One of the biggest challenges for universities in this age of technology is keeping track of what each new generation of Student is using. For instance, four years ago, most incoming freshmen were using Instagram and Facebook as their main mobile apps. Today, many surveys of 15 to 17-year-olds show that Facebook is no longer a primary application. This group of students have grown up using smartphones, and because of this their expectation of brands’ technology use is much higher. Here is a look at some of the apps our Prospective Students are using today.
Snapchat
Consider the University of Wisconsin. The university has its own public “snap story”, where students can upload their own videos for fellow users to see. In early 2016, a video was uploaded by a student named, Abby. In her snap, she proclaimed her love for the “guy wearing the Vikings jersey on the UW snap story”. What followed was a back and forth between Abby and Vikings Fan, Reed, as they attempted to find one another. The four minute story was interspersed with commentary from other students, urging Abby and Reed to post more snapchats. A geotag was even created that said “Help Vikings Fan find Mystery Girl”. The videos went viral immediately, and for a while it was one of the most talked about phenomenons online.
While there was no way for the University of Wisconsin to predict that something could go viral on their Snapchat story, they capitalized on it by creating the geotags. The fact that they had that space available for students was enough to open the possibility for conversations about UW student life and love. Not to mention, having something as viral as the Vikings Fan phenomena to get Prospective students excited about life at their university.
“The next time a new freshman asks me, ‘Is it true that the college library is where you find love?’ I’m going to say, ‘No! The UW snap story is where you’re known to find love!'” – A student on the UW snap story featuring Vikings Fan and Mystery Girl.
Some Important Things to Keep in Mind for Snapchat Marketing
Using Snapchat for marketing may seem daunting, but the best part about it is that it is more of a messaging app in comparison to most social media platforms. This means that users will be able to easily collaborate with one another, and may even aid in your advertising. Geotags will also help in this regard and are considered vital for many businesses, especially large-scale institutions. These are basically stickers that will show up on mobile devices for snapchat users whenever they are within a certain radius of the university. Having colorful, well designed geotags can boost the institution’s image, while also increasing enthusiasm among students. Not to mention, having the tags available for campus tours encourages prospective students to share their location and experiences, which is free advertising for the university.
USF even has geotags for different buildings within campus.
YouTube
A decade ago, television commercials were one of the most attractive ways to advertise for marketers. Today, prospective students are more likely to be consuming digital video rather than television. YouTube has over a billion users, and billions of views each day. With YouTube content going up in popularity, it’s time to establish an advertising presence on the platform. That is, if it hasn’t been done already.
Ads aren’t the only way to reach out to prospective students on YouTube. It’s also vital to have a well thought out and updated channel for the university. Investing in a skilled videographer will be seriously beneficial to the institution’s image. On the channel, make sure to have a very organized landing page. Take a look at the USF YouTube channel:
As you see, the channel has multiple playlists organized by specific topics. The Campus Life playlist is especially plentiful because that is one of the most important factors for prospective students.
Some Important Things to Keep in Mind for YouTube Marketing
The interesting thing about posting ads to YouTube is that you are able to choose the demographics that you want to advertise to. Most prospective students are between the ages of 15 and 18, so you could choose that age group to direct your ads to.
When creating content for an institution’s channel, it’s vital to include calls-to-action in every video. So you might include in some videos, a tagline such as “Sign Up for the USF Newsletter Now”. Then, you could include the link to the sign up in the video’s description box. While a newsletter may not seem vital to marketing efforts, it stands as a way to capture prospective students’ email addresses. So, when application season comes around, you have a way to contact a group of students who are definitely interested in the university.
Messenger Apps
Prospective students could interact with chatbots to learn more about the university.
Other popular applications including, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are also on the rise. These apps provide users with an intimate and semi-private space to communicate with one another. They’re important in understanding how your prospective students prefer to communicate.
However, marketing on these apps is also a bit trickier. But there is one way you can utilize them to reach out to prospective students: Developing an interactive chatbot for an app could prove incredibly beneficial. There are a multitude of chatbots available for messaging apps these days and businesses are just beginning to take advantage of the opportunities these bots present. Sephora, the Washington Post, even banks are starting to incorporate chatbots into their marketing efforts.
What Would a University Chatbot Look Like?
A chatbot designed to help prospective students better understand the university might be housed on Facebook Messenger or Kik. It might aim to answer questions such as, “What is the average GPA for admitted students?” or “When will I hear back from Admissions?” Of course, there are always staff available to respond to Admissions emails. However, there’s no way their responses will be as timely for every student as a chatbot’s would be. These bots could also send timely reminders of important deadlines. The great thing about bots through messenger apps is that they will send push notifications. Push notifications are sent by app developers, and will appear on the home screen of user’s devices. These are especially helpful because prospective students are less likely to be that plugged into their emails.
Musical.ly
Musical.ly is the Vine (i.e. short video clip) of its generation. On it, users create their own 15 second music videos. Just like Vine, Musical.ly has created multi-million dollar influencers. Some include new digital celebs, Baby Ariel, Jacob Sartorius, and twins Lisa and Lena. All of these influencers are under 15 years old, and most of them have already gone on nationwide tours to meet fans. Brands often leverage these type of social media presences to advertise their products.
Musical.ly’s marketing value is in its infancy, however it may be useful to capitalize early in the game. The general Musical.ly users are aged between 13 and 24, the median of which are prospective students. The app recently did a campaign with Coke. Users were encouraged to make videos of themselves sharing Cokes with their freinds. According to Ad Exhanger, over 900,000 videos were submitted to this campaign. Of course, Coke is a massive company with massive reach, but that doesn’t mean that your university can’t model its Musical.ly marketing after their efforts.
Universities have a very hard job when it comes to marketing to prospective students, as each group has a different way of interacting with advertisements. It’s important that extensive research is done on the demographic that each university is aiming to reach in their marketing, and social media apps are one of the most important media to review. The above apps are good places to start in terms of research, but there are still many more to keep an eye on.
The post The Social Media Apps That Our Prospective Students Are Using appeared first on Health IS Technology Blog.
