, infographics and checklists. Write a catchy description with a link and add an attractive image.
• Promotion can be effective to reach specific audience segments.
• Share a few pins a week as relevant.

Snapchat

Though generally considered a fun, in-the-moment app, some brands have found success reaching young adults and teens with Snapchat stories, which offer the option to add links to web content.

• Post video, audio and images with text overlays as appropriate.
• Carefully consider your use of filters. Some are fun but can easily take away from your brand image instead of adding to it.
• One Snapchat story a week is a respectable goal for brands.

Conclusion and Final Tips

This includes evergreen, topical content that answers user questions/needs, which should be the bulk of the content you produce, as well as newsy, trending content, which also should be part of your strategy. Give a unique opinion about the topics you pursue and why the topic should matter to the audience.

Content should always include at least one relevant call-to-action as well. The CTA should tie to a business goal, but more importantly should be a next natural step for the visitor.

Social media platforms offer a unique opportunity to share your stories, appealing to prospective students and parents through a variety of media. Today’s options offer a richer, deeper way to connect with your current and potential clients, as well as glean inspiration for your own content marketing projects.

 

Similar to healthcare, hospitality and other service industries, higher education organizations cannot rely on a consistent demand year over year. Within the next decade, the demographic of students pursuing higher education degrees will shrink; thus, the impetus for organizations to make research-driven facilities management decisions will become all the more important.

Colleges and universities will need to shuffle their budgets and resources to prioritize buildings and campus amenities that support revenue-generating undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

This review and realignment of funds must be done regularly in order to stay on top of the most recent market and revenue demands and attract more students. As such, facility departments should be empowered to suggest improvements that are supported by the institution’s research.

For example, if market research suggests that science programs will drive more revenue in 2019/2020 than arts programs, the school should prioritize updates to the science buildings, labs and grounds.

While this is not a new concept, it has rarely been discussed publicly until recently due to politics involved with deprioritizing programs. In Jan. 2019, an article in The New York Times and a talk at the Council of Independent Colleges conference both discussed prioritizing majors with a focus on capital investments, staff salaries and student-to-staff ratios.

Research-driven Data for Student Recruitment

In an effort to address the prioritization challenge, the education focused architectural firm Hastings+Chivetta collaborates with higher education institutions and private K-12 schools to implement a facilities-meets-enrollment assessment – the Architecture of Enrollment Management™ program.

The program focuses on recommendations to improve first impressions, campus investments and ultimately student recruitment and retention.

The student campus tour is among the most important first impressions. Erik Kocher, principal at Hastings+Chivetta, says, “While conducting assessments, we’ve heard kids whisper to their parents during the tour, ‘There’s no way I’m going here.’ Aesthetic and infrastructure deficiencies can negatively affect the tour experience but can easily go unnoticed by campus staff.”

Hastings+Chivetta “secret shops” campus admission tours as part of their program, homing in on under-the-radar facilities considerations, such as:

• Does the tour take prospective students through older facilities for the sake of the tour or can some buildings be skipped all together?
• Is there clearly marketed visitor parking adjacent to the admission office?
• Do any featured buildings on the tour need lawncare, paint or custodial attention?
• Does the campus map match the current campus layout?
• Does the tour visit the best example of student housing or the worst?

The assessment ranks organizations on a 125-point scale. High-scoring colleges and universities typically score around 99 points. However, Hastings+Chivetta has worked with big-name institutions that ranked in the 50s.

The firm shares anonymous institutional data from previous campus tours to show stakeholders how they rank compared to their peer organizations – these reports are always eye-opening for administrators.

Related Reading: Communication Timing: Send Students the Right Recruitment Message at the Right Time

The data help college and university administration and facility managers prioritize programs and related campus amenities for maintenance and marketing efforts.

For example, if biology is expected to generate a large return on investment but the science center is outdated, it will be difficult to attract the best and brightest students through marketing campaigns or campus tours, regardless of the quality of the faculty and staff and course offerings.

Cost-Effective Facility Maintenance Plans

Higher education facility managers are continually challenged to do more with less in terms of staff and funding. However, as funds are diverted into new building projects, maintenance must become a priority.

