Higher Ed Social Media Strategies That Work – SMA Marketing

As student recruitment and engagement strategies evolve, universities must embrace social media as a critical component of their digital marketing plans. For higher education institutions, a social media strategy isn’t just an option; it’s a necessity. Over 87% of institutions now utilize these platforms to reach prospective students, and it’s becoming increasingly common to use social media as the primary form of communication with this audience. 

Social media offers a unique opportunity to engage students, parents, and the community in real-time, providing a platform for authentic interactions and storytelling. It allows universities to showcase campus life, highlight academic offerings, and share vital information directly, fostering a sense of community and transparency. Additionally, as digital natives, Gen Z students are acclimated to consuming information through visually engaging content, making platforms like TikTok and Instagram essential for capturing their attention. According to a 2024 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 78% of consumers agree that a brand’s social media presence impacts their trust in a brand more than it did a year ago. 

By leveraging social media, higher education institutions can enhance their visibility and build meaningful relationships and trust with potential students and their families, streamline communication, and ultimately boost enrollment. In a competitive landscape where students have countless choices, an effective social media strategy can serve as a powerful differentiator, ensuring that institutions attract and retain the right students.

Social media has transformed the way higher education institutions communicate and interact with their stakeholders. It serves multiple roles, from marketing and public relations to student engagement and support. Here are some key areas where social media plays a pivotal role in promoting your campus.

Boosting Communication and Collaboration

Social media platforms facilitate open communication channels between your institution and the diverse stakeholders you communicate with, such as prospective students, current students, alumni, faculty, and the local community. You can share important updates, announcements, and events in real-time, allowing for immediate engagement and feedback. This immediacy helps to cultivate an environment where your students feel heard and valued.

Increasing Student Engagement

Social media platforms are excellent tools for promoting academic programs, webinars, and campus events. By using visually appealing content, such as images and videos, you can capture the interest of potential students. Highlighting unique aspects of programs, featuring faculty expertise, and showcasing student projects are effective strategies to help identify and attract prospective students who are a good fit for your campus community. 

Keeping Parents Up to Date

Parents and guardians often play a critical role in higher education decisions. Social media provides an effective avenue for institutions to engage with them directly. By sharing important information regarding admissions processes, deadlines, financial aid options, and campus life, you can ensure parents feel informed, involved, and supportive of their child’s choices.

Professional Development

In addition to sharing crucial information, you can use social media to create a sense of community among parents and guardians.  Consider establishing dedicated groups or pages where parents can connect, share their experiences, and ask questions. By fostering this connection, you provide a support system for families and encourage active participation in their children’s educational journey.

Building Online Communities

Speaking of dedicated groups, creating online communities around various topics and interests can significantly enhance the engagement of current students and parents. For instance, build out your Facebook business page and create private, smaller Facebook groups for the many different programs. This invites opportunities for deeper connection. 

LinkedIn communities that focus on specific academic programs, student organizations, or career readiness initiatives also add value. In these groups, participants can share resources, collaborate on projects, or seek advice from peers and faculty, fostering a sense of belonging and support. After all, the data shows that social media users would rather spend their time engaging in these smaller private communities than in an open, public forum such as a business page. Over 84% of internet users participate in an online community. Since the pandemic in 2020, the engagement rate of groups and communities has increased by 62%, while engagement rates in a broader public community like TikTok decreased.

Customized Learning Experience

Social media also offers innovative ways to enhance the educational experience for both students and parents. Through interactive live sessions, such as Q&As with faculty or admission officers, your university can create immersive experiences that provide insights into programs and campus life. These sessions can be recorded and shared on platforms like Facebook Live or Instagram Live, ensuring that even those who cannot attend in real-time still have access to valuable information.

10 Digital Marketing Strategies for Higher Education

Do: Choose the social media platforms that resonate most with your target audience. With Gen Z, your best bet will be to utilize TikTok and Instagram. However, you should also consider engaging with their parents on Facebook. While you focus on the few platforms that get the most visibility, leverage social amplification strategies to repurpose your content to the other platforms in a meaningful way. 

