I think social networking has been greatly beneficial for getting the word out about different opportunities and events at our school! It's a great way to reach a significant amount of people with the click of a button.
We are required to have a staff facebook account. As a high school rep, my prospective students are fully immersed in social media and many feel most comfortable with communicating through facebook messaging and posts to a time line. It's no only phone calls and presentation cards anymore like when I was in high school. I think this is a wonderful way to meet the prospective students where they are and how they're comfortable. We even utilize texts with our leads...again, that's not how it was in my high school years. We had a home phone and a mailbox! I think, in this modern era, using social media appropriately opens up a huge amount of opportunity to find new students that may have been unreachable before.
Social Networking offers a opportunity for non traditional contact with perspective and current students. It is a very cost effective tool that if used consistently can offer current students another avenue for support. It also provides potential students insight into the program and the School they are thinking about becoming apart of.
There should be a Social Media Administrator who monitors the site. With monitoring really it should be NEW, EXCITING, and RELEVANT information regarding the school and it's programs. The site can also
be set so comments have to be approved by the administrator. There are a few ways to control information posted.
I agree Philip. For Ross it does nothing but damage the Brand to have students airing out there issues on social media. Ross just has to be proactive be take away those opportunities for the Brand to be damaged. That's why it is crucial for any business the operates on one of the Social Media platforms to have someone constantly monitoring and making sure rules are set so negative information can't be displayed.
Social networking is a very important source for gaining the attention of potential students. A School is able to promote events, make announcements and post pictures and videos of what their campus life is like. It also is a good place for current students to post questions and share their school page with prospective students.
We have a dedicated FB page, and to be honest, it can be a challenge. Students talk to each other with personal understanding of courses, policies and procedures which are not always accurate. As an instructor it is particularly hard when something in my course has changed. Students have the "scoop" from previous students and are more willing to listen to them than to me. I would suggest that if you have social media attached to your school you need to monitor the content as an instructor because it is easier when you know what is circulating amoung students to be able to advise and support students.