Hastings+Chivetta offers tiers of recommendations for facility managers based on staffing capacity, budget and organizational priorities to enhance student recruitment:

• Low cost: This tier includes increased custodial attention, paint and carpeting updates and simple landscaping projects to spruce up key building interiors and exteriors.
• Intermediate cost: These initiatives support the revenue- and acquisition-driving elements to be showcased on a campus tour or in a marketing campaign. Updates might include installing new lab equipment or implementing large interior design or landscaping projects.
• Priority cost: This tier includes master planning projects, such as new building construction, large-scale renovations and overhauling campus-wide landscaping. Such endeavors might require additional staffing, grants or other planned and immediate-cost initiatives to stay relevant among competitor institutions.

The campus tour is the first real-life impression students get of a higher education organization and the first authentic interaction with institution staff and facilities. Unfortunately, it’s also an opportunity to turn off students with poorly maintained facilities.

To stay relevant in today’s narrowing and increasingly competitive higher education market, institutions should consider implementing immediate and long-term data-driven facilities projects.

The investment in understanding the return on certain programs vs. the expenditures on campus projects could make or break the enrollment rates for the institution for the next decade.

Temperatures like these can cause frostbite within minutes, a risky proposition for anyone walking to class.

Many schools in the affected area cancelled classes in light of the extreme temperatures. The University of Iowa, for example, cancelled all classes for the first time since December 2009, while Iowa State University is observing its first closing since 2014. But suspending classes for a couple of days is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to keeping students safe during a deep freeze. Here are five things you can do right now to mitigate the polar vortex’s impacts on your campus.

1. Master Your Mass Communication

Just like any other emergency, you need to communicate with students through multiple channels to make sure everyone is getting the message. Use texts for one- to two-sentence missives – for example, “All classes are cancelled from 4 p.m. Tuesday until noon Thursday” – and include a shortened link to more detailed instructions on your website. Issue details by email too, since students are likely to check there before they think to look at your website.

Longer messages should emphasize the importance of being prepared. Frostbite and hypothermia can develop in as little as 5 minutes when the windchill is this severe.

2. Create Cold Prep Tips

Not everyone at your institution is used to cold weather. International students and out-of-state students from warmer climates may have underestimated how cold winter can get, especially during a period as severe as this one. Make sure your communications include tips on personal safety and taking good care of residence hall rooms.

“Our hall directors got multiple emails to tell us to keep our windows closed and locked because the wind might be able to push them open more, and if you’re not in the room at the time, you could freeze the pipes,” explains Andrew Grant, a freshman at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, majoring in electrical and mechanical engineering. “They’ve been reaching out to us with tips on how to stay safe in dangerous cold weather.”

Students used to warmer weather may benefit from tips on dressing for the weather. Basic instructions like “wear layers” or “wear a warm coat” don’t fully convey the seriousness of the situation to anyone who’s not used to cold winters.

“Invest in a coat that goes down to your knees, if not further,” suggests MacKenzie Male, a junior studying biochemistry at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. “Coats have different temperature ratings, so get one that is going to be OK for negative degree weather. Hats, scarves, a good pair of gloves and a good pair of shoes to walk in the snow when the sidewalks aren’t completely cleared. You need something that will keep the wind from getting to your skin.”

3. Coordinate with Faculty

Encourage faculty to disseminate their own messages with instructions about each class. Students who expected to take tests or hand in papers this week will want to know what to do, especially if they’re expected to complete readings or assignments during the cancelled classes.

Ryan Downing, a junior at the University of Iowa studying political science, ethics and public policy, noted that one professor recorded a lecture that students will watch instead of physically going to class. Other professors might send out lecture notes or PowerPoint slides or assign extra readings. For future emergencies that don’t warrant a school-wide closing, Kirkwood Community College sophomore Colin VandeWeerd urges faculty and administrators to consider students who commute to class.

“If the school doesn’t cancel but you think people are going to have a rough time getting to your class or you yourself can’t make it, don’t put yourself in danger,” says VandeWeerd, a liberal arts major at Kirkwood’s Cedar Rapids campus. “Just call off class and have them do something in the book or by email. You could have people getting in pileups on the interstate. Some of that could be prevented if people just stay home.”

4. Publicize Routes and Transportation

Make sure students know the warmest routes around campus. First-year and transfer students will especially appreciate the tips. Josie Te Grotenhuis, a freshman at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, recommends “building-hopping,” or taking routes that pass through buildings rather than a more direct route that’s exposed to the cold the entire time. Students with cars can park closer to class buildings if spots are available, Downing notes.

