Despite increased competition for students, soaring costs, and news of small colleges closing, we see a bright future for college recruiting. Your freshman classes may look different than ever before. So does the world they live in.

Connecting with prospective college students today requires the strategic and successful use of social media. There are a couple of things you can’t lose sight of, though, when using these platforms to reach today’s students. To be effective, your plan has to fit the way they actually use social media. To sum it up, the experiences should be 1) interactive and 2) personalized.

Prospective college students are eager to experience your campus as up-close as possible before they visit in person. With today’s technology and widespread use of video, you can deliver remote engagement like never before. 

Yes, they’re reading your direct mail and your email messages. And if that gets their interest, what’s the next step for a prospective student? Far-and-away, your website.

We know that Gen Z students are headed to college in dramatic numbers. And we know that traditional recruiting has to take on new dynamics. So what are the best ways to connect in their hyper-connected world? New in-depth reports from Ruffalo Noel Levitz offer a wealth of data. We’ve summarized some of the high points for you, along with our own insights.

You already know that high school students and their parents are using college and university websites as an opportunity to form one of their earliest opinions about an institution. They’ll even remove a college or university from their list based on a poor website experience.

The 70-million-and-growing Generation Z. They’ve been dubbed “world-changers,” and now they’re transforming the landscape of the college experience.

They’re tech natives. There’s no such thing as “normal.” They want to do something meaningful. And they’re mindful of the value of a dollar. So what does this mean for your university? Is your campus the kind of place they want to be?

As parents of teenagers and college students ourselves, we’re thinking about college with fresh perspective these days. How involved are we when it’s time to start researching, visiting, and decision-making?

Will we subtly press our preferences on our children? Probably. Will we make information-gathering phone calls and website visits? Sure. Will we visit campuses? With pom-poms waving!