Do: Use social media to foster a sense of community and connection. Social media is a powerful tool for building relationships, both between institutions and students and among students themselves. Create dedicated groups where students can share their experiences, ask questions, and form connections. Encouraging user-generated content, where students share their perspectives and engage with university branding, can deepen these connections and create an inclusive atmosphere.

Do: Build a social media strategy centered around student engagement. Cultivating a vibrant online community requires a dedicated approach toward understanding student needs and interests. By involving students in the content creation process through internships or collaborations, you can produce authentic and relatable content that resonates with your audience. 

Do: Incorporate paid advertising into your strategy to boost visibility and reach. Paid advertisements on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn can amplify your outreach efforts significantly. These platforms enable highly targeted ads that ensure your content reaches specific demographics based on interests, age, and geography. Create compelling ads that resonate with your audience, showcasing campus life, academic programs, or unique aspects of your institution that differentiate it from others. A dedicated ad campaign can drive impressive engagement, boost inquiries, and increase applications—making it a worthwhile investment.

Regularly hosting events, webinars, or discussions that invite student participation fosters a sense of belonging and empowers students to take ownership of your university’s online presence. This can include student takeovers of accounts or spotlighting achievements, making your social media channels a dynamic showcase of campus life.

Don’t: Overlook platforms that are popular internationally, as your audience may extend beyond the U.S. Utilize social media analytics to monitor engagement metrics across different regions. This data will help refine your strategy by highlighting what content performs best with your international audience.

Don’t: Post passively—focus on creating conversations and engagement. Rather than simply broadcasting announcements or news, foster dialogue by asking questions and encouraging comments, shares, and reactions. Polls, surveys, and live Q&A sessions can transform a one-sided approach into a dynamic conversation. Additionally, responding to comments and messages promptly demonstrates that your institution values its audience’s input and is genuinely interested in engaging with them.

Don’t: Rely solely on organic content for results. Organic social media content refers to the free posts, photos, videos, and stories that individuals or businesses share on their social media profiles without paying for promotion. This type of content is visible to your followers, and if they engage with it by liking, commenting, or sharing, it can reach a wider audience through their networks. The primary goal of organic content is to build genuine connections and engage with your audience authentically.  While organic reach can nurture genuine connections and bolster community building, its effectiveness has diminished in recent years due to algorithm changes on major platforms. Institutions should not depend entirely on unpaid posts to reach potential students or engage current ones. Organically generated content can be incredibly valuable, but a balanced approach with a mix of organic and paid strategies ensures a wider and more effective outreach.

Don’t: Jump on every social media trend without assessing its relevance to your goals. Chasing every social media trend can create a confusing brand identity. While adopting new platforms or participating in viral challenges may be tempting, it’s crucial to evaluate how these trends align with your institution’s mission and audience. Carelessly embracing fads might alienate your current followers or project a message that doesn’t fit your strategic goals. Instead, carefully analyze whether a trend can enhance your engagement or add value to your community before joining the fun.

See How We Helped One Seminary Grow Its Target Audience

Reaching Adult Learners and Nontraditional Students

Don’t forget about the adult learners and nontraditional students who are seeking higher education. They’re also active on social media platforms, and it’s vital for your institution to connect with people juggling work, family, and education. LinkedIn is a great way to connect with this demographic. Studies have shown that this platform can drive 4x more enrollments when looking beyond the final interaction a user made before committing to an action, proving how impactful connecting with students via social can be.

By creating strong, sustainable marketing systems, you can grow while fine-tuning campaigns to get the most out of their efforts. These tips show how colleges can use data to connect with the right people, improve engagement, and reach enrollment goals.

It’s Time To Step Up

As your higher ed institution aims to strengthen its online presence and build real relationships with future students, current students, and their families, it’s essential to have a well-thought-out social media plan that speaks directly to their unique audience while aligning with the overall marketing plan and goals. Whether sharing student success stories, announcing events, or simply showing off-campus life, a thoughtful approach can make all the difference in creating lasting connections.

Partner With a Digital Marketing Agency

If your institution wants to improve its social media content marketing and maximize engagement, reach out to us and we’ll explore your best options. Whether you need guidance on content strategy, analytics interpretation, or training on social media collaboration tools, our team of experts is available to support you. Together, we can elevate your institution’s online presence and ensure that your messaging resonates effectively with prospective students.