If you have the resources, consider making it easier for students to get across campus even if classes are cancelled. Central College in Pella, Iowa, notified students about a shuttle between the residence halls, the student center and the main dining area, says Zach Jansen, a Central sophomore studying business and computer science. Some of the residence halls are up to 10 minutes from these important areas, so reliable transportation is vital when frostbite can set in within five minutes.

Schools with skywalks, heated underground tunnels or other sheltered infrastructure may even be able to maintain their regular academic schedule. Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, features skywalks that connect the library and academic buildings. The most distant residence hall is only a 3- to 4-minute walk from the nearest skywalk entrance, so Knights can safely get to class without difficulty, explains freshman Alex Stone, a biology major.

5. Plan for Disadvantaged Students

Not all students have the ability to invest in extra layers for weather that’s colder than they were expecting, Male says. Connect needy students with available resources so that they can get adequate gloves, coats and hats if what they have isn’t warm enough.

“Some students on campus don’t have the proper clothing or proper coats,” Male says. “I don’t know if they can afford them or not, but there are a lot of people who are unprepared for the weather and I don’t think administrators look at all the factors of students maybe not being able to afford things. A good [temperature-rated] coat is going to be well over $200.”

Your students are counting on you to keep them safe, so make decisions based on the best available information and make sure the message gets to everyone who needs it. Staying in close contact and keeping students updated will ensure everyone has the information they need to stay out of harm’s way.

In this podcast Stamats Chief Content Officer Christoph Trappe and Davia Lassiter, director of marketing at College of Continuing and Professional Education at Kennesaw State University, discuss the enrollment funnel and share tips on how to hit your target prospects.

The success of attracting your target audience depends on the accuracy of your aim. Our highly interactive workshop will explore the prospective student journey and examine how to identify and successfully target population segments. Attendees will also learn practical copywriting tips and get a crash course in branding guidelines to help lead prospects from the top of the funnel to the bulls-eye. Davia Lassiter, Director of Marketing at College of Continuing Professional Education, leads the workshop with her adult student marketing expertise.

What You’ll Learn

• How messaging and the brand experience directly influence engagement, response, and conversion
• Crucial points in the adult student journey that require more focused and frequent communication
• Best practices for target marketing across channels

Read the Transcription Below

Christoph Trappe: Hello everyone. Christoph Trappe here with Stamats and the Adult Student Marketing Conference. Our first episode for the podcast to talk about adult student marketing and some of the latest trends and information that you should know about.Today I’m joined by Davia Lassiter. She’s the director of marketing, College of Continuing and Professional Education at Kennesaw State University, which is near Atlanta. Thanks for joining us today.

Davia Lassiter: Thank you for having me.

Trappe: You bet. Always glad to talk with you. So, Davia is one of our speakers in San Diego in 2019 and of course her topic, which officially is called “The Bullseye, a Multi-layered Approach to Target Marketing” is something that’s really near and dear to my heart, because that’s what I do all day long.

How do I market to the right people? And not just how do I market to anybody, but how do I actually figure out who my target audience is? How do I reach them? What channels to use? And so, Davia, how does that kind of fit in with Adult Student Marketing?

Lassiter: Well, what’s interesting is that I work in continuing education. And so, our students are really non-traditional. A lot of people when they think of colleges and universities, they focus on 18-years-olds, 19-year-olds, kind of your typical student.

So, with those of us who market to adult learners, we kinda have to take a little bit of a different approach. And there’s a lot of technology, a lot of best practices, but you could do all these wonderful things, but if you’re not targeting correctly, then it will really all just be in vain.

So, it’s just super important to understand your target audience and then focus on the strategy of what to say to them, how to deliver the message to get the maximum ROI that you desire.

Trappe: Yep. And that is of course, sounds a lot easier than it is in real life.

Lassiter: Exactly. That is absolutely correct. But just takes some education, some training and just connecting with the right people that could lead you in the right direction. Which is why this upcoming conference is so important.

Determining Your Target Audience

Trappe: Absolutely. That’s great. And so, when you talk about how do you determine who your audience is? How do you actually determine who to go after? Who is the non-traditional student that fits for your higher education organization? How do you do that?

Lassiter: Well, what’s interesting about what we offer is that we have such a variety of programs. So, our core is professional certificate programs. So, these typically target people who have been working for a while. So, they’re not these 18-20-year-olds. They’re mostly late-20s, early 30s and up in the 40s. So, we kind of can target them based on age as well as where they are professionally.

