3 Basic Principles for Building Your College’s Social Media Presence

What’s the basis of your social media strategy? To the untrained eye, social media may just seem like a collection of fun, quick posts—but we recognize there’s much more to it. While there are many aspects of building a strong social platform, it is important to make sure you are clear on the basics of your institution's strategy.

Here are some initial steps to create an engaging social presence that builds brand loyalty.

1. Know your school’s overall goals.

Everyone agrees that colleges should have a social media presence, but not everyone has a grasp on why and how social platforms can help a college meet their institutional goals. Are you supporting overall admissions? Are there certain programs that could use recruitment help? Does the athletics program need growth? How does reputation management fit in?

The answer may be all of the above, and your social strategy should coincide with the vision and plan that moves the university forward.

2. Identify your audience.

• Prospective students. The obvious answer! Social media is a natural recruitment tool for Gen Z. Make sure you’re portraying your school as a place where current high school students want to spend four of the most important years of their lives. At the same time, don’t forget non-traditional and graduate students in your photos and messaging online. This means keeping up with current trends and making sure you’re on the right platforms and posting engaging content for different demographics.

Carson-Newman University shows off student friendships and local attractions, giving prospective students an inviting picture of what their life can be if they enroll.

• Alumni. Once a (insert your mascot here), always a (insert your mascot here)! Keep alumni in mind when planning your social strategy and make sure to actively include them. Alumni are essentially brand ambassadors for your college, and you want them to know they’re valued.

Archival photos of alumni promote a personal connection that encourages likes, tags, and shares.

• Parents. Do you know how much pull parents have in their child’s college decision? It can vary depending on school, but rarely do parents have zero influence. As with prospective students, consider parent age groups and corresponding social behavior and platforms.

University of Pikeville leverages Father’s Day to include students’ dads as part of the community.

• Donors. Collaborate with your development office on this one. Do your platforms help donors know they’re contributing to a worthy cause? Social media is a great way to show your donor audience how their gifts are influencing your school.

3. Tie your social presence to your brand.

Branding and social media go hand-in-hand. As you work to create a strong presence in your audience’s mind, it’s important that you’re being consistent across all channels. Don’t confuse people by presenting a fragmented image with a social voice that doesn’t match your brand—mesh your everyday messaging into the university’s branding and overall marketing strategy.

Social media is also one of the best ways to do audience research to inform effective strategy (and it’s free!). What kind of social content performs well with your audience? Utilize that messaging for your branding on a larger scale, too.

Pro tip: If it doesn’t work on social, don’t write it into your marketing strategy. Content that tanks on social or stirs negative feedback with your audience isn’t worth pursuing as you develop your brand or plan future campaigns. Again, social is the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to test messaging.

Carson-Newman uses fun app features to emphasize their close community that’s a strong component of the university’s identity. At the same time, they tie in their welcoming brand message. Notice the mascot right in the center—this post hits several layers of brand messaging.

Using these basic principles of social media for your school, you’ll create a sustainable foundation that sets your social media presence up to be a dynamic asset. Along with it, you’ll bring campus-wide benefits to your college!

If it’s time to do a social media checkup for your school, 5° Branding can help you get started. Let’s talk!