Nearly 3.2 million students graduate high school annually and 80% of them use social networking sites.  What does this mean for colleges' and universities' enrollment strategies?

Recommendation as the New Advertising
Today's student represents the connected consumer.  The connected consumer is savvy and uses their social networks for research, using both public information available on the internet as well as word-of-mouth information gathered from others in their networks and even from strangers.  For example, if a student wants an opinion on a school, they won't necessarily call the school; they may post a question in a social network to see what others think about the school's reputation.  The opinions of others, even strangers influence real-world purchasing decisions.  In fact, market research has shown that 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations while only 14% of consumers trust advertising (Weber, 2007).  

Implications for Admissions Professionals
Recognizing these new consumer behaviors online branding and reputation management is a business imperative for today's institutions.  Admissions professionals must realize that today's consumer is different.  They must understand how technology has changed consumer information-gathering methods and how these methods influence their decisions.  The connected consumer not only has a different decision-making process, they have different expectations, different ways of connecting with brands and different communication patterns.  These are some of the few implications for Admissions professionals.   

What other implications have you observed for Admissions professionals?