We also have a program based on the Osher Life-long Learning Institute. And this targets adults 50 and older. Last, we have Summer University, which is for children who arriving first graders all the way through high school seniors. So, knowing that we do serve a large audience, but also being able to segment them really helps us to determine, okay, this is the message that we want to deliver. And based on this segment of the population, this is how we should deliver.

For example, and these are things that I took on in our presentation. If you’re trying to target adult learners in the OLLI Program, Snapchat is not where you need to be. Whereas for Summer U, you probably don’t want to have anything on LinkedIn.

So, it’s just researching where your target audience lives online or if it’s something that you need to do in direct mail. And then forming your message to really get their attention and persuade them to select you.

Because there’s so many options out there for education, so many options for camps and all types of things just regarding education. So, it’s just a matter of reaching those target audience members, delivering a message that resonates with them and getting them to be in your enrollment file, stay there so that they convert to one of your students.

Trappe: Yeah. And of course, that’s a pretty wide range, right, of ages. When you go from the late-20s to the early 50s or later, do you prioritize who to go after with the message? Or how do you do that?

Best Choices for Your Marketing

Lassiter: Well, I wouldn’t say we prioritize. The way our cycle works is that we are pretty open year-round. So, we don’t get summers off, you know, we don’t have that type of schedule. So, we base our marketing on when our classes are. Focusing on professional certificate programs, some programs start once a year and they last maybe 9-14 months.

Other programs last about 12 weeks, so we offer them 2-3 times per year. So, it just really depends on when the programs are offered. Summer U, of course, is only in June and July, so we have a very specific marketing cycle.

And then our OLLI programs, they’re so vast. We have classes that are offered 2 or 3, maybe four times a year. We’ve also introduced international and domestic travel to OLLI. They also have socials that are three times a year.

So, it’s very specific on the type of program. And then the different offerings within certain programs as well.

Trappe: It’s so interesting. And I wonder how long is the sales cycle, for a lack of a better term, the conversion cycle? So, I’m thinking of myself. I went to the University of Iowa to get my journalism degree, jumped right into the professional life. Went back, got a couple certificates from Cornell for change leadership, marketing strategy, something like that.

And then every once and a while, now I run into people who talked about master’s degrees and leadership and other things. And I’m always talking about it, I’m thinking about it, I’m talking to my wife, “Should I do this? Does this pay off? Is this worth my time right now?” So, the sales cycle for me is relatively long.

Lassiter: Right? That’s makes sense. And it’s funny. I also have a journalism degree, so we have that in common.

Trappe: Excellent. So, how far do you – so sometimes what I see when we talk about marketing strategy, we have – you start a marketing campaign or marketing initiative and people want to see results tomorrow, right? Like, is this working yet? The thing we started yesterday? No, it’s not.

What have you found – how long does it typically take to actually convert somebody? Is it longer or shorter? And of course, maybe the answer is often “it depends.”

Be Aware of the Enrollment Funnel

Lassiter: It depends. That is exactly right. But it helps when people are familiar with the enrollment funnel. So, the funnel that we refer to has five different levels.

So, the first level is “Awareness.” And that’s just really casting a very wide net so that people really know that you exist. So, you’re trying to get their attention. And then you move down to interest.

So, for example, someone saw your Facebook ad and clicked on it and filled out a form, so they could get more information. Someone received a course catalog in the mail, which is something we mail out quarterly and they called or visited your website and requested more information.

So, once people are aware of the programs that you offer and they follow up with you, they are in your funnel. So, they indicated interest in something that you have to offer. From there, you nurture them.

Nurturing for Conversion

You follow up with them, you answer their questions, you give them information about upcoming events, whether it’s an open house or a webinar, or a meet-and-greet, or a tour of our facilities. You’re pretty much dangling a carrot.

And the nurturing part is so important because they’re not only vetting your program, but they’re vetting your competitor’s programs as well. Adult learners are very smart and they definitely want their own ROI. So, just like marketers are looking for ROI, so are these adult learners.

So, the nurturing part of the funnel is very, very important. From there, you want them to convert. You want them to make a purchase. Which in our case is enrolling in our programs or in the Osher Life-long Learning Institute or putting their kids in Summer University. And what we do special here at KSU is in our marketing, we utilize our students in our marketing.

So, we love to get testimonials, we love to hear success stories, because that brings us to the bottom of the funnel, which is being a brand ambassador, or being an advocate for the program. And from there, we move back to awareness. We use those testimonials and those success stories and we put them into our marketing to make others aware of what we have to offer.

