Ninety-six percent of surveyed admissions officers agreed that social media is worth the investment.
“Accounts are free, even the most expensive monitoring/reporting solutions are not very expensive, and the human resource investment is also not tremendously expensive right now,” said David May, web and interactive marketing manager at Chapman University in California.
May conceded: “It’s very difficult to evaluate the ROI of social media,” but pointed out that “it’s also difficult to evaluate the ROI of using office telephones and eMail accounts.”
Despite widespread changes to incorporate more social media in the college recruiting process, the transition has not yet become formalized. Only 49 percent of those surveyed have a written social media policy for their school.
Nora Barnes, director of the Center for Marketing Research, likened the need for schools to have a social media plan to the fundamental need for a financial plan or a marketing plan.
“The real issue is that social media now needs a seat at the table. It is an important element that needs to be part of the plan for promoting and recruiting,” she said.
Barnes said an effective social media plan must outline how a school will measure, monitor, track, and research new tools and trends. Schools also must consider how to hire the necessary expertise and incorporate social media use into their budgets.
Not all social media tools are created equal: Surveyed schools reported the most useful tools for recruiting undergraduates to include Facebook (94 percent), YouTube (81 percent), Twitter (69 percent), and downloadable mobile apps (51 percent).
Social media users are not created equal, either. In the time from 2009-10 to now, the proportion of schools monitoring online conversations about themselves dropped from 73 percent to 47 percent.
Barnes attributed the change to schools turning over social media responsibility from staffers to students.
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