We’re looking at the colleges that are doing well in social media enrollment marketing and finding out what the most successful university Facebook pages have in common.
Universities are using Facebook to attract new enrollees, as well as transfer students. They are also using Facebook to communicate with their current student bodies.
And if you look at the schools that are on top of their Facebook games, you’ll see they’re doing even more than that — they use the platform to:
- Promote campus culture
- Share student and alumni stories
- Boast about their accolades (whether it’s a Nobel Prize or a bowl game win)
- Create opportunities for followers to engage with contests and shareable content
Use Facebook as part of your marketing strategy to make your university a top choice for students.
The way to measure success on Facebook is to look at real key performance indicators (KPIs), including increases in:
- Follower/ Like count
- Engagement
- Post Reach
- Video Views
- Direct leads to the university website
This text discusses features of successful university Facebook profiles and how they can be used to increase engagement on a school’s page.
1. Use Engaging Hashtags for Student-Generated Content
Hashtags are a great way to engage students on university Facebook profiles.
The best way to use hashtags is to have students share their college experience through photos, videos, and personal stories.
UC Berkeley invites all new students to use the hashtag #berkeleybound to share their excitement about starting school. This is an excellent way for students to feel like they are part of a community.
George Washington University has had a lot of engagement with their #PictureGW and #OnlyatGW hashtags. They even changed their Facebook cover photo to highlight a student’s unique submission about seeing a presidential motorcade on campus with #OnlyatGW.
We loved the unique idea of Michigan State University creating a virtual choir of students who posted videos of themselves singing the school song with the hashtag #MSUFightSong. However, our favorite hashtag is probably Brigham Young University’s #byuhatsincoolplaces.
2. Use Direct Chat
The “Send Message” button on Facebook is becoming more popular on university profiles. This button acts as a call-to-action on your profile.
When a visitor clicks on the button, a messenger window opens in their browser, which allows them to write directly to the school and ask a question, share an experience, or express whatever they like.
The Message window on your school’s profile can be set to open automatically when someone visits the profile. You can also pre-set questions for them to click on, such as “How much does this school cost?” and “Are you accepting new students?”
If you want a response from school staff on Facebook, it’s best to message them directly. They usually respond within a few hours, so keep that in mind when you’re deciding whether or not to use this feature. Quick responses are key, since the purpose of the direct messaging feature is to get information quickly.
Schools such as Harvard, University of Georgia, and Susquehanna University are utilizing Facebook’s direct messaging feature effectively.
3. Post Original And Fresh Content
If you want to succeed on social media, you need to post original and fresh content. This content should provide real value to your followers, whether that means giving them valuable information, making them laugh, or inspiring them.
Be sure to keep your audience updated on your brand and product line so they can become familiar with it. Facebook wants users to run their businesses inside the site, so it’s important for customers to be aware of any changes or new products/services you offer.
Use hashtags and keywords in every post, as well as an accurate description of each position, to increase the reach of your posts organically. For posts that focus on local awareness, optimize them by making them location-based.
It’s important to regularly share original, exciting, and relevant content, but you don’t want to post too many times in one day or you’ll risk annoying your followers.
4. Use Facebook Polls – Answer Questions
Polls or surveys that are based on questions can be very useful for finding out some important information about your followers. This is a good way to get feedback from customers as well as personal satisfaction on any subject. When you conduct the poll, make sure to ask questions related to your brand, your service, or your products.
Polls are a great way to drive traffic and engagement during a promotion, and they can also be used to gather information about what interests users in order to improve marketing strategy.
Although it may seem like a good idea to post a lot of questions on your business page, it can actually result in negative feedback because people will think you are not serious. A better strategy is to post a series of polls on a regular basis to increase engagement.
5. Set Up Online Events
One way to increase engagement on your business page is to host online events. Online events are appealing because they help engage followers with brands they are interested in. By hosting an event, you can create awareness for different products or services.
If you’re looking to get more Facebook Page likes, consider running a contest alongside your online event promotion. Both events and contests are great ways to increase engagement and interaction on your page, so long as you’re willing to put in the necessary planning and budgeting to ensure success.
6. Add A CTA To All Of Your Posts
If you want to increase engagement on your business page, try adding a CTA, or “call-to-action.” This will highlight a button, drawing the attention of your followers to a link or offer.
Facebook says that adding call-to-action buttons to posts can help businesses increase their overall post reach by 22%. This can also lead to positive outcomes on other metrics. Therefore, adding call-to-action buttons can help you grab more attention from existing and new fans. It will show them what they should do next, which could lead them to your website or any other place you want them to go.
