These eight schools get an A+ in social media, using it to recruit prospective students, engage current ones, and connect alumni.
By Meredith Popolo
September 12, 2012
www.pcmag.com
In college, the learning environment extends far beyond the classroom walls. It's also about acclimating to new settings, as students are thrust into a more social world—some, perhaps, for the first time. Whether students are quizzing each other in study sessions or playing beer pong at frat parties, much of the college experience revolves around interaction. And now, not only are students being social, but schools themselves are, too.
Institutions of higher education are using social media to brand themselves and recruit prospective students, engage current ones, and connect alumni. Remember the days of attending college fairs, going booth to booth to schmooze with campus representatives? And those lengthy campus walking tours led by over-enthusiastic, scripted undergrads that emphasized, "Yes, some drinking does occur on campus, but we also have more than 157 student-run organizations!"? Now, students can carry out their college search online by pinning down the right school, so to speak. Texas A&M gives students the chance to take a virtual tour of campus using its "Our Campus" Pinterest board. Other schools encourage students to interact on their Facebook and Twitter pages by asking questions about topics like financial aid and campus life.
Schools aren't just looking to capture the attention of high-school students, though. According to an infographic by Schools.com, while 77 percent of colleges use their Facebook pages to post content geared toward prospective students, 51 percent feature content for currently enrolled students and 46 percent for alumni.
Here are eight schools that are at the top of the class in social media engagement.
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Freshmen who follow @UWMadison on Twitter won't get lost wandering around campus during the first week. The school created a social media scavenger hunt to encourage students to explore their new school using #FindUW and even awarded prizes to the winners. This social media all-star also beat out 63 other schools to claim the title of the most influential college in basketball in Klout's Influential Insanity March Madness tournament.
But the school's social initiatives reach more than just the current students. UW–Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) also launched The Bucky Challenge, which donated $1 to the scholarship program for every new Facebook and Twitter follower UW–Madison and WAA gained. Ultimately, it raised nearly $20,000.
Texas A&M University
When the Aggies jumped to the SEC this past summer, the school launched a massive social media campaign called "14 Days of SEC" to familiarize fans with the schools in its new athletic conference. In addition to using Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, Texas A&M engaged followers on Pinterest. While many people still furrow their brows at the mention of the site , the university embraces it with creative boards like "Aggie Traditions," "Tailgating," and "Maroon Your Room!" Its combined social efforts won it recognition as the most influential college, according to a Klout ranking.
Syracuse University
It's no surprise that this upstate school has adopted the location-based social network Foursquare with such fervor; its co-founder, Dennis Crowley, graduated from its communications college. Syracuse was one of the first universities with its own branded Foursquare page and it even has its own badge, seen here. On any given day, thousands of students are checking in at one or several of the 177 various Foursquare locations on campus, the quad and the Carrier Dome being among the most popular. Looking for a Dome away from home? The university's account also has a Foursquare list titled, "Best Places to Catch the 'Cuse," which recommends bars around the country where alumni can congregate to cheer on their Orange.
University of Florida
Socializing is generally considered counterproductive to studying, but engineering students at UF that need some extra help in their statics class can benefit from both. Professor Dan Dickrell uses Google+ Hangouts to supplement his in-person office hours. He says it's a convenient technology that allows him essentially to hold info sessions with groups of students. While not every student in the class takes advantage of it, there are a few hardcore participants, which seems to mimic the Google+ user base, he said.
Harvard University
Although it's the oldest institution of higher education in the country, Harvard has fresh ideas when it comes to social media activity. We'll spare you the familiar tale about the conception of Facebook in a dorm room, but fast-forward eight years and the university now has more than 1.8 million likes on the social network. On Twitter, it leads other colleges with more than 144,000 followers and mostly tweets articles from Harvard publications. It has an impressive Klout score of 93 out of 100 and, according to the site, is highly influential on the topic of business.
Stanford University
This "Harvard of the West" school has a Twitter following of 84k strong and a respectable Klout influence score of 90 that rivals its East Coast competitor. Using its iStanford app, students can request a safe ride home, search the course catalog, tune in to live campus radio broadcasts, ask questions about enrollment, and more. Those who don't have the privilege of enrolling at SU can still reap the intellectual benefits; Stanford offers free online courses through Coursera and iTunes U, covering topics like cryptography, game theory, app development, and robotics.
Berklee College of Music
Although Facebook was originally just for Harvard students, it eventually opened up to all college students, and later to nearly everyone with an email address. Berklee College of Music, on the other hand, created the Berklee Music Network, which is reserved exclusively for Berklee alumni, students, and staff. It describes itself as "a community of the world's most talented, Berklee-trained musicians and music industry professionals who are actively moving the business of music forward, both creatively and entrepreneurially." Members can use the network to search for industry jobs, find deals on software and services, and collaborate with other members.
California Institute of Technology
Social media is all about sharing and spreading within a community, and what's better to share and spread than ideas? Caltech brings to campus its own TEDx conference, slating speakers that are engaged in technology, entertainment, and design fields. The next conference, to be held on January 18, 2013, "will deconstruct, decipher, and explore some of the great challenges, innovations, concepts, and possibilities related to the brain."