subject: Using Social Media To Promote Higher Education [print this page] Universities and colleges must approach the Social Media platforms in order to get recognition from students worldwide. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and many other sites can be used as tools for promoting and sharing messages of the institutions to students and educationists all over the world.
The overwhelming response from higher education towards this form has given the researchers and communication experts to think positively. If a university or college connects itself with the social media world, some of the given tips will help in growing their student databases.
Planning an approach towards the social media by the professionals of any institution is extremely important to get the words spread out.
Some important questions must be considered such as: Who are the administrators for these websites? Which are the websites that you can use? How much time should be devoted to social media every week? How much importance is necessary to stress on the user comments? Is it wise to upload your videos, photos, and messages on the Internet? How about your intended audience? What methods are used by the social media sites to promote your institution? Why does this institution require social media channels? Get the answers for all these questions and then look for assistance of social media sites.
Choose your gear prudently if you plan to go ahead with a social media plan. The enticement is to employ anything that gives your institution popularity at this instant, but it may not benefit you accordingly.
Initiate with a relatively secure method. Using the social media site like Facebook lets you to take control over individuals who join your group. This lets you act in a number of ways to spread your messages to friends and fans and they can contact you and ask queries. When you Balance that out, select your platforms, and do not go over the edge. If you plan to use every social media web site available, you should be able to handle all the positives and negatives of your delivered content. While joining a selected few, you must not be hard on yourself to tread with the demand of providing worthy content.
You can even put in a few feeds on Twitter and let it run, but people get used to the preset look and start to overlook it. Lacking a personal touch leads to losing your audience. If an institute has a Twitter account, they can add modified messages such as 'Welcome to all freshmen, we're pleased to have you'. Do not be nervous to answer questions and ask them as well. Allow people to ask their questions frankly and provide them with satisfying answers. To make your higher education social media platform a success, keep these three things in mind, information, conversation and invitation.
