Great Social Media Idea: Admissions Done Right

Maybe it's the Catholic in me, but my friends... I feel the need to confess. I've been an absolute slacker when it comes to highlighting some of the amazing recommendations that get sent in to this blog. I start posts, but then get lazy and don't finish them, and then somehow they end up in bloggy purgatory as I get seduced by the immediacy of doing something fresh.

My apologies to everyone who has submitted something and I haven't featured it yet... I am very much committed to getting them up on the blog soon! And really, it's crazy that I haven't done them all yet, because I have been sent some amazing stuff - such as today's fantastic example of social admissions work from the University of North Florida.

They are all over it! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,  a blog... their commitment to engaging prospective students on social media, to hitting them in all the places they possibly can, is exceedingly impressive. It's not easy cranking out content for so many social media channels with such a specific purpose, but they do it with aplomb. They even offer application status checks on Twitter (!!!) which has led them to more than double their Twitter followers since August.

If you are thinking about ways to ramp up your social media presence for prospective students and admissions, definitely take some time to check out all the things UNF is doing. I mean... look how AMAZING this is (and there are a lot more examples like this):

Enough to bring a tear to an eye to us grizzled #HESM folks.

There's too much great stuff to feature in one blog post - my recommendation would be to just scroll through the different accounts and check out the creative things they are doing. There are photo booths, contests, memes, behind-the-scenes details... all the stuff required to keep the attention of a fickle and flighty teenager.

But maybe most impressive to me is the blog and how it provides real information for prospective students in an inviting and non-intimidating way. I feel like it addresses very well the nervousness and uncertainty that accompanies the college search process - answering questions like: What does it mean if I get deferred? and What are the different ways I can apply and be admitted? It also demystifies SAT/ACT scores and offers some insight and tips on taking the test and what it means if you don't do well.

This is all information that any admissions counselor can easily walk a student through, but this current generation is loath to send an email let alone pick up the phone and call. So it's really great to provide them with information like this in sch a clear and relatable way. An institutional website could also work for things like this, but a blog allows for such easy sharing on social media, with unique URLs and all that, that it can greatly expand the reach.

Major kudos to UNF, its admissions team, and all the student ambassadors who are helping out with all their great social media work!