So, for us, we know that students can take a month to make a decision, some take two years to make a decision. And that’s just based on information that we’re seeing from the data.

Another example is that we’ve done quite a few Google AdWords campaigns. And we had someone reach out to us in 2015 about a particular program and they wound up enrolling in 2017. So, it really depends on the price of the program, the length, whether it’s online, whether it’s during the daytime, whether it’s on the weekend.

So, again, it’s very, very dependent upon a variety of factors. But again, out of everything that’s in the funnel, the nurturing, is super, super important because that’s what – that part is what will get people to again, convert and then potentially be an advocate for your program.

Trappe: Yep. And I like how you say “Non-traditional students also look for their ROI,” which is exactly what I’m doing as well, right? I mean if I go back and I study whatever the MBA might be, as a non-traditional student, I’m doing the math, you know? Is this going to pay off and how quick is it going to pay off?

And interestingly, I was talking to a non-traditional student actually last night, just kinda happened. And I asked her that same question. I said, “Did it actually pay off?” And she goes, “Absolutely. I did the math and here’s how quickly it paid off.”

So, very interesting to see how strategic non-traditional students – many people are about it.

You are also going to talk about some copywriting tips that our Adult Student Marketing Conference in February. Any tips you can share along those lines?

Impact of Testimonials

Lassiter: Absolutely. So, I mentioned advocacy and brand ambassadorship. So, a testimonial is so powerful. If you include that in your copy, that is a direct example of ROI. So, you just mentioned that you asked someone, “Well, did it pay off?”

Having someone who’s gone through your program and graduated from your program and then go on to secure a job, or get a certain certification, for them to come back to us and say, you know, “I took this program. I had this goal and I exceeded it thanks to you,” that is perfect for your marketing copy. That is really marketing gold.

Answer 3 Questions in Marketing Materials

1. How much will it cost?

So, we try to answer three particular questions in our marketing copy. The first is, of course, how much is it going to cost? People are going to make an investment of money as well as their time. But it could be a barrier of something is out of reach for them financially. That’s going to be very important.

So, with us also providing the cost, we also say, “Here are our multiple financial aid opportunities,” whether it’s a scholarship or education benefits or payment plans. We definitely try to provide solutions to anyone who makes cost as a barrier.

2. How long will it take?

The second question is, “Well, how long is it? How long is it going to take me?” And again, delivery is very important. If it’s online, first is you coming here twice a week or a Saturday for 12 weeks. So, we do have some variety there. And for the sake of the time that adult learners will need, balancing education in their personal lives, we definitely want them to know, “Well, this is how long it’s going to take you.”

3. What is my ROI? Will I get a job?

And then the last is again, ROI. “Will I get a job?” Testimonies are important, like I said before. But we also provide occupational outlooks. So, we are great about citing sources from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, websites such as Salary.com, just so people can get a full picture. This is how much it’s going to cost. It’s going to take you this long, but these are my possible outcomes. And here’s a student that was successful after going through this same program that I’m interested.

Trappe: Testimonials, they’re painting the dream, right, for you to follow. Yeah. That is great to hear. When you have testimonials, so what I like to say, when you have good content, throw it a parade, right? Put it on every channel.

Lassiter: Exactly.

Trappe: Do you do that?

Lassiter: We absolutely do. We are great at repurposing content, simply because – just because we have something doesn’t mean that everyone’s going to see it. Just because we have something on our social media channels or in our course catalog or in a press release, everyone’s not going to see it.

So, the smart thing to do is if we have one example of content, so if we have a blog that we’ve written, say we’ve interviewed a student, they tell us their success story, we put it on our website, well we can also share that blog via social media in an email.

We can also as I say “flip it” into a press release to try to get media coverage. We can also put it in our course catalog, which is mailed out quarterly to over 250,000 people. So, we definitely try to repurpose our content and multiply this storytelling so that people can see it across different platforms.

Trappe: And you know, it’s so funny. It’s actually funny to me because 15 years ago, people would say, “Oh my goodness. You need unique content for every channel.” And what you described, I’m a big believer in that concept, create once, publish everywhere, of course. But 15 years ago, people would say, “We need unique content for every channel because everybody will see everything on every channel.” Which of course, we know today is not correct.

So, that’s great to hear. What are your tips for people to keep up on what channels to currently use and is there any change that’s worth sharing?

