Social media changes college

A pamphlet in the mail, an add on a billboard, a commercial on a local television station -- all of these were once revolutionary means for universities around the country to contact and recruit prospective students.

Today, these tactics are becoming more and more outdated with every click of a computer mouse. The Internet has revolutionized both media and advertising by connecting the world, and the emergence of social media has taken that close, personal interaction to a whole new level.

And universities are using it.

According to a study done in 2010 by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing and Research, 95 percent of colleges and universities in the country use at least one form of social media to recruit students.

And that number is only rising, as it was a 10 percent increase from 2008 and a 34 percent difference from 2007.

"Not having a comprehensive Facebook page would be to our detriment," Kevin McCarthy, an assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Slippery Rock University, said. "It's expected at this point."

Social media giants Facebook and Twitter offer administrative offices a direct connection with individuals, while blogs and video hosting can offer unique looks into campus life.

"We also have Twitter that is updated regularly and a YouTube account which hasn't been updated in a while, but is linked on our website," McCarthy said, in addition to the office's Facebook usage.

But blogging is the most effective new media force used by SRU to connect with prospective students, as it best gives a close insight into campus life.

"Students coming in the fall of 2009 answered a survey and the biggest rise in usage was in blogs," McCarthy said of prospective students' social media use. "About 30 percent of students who came to the university looked at student blogs, opposed to nine percent who went elsewhere."

SRU has the regularly updated Rock Blog linked on the campus website for prospective students to view.

"We have student workers sharing experiences dealing with class and campus life," McCarthy said of what goes on the Rock Blog. "They're supposed to post once a week and it's linked on the website."

Social media is a unique new tool that allows students to compare and connect with many universities instantly without leaving their homes. Where students once had to travel to tour a campus, they can now view videos of almost any college from a home computer.

Students can also search the strangers assigned to them as roommates and usually find out a plethora of information on them from posts on their social media pages.

This luxury not only relieves a little bit of the stress incoming students endure in the weeks before entering college, but can also prepare a student for conflicting personalities with an assigned roommate.

But as McCarthy said, media like Facebook and Twitter are not new ground, and the school is continuing to explore innovative ways of connecting with students as the technology that enables social media keeps growing.

"We're currently reaching out to a company to create a smart phone app," McCarthy said of the future of the school's social media development. "I'm not sure how best to utilize it yet, but communicating with users on a mobile device in a quick fashion is the focus now."

Part two of this series will be about social media with students in college.