As I meet with business owners, marketers, and leaders in various roles in organizations, including higher education, I often hear “I’m just not sure what I should be posting on social media, or if it’s even working.” This is such a common challenge that it’s time to dig into it a little bit.

Get to Know Your Audience First

One of the keys to finding the content gems in your organization is understanding your audience and what their needs, questions, challenges, and desires are. This is why when I’m asked this question, I take my higher ed clients to the graphic below. This represents the student’s journey and can help you uncover some really great ideas to post on social media. Remember that your audiences may be on different platforms.

Social Media Content Ideas for higher education

I recently met with a department staff member at a university who was planning a conference at which she wanted me to speak, and she reiterated this struggle…that many departments who have their own social media accounts aren’t sure what to post or what constitutes “good” content. I built my presentation around this struggle and below are some of the content ideas we talked about.

What I learned from presenting to this group of university staff was that it’s not so much about what to post…if you ask them the right questions, they’ll come up with a hundred ideas of what to post. It’s about asking those questions and giving them a different way to think about the content they are so close to every day.

The other key to finding those content gems, then, is to get more systemic about how to uncover your content. By following each phase of the student journey and thinking about what students might be seeking or wanting we could see the content ideas through their lens:

Awareness

• Reflect your organization’s values; show your audience what it’s like to be part of the culture

• Answer their questions

• Relate to their pain point or problem to solve, show them there is a solution, and offer your service as a potential solution

• Inform/Educate them on a topic being taught in the department

• Demonstrate benefits through stories of life transformation from learning

• Show your industry or subject matter expertise

• Conduct research and publish it

• Show off the high-impact activities (i.e. study abroad programs, internship programs, etc.)

Interest

• Inform, inspire, entertain, educate, discuss, debate

• Make it about them, not you!

• Share and celebrate your audience’s successes

• Ask your audience to participate in a conversation

• Collaborate with other departments

• Drive to your website, ask for action

Enrollment

• Ask them to do something! What are your department goals? What are the institution’s goals?

  • Think: Dating vs proposing marriage (don’t be afraid to ask for the first date, but don’t propose marriage immediately after)

  • Make calls-to-action visible and frequent, especially for those who are ready

First-Year Experience

• Share the basics with new audience members (What you need to know)

• Help them out with deadlines, instructions, helpful links

• Be proactive and post some frequently asked questions / answers

• Make introductions of faculty and staff

• Share Program visit days

Re-Enrollment / Retention

• Share student stories, scholarship winners, and project highlights

• Publish research grants, awards, publications

• Mention study abroad highlights, internships gained

• Share volunteer work by students and staff

• Express the culture - what makes people love being here?

Advocacy

• Share alumni stories

• Educate about career paths and opportunities

• Notify about ongoing education opportunities

• Publish research, trends, and insights

• Highlight industry connections

• Host Q&A groups, live chats with alumni

Social media content is exactly that—social. Encourage conversations, include great photography and videos that your university or institution is already creating, celebrate the audience, and be helpful. Pair that with a structure to help you relate to your audience—like the student journey—and you’ll be well on your way to a meaningful social media presence for your department or organization.

Does your university need some help with social media?

The Peas have worked with higher ed clients through training, speaking engagements, and strategic consulting. Our goal is to give your organization the knowledge, tools, and strategies to successfully implement with your internal resources.

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