Which Social Media Channels are Most Effective?

Facebook

Lassiter: Well, Facebook definitely is king whether it’s organic content or even paid. I’ve actually read a report this morning that Facebook ads as far as generating awareness are still #1. Marketers are seeing a lot of ROI from Facebook ads. Can you repeat the question?

Trappe: Yep. So, that was kind of really the answer here. But then is there any other channel? So, Facebook, of course, is a big one. Is there any other channel people should be aware of? We talked about Snapchat quickly. Probably not for the non-traditional student.

Lassiter: Right. Okay. So, for older populations, again Facebook, what we’re seeing is that older populations are able to connect with maybe family members, grandchildren, old friends who may not be in the same time zone, but they can still connect with them online. Instagram is another one. It’s very popular.

We have a culinary program, so it is always great for us to get content that’s beautiful food and we post it everywhere. But having it on Instagram is definitely a plus, since it’s so visually focused. Twitter is also great as well. And that’s just for quick little snapshot updates. We get a lot of engagement. Really most on Facebook, but also Instagram and some on Twitter.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is perfect for us, considering again that our core is professional certificate programs. So, connecting with our graduates, encouraging them to list our colleges page on their LinkedIn profile is huge because we want to present them as professionals, right? And they should want to present themselves as professionals. They have this certificate, they’re trying to get these promotions, move up in their professions. So, LinkedIn is pretty big as well.

YouTube

And then there’s YouTube. People love videos. It’s just a different way to deliver content. So, earlier I mentioned how we interview students and we put it on the blog as well as other platforms. Well, we also use video as well. So, that’s perfect for us just to share in a tweet, on LinkedIn. Sometimes we embed videos within blogs. So, there’s a lot of opportunity there as well.

For things like Snapchat and Pinterest and whatever else is out there on the horizon, it’s just a matter again of knowing your audience and knowing where they live. On a basic level, definitely Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. That sounds like a lot, but there’s so much I guess intermingling that you could do among those different platforms.

Trappe: Yeah. It is a lot. But that’s kind of the world we’re in. Things are continuously adding on top of what we already have to do. On Facebook too, I don’t know if you saw this, but people do go to the Facebook page of universities.

So, it’s really important to have that looking nicely for them, even if you have a nice cover image. Now you can do a video even. I don’t know if you knew that or not. I just saw that the other day to do a nice video.

Lassiter: We have that. Yeah. We actually have that on our Summer U page, just to get the parents and the kids engaged. And one other item that I wanted to point out is we are one of the colleges that comprises the university, so we actually have our own Facebook page.

So, of course, there is a university-wide Facebook page as well as other platforms on social media. But with us having our own, we’re able to control the content. And that way everything that we push out online on the social media platforms is all about continuing and professional education.

Stamats Adult Student Marketing Conference

Trappe: Yep. Absolutely. Great. This was a great overview of your session at the Adult Student Marketing Conference in San Diego in February. Anything else you’d like to share that I didn’t ask you?

Lassiter: Let me think. Well, I really hope that for those who are new to Stamats, that they definitely consider coming to the conference. Number one, I know that they enjoy conferences in an area when there’s a beach. So, it’s always enticing, but this year in February was my first time attending and also presenting. And it was really, really wonderful.

I attend conferences pretty regularly, but this one was actually one of my favorites. I just love being able to network with everyone and just meet other people who deal specifically with adult learners. So, it was just very, very refreshing.

And we have a lot of great people, a lot of subject matter experts who are ready to share their best practices. Because we all have the same goals, getting enrollment and educating others. So, it’s just a great time to come connect with others, learn a lot of information and bring it back to your own team so you can meet your respective goals.

So, I just really hope everyone comes out to Stamats, it’s going to be an awesome time.

Trappe: Great. Thank you so much. And certainly the marketing team here at Stamats knows their audience because that’s why they planned them where there is a beach every year. But thanks for the overview of marketing for non-traditional students. And always appreciate it. And hope to see everyone in San Diego in February.

 However, this is not to say that text doesn’t matter because we’re too lazy to read, only that images have been complementing or even supplanting headlines. Now the question becomes, should you invest your resources into still photography, video, or both? It depends on many factors, but it ultimately comes down to your staff, equipment, and goals.

While social media has given us the flexibility to be lo-fi with the picture quality and art direction, it has also presented with new challenges, such as content expiration, limited metrics, and shorter recording time. To keep this simple, let’s focus on the two hottest social media services: Instagram and Snapchat.

