Top Priorities for Social Media
- Engage prospective students. Make sure you post content that is appealing for teenagers and addresses their interests and needs. It’s also important to consider what platforms are most relevant for high school students. If posts elicit comments, try to interact with your audience.
- Generate leads. Direct social content to landing pages where students can easily sign up for more information.
- Share information. This may seem obvious, but it’s important to share the right information. Your social channels are perfect for content specific to your area of campus. Talk about classes, faculty, projects, and anything else that is of interest to potential undergraduate students.
- Increase followers. Set goals to increase your followers, and again, make sure you’re targeting high schoolers.
- Build and strengthen brand awareness. Your goal should be to strengthen the Illinois brand and the brand of your particular unit. Your posts should get students excited about being an Illini.
OUA’s Social Media Strategy
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions primarily views social media as an advertising platform since we host much of our digital advertising through social channels. As an extension of our advertising strategy, free social media engagement is excellent.
Our strategy with social media is to:
- Utilize multiple platforms (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter)
- Encourage action (explore, sign up, apply, visit, accept)
- Post engaging content
- Respond to comments and questions
- Share live video
How to Measure Success
Social media success can be measured though followers and engagement. Specifically for undergraduate recruitment and yield, it’s important to monitor the engagement on posts targeted at prospective students. Make sure you’re engaging the right audience.