Make sure your CTA buttons are not intrusive, so users are redirected to the desired action, instead of getting irritated.
One thing to keep in mind is to have a clear CTA. Having one specific request for the viewer’s/reader’s action will give you more engagement than having two CTAs that are confusing for your audience.
7. Use Ad Targeting Tools
Facebook Custom Audience Technology is a way to engage your business page more by making a list of people who have visited your site or app before to promote your business page on the social network.
You can create an audience of people who are similar to the people who have liked your Facebook page in order to increase engagement with more fans.
8. Use Posts Feed Optimization
When you use the post feed optimization (PFO) feature for business pages, Facebook records and stores every time a user likes or comments on a specific post.
PFO can be used to gather more data on how well a certain post did in order to make better posts in the future. Additionally, Facebook provides a way to use PFO to boost engagement rates on business pages. Proper usage of this tool can result in more fans and likes for the page.
You should be careful when managing PFO because you cannot change the data once it is stored at the database level. This is one of the advanced Facebook marketing strategies that most marketers are not using.
9. Don’t Forget About Mobile Devices
Almost all of Facebook’s users are accessing the site from a mobile device, with 8 out of 10 visitors also checking business pages from their smartphones or tablets. The number of users is increasing rapidly every year as more and more people get connected through different mobile devices.
It is essential to optimize your business page for mobile users as they are more likely to purchase products, visit a particular website, or leave comments on a post.
If you want your content to be seen and engaged with on Facebook, images and videos are the way to go. People are more likely to pay attention to and engage with visual content, so when sharing anything related to your brand on Facebook, make sure to use images.
It’s beneficial to use Facebook marketing strategies specifically for mobile platforms like Android and iOS because people are more likely to engage with visual content than text.
10. Use Facebook Pixel Technology
The Facebook Pixel allows you to track the behaviour of users on your website or app, and then display targeted ads to them through your Facebook business page. This helps you to build custom audiences for retargeting people who have already visited your website.
As a social media marketer, it’s beneficial to understand how Facebook Pixel technology can measure customer behaviour on your business page. Additionally, you can target ads towards individuals who have already visited your website in order to increase the likes and engagement of your brand.
This is an effective Facebook marketing strategy that can help you grow your business, increase sales and revenues.
Make sure to keep in mind that not every customer who visits your page will make a purchase, but those who visit more than once are likely to respond well. Therefore, it’s advisable to use Facebook pixel technology to track customer behaviour on your business page for retargeting purposes.
11. Use Facebook Live Streaming
One of the best ways to market your business is to go live on Facebook at least twice a month. This will allow you to reach thousands of people who like your pages or who follow you through their own accounts.
It’s important to include video images of your products and services along with informative content on Facebook so that your audience likes your post.
Live stream videos are a great opportunity to engage with your target audience and create value-added content. When responding to comments or questions from viewers, be sure to explain the nature of the products or services you are offering. This will help them understand what you are offering and make an informed decision about whether or not it is right for them.
Remember to share the link to the live stream of this event with your audience through email or text messages to get as many people as possible to join in on your business page. Just be patient when engaging with potential customers because it can take some time for viral marketing strategies to show positive results.
12. Ask for Student Reviews
If your school provides great educational experiences, ask students and alumni to share their thoughts with Facebook Reviews.
The following is a great way for prospective students to get an idea of what your school is like through reading reviews from current students. Although there is always the chance that some of the reviews could be negative, as long as you offer a great education and experience to students, the likelihood of mostly positive reviews is high. Therefore, it would be beneficial to include this information on your Facebook page.
If you do receive a negative review, it provides an opportunity for you to speak to the pupil’s concerns and potentially improve the areas they had issues with.
13. Create Facebook Groups
A group can be public or private, and can be used to facilitate discussion and collaboration on a specific topic. Groups are a great way to create smaller communities within your overall Facebook community. People can be invited to join a group, or they can request to be accepted into the group. A group can be public or private, which makes it a great tool for facilitating discussion and collaboration on a specific topic.
In a Facebook group, members can share posts with each other that only they can see.
The University of California creates a new Facebook group for each new class of incoming students. Stanford has one specifically for alumni (which are important to engage with, as they can both help new grads find jobs and help bring new students to your university.
There is a group for parents of Princeton students where they can communicate with each other, ask questions, and get information.
Social media may be critical for college student enrollment marketing in 2020, but it isn’t the only thing that matters.
Some important new trends that university marketing departments should be aware of are changing priorities in design and a revolution in print and streaming advertising.
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