Instagram—where images are worth 1,000 words

Think of Instagram as a 1-to-many photograph broadcast tool, which you can tag and view other photos based on the location. Although they allow video clips, Instagram is better known as a platform to show off a lifestyle. Celebrities use it to give their fans a glimpse of their exclusive lifestyle. For mere mortals, the platform is used to show the local scene with the help of preset filters to add a nostalgic or an artsy look.

Many colleges use Instagram to showcase the campus beauty, brag about the reach of their brand, or show how they’re a part of the community through reposts or likes of the local businesses and events. Instagram is a great way to connect with the community—particularly with prospective students in the area—and even encourage commuter students to participate in more campus activity. More broadly, Instagram is a great way for prospective students to catch a glimpse of campus life beyond what’s on the website and other marketing materials. As such, we recommend you show off your students in your Instagram photos as much as possible. Keep the photos authentic and natural to the platform.

Snapchat – embrace, don’t fear the ghost

Unlike Instagram, Snapchat is a video service that is better known for its 1-to-1 or 1-to-few broadcast. Although snaps can be shared with more people, the content creator defines the users in a group. The videos expire in 24 hours, replays can be limited, and the content creator is notified whenever someone takes a screenshot of the snap, in efforts to hold individuals accountable and curtail bullying. Snapchat functions more like a contact list on your phone, since users have to be manually added, and the relationship tend exist in real life.

What makes Snapchat fun is the myriad of lenses (their term for “filters”) users can apply, and the platform introduces one new lens each day. The lenses can be as similar as the face swap or aging apps that have existed for a while, or a simple sticker the user can place over the snap. Some colleges and businesses have been hesitant to adopt Snapchat due to the lack of metrics—although this may change soon, with the introduction of advertisement. Here’s a list of colleges and universities with their own Snapchat account.

Colleges, however, have the advantage of Campus Stories—whenever someone creates a snap on a college campus, the app verifies the user’s location via the smartphone’s GPS, and makes their snap discoverable via Campus Stories as to increase serendipity among its users within a certain area. Compared to Instagram, Snapchat has a stronger impact but limited reach due to its exclusivity. It’s a great tool to build school pride with the current students, but it may alienate prospective students since some of the snaps may fly above their heads.

Instagram vs. Snapchat—which one to use?

More and more teens are adopting Snapchat, and this is a platform all colleges should adopt or at least seriously consider, even if it’s difficult for those teens to participate in the campus conversation. Teens can still get an intimate view of student life, but only if they view the Snapchat on that day. So find out which day of the week your target demographic will be most available and publish on schedule. If they’re in a high school located in the southeast in a Friday night in the Fall, they will probably be attending a football game instead of checking Snapchat.

Producing good quality snaps on a daily basis to attract new followers can be very time-consuming, and it’s better if someone in your team has a video production experience to create a storyboard with different shots, lenses, captions, and then coordinate the talent with the location or event. Alternatively, hand over the property to vetted students or interns to create more relevant snaps, and it’ll also feel more authentic. Make it clear that it is a student-managed Snapchat.

Again, the biggest downside of Snapchat is the 24-hour expiration, the current lack of metrics, and the amount of time required to produce a snap. In our interviews with college students, they mention loving Snapchats because it’s fun and it gives them a sense of privacy with their group, but they later quit so they can focus more on their studies and social life. Apparently, watching and creating snaps are both time-consuming for them, so don’t feel obligated to create a new snap every day either.

Instagram is easier to produce and more forgiving with their built-in filters. Meet with your marketing team to brainstorm themes and create an editorial calendar with specific hashtags. Virtually anyone can take a picture with their smartphone, and it’s even possible to add photos from your digital SLR. Instagram posts are also easily shared across Facebook (since they own it), and more discoverable through hashtags. One of the easiest way to engage users is to simply repost or click “like” on their images, since it carries a similar “social economy” as Twitter (like, retweet, reply). By integrating Instagram on the homepage, visitors will have a better understanding of you college’s values and mission—the attributes behind your brand. However, they may also be skeptical if the images are overly produced or do not contain reposts.

So which one to use? Both if you can, but understand that even though they both overlap to some extent, Instagram is more likely to have an impact with prospective students who aren’t aware of your college, and Snapchat is better at engaging current and prospective students that already know your college. Audit your resources (staff and equipment), and define your goals (brand awareness and/or engagement).