Social media at UniSA

UniSA have recently started a pilot using QR codes on some of its publications. QR codes only recently came across my radar when a friend mentioned them to me so when I saw a code (similar to image on left) on one of those big cardbooard movie advertisements that cinema foyers have, I knew what it was.

What is a QR code? QR stands for Quick Response. A QR code is kind of like a barcode that’s on just about everything we buy, but a QR code can hold a lot more information like web addresses and other textual information like contact information.

We’ve written more info about what QR codes are, and we’ve even got an explanation video on how to read them.

Universities are increasingly promoting the brand of their institutions through SNS to attract the brightest domestic and international students. A prediction by Dr. Daniel Guhr, an American consultant who addressed the Australian International Education Conference in Melbourne late last year, said Australian Universities were “likely to surrender to the lawlessness of cyberspace and embrace such sites to recruit students within the next 5 years.”

The rise of social networking sites is changing the face of recruitment and alters the ways in which a prospective student conducts his/her information search. In the past, students would rely on information sent to them via mail, program guides, school visits and expos etc- where the universities remained in control of content. Even online chat rooms were a controlled medium as recruitment officers had inherent control over content and the ability to respond directly to problematic conversations and to be responsive to concerns and questions. Today, with the explosion of SNS, prospective students can read what others have posted and gather information distributed by a range of parties. In effect, the content posted online often cannot be controlled by the universities.

Due to the nature of SNS, universities are sometimes subject to unfavourable comments posted online. Dr Guhr says that universities should not try and control anything on the internet, and that those who had, had only made themselves look foolish. He was referring to a situation where a staff member at the Australian National University amended the university’s Wikipedia profile to describe the institution in glowing terms instead of the neutral tone preferred by the site. The entry was “peacocked”- badged with a picture of a peacock to draw attention to the fact it was parading its feathers.  In this example, the university was trying to manage its image, however correcting misinformation posted online and guiding the tone in public conversation forums can work in the university’s favour.

Universities have to be present across a variety of sites given the audience’s tendency to zip between sites. UniSA already has a presence across a range of sites including Facebook, Second Life, You Tube, Flickr and a number of blogs. However, simply acquiring a presence on these sites is not enough. They need to engage with the audience, have a high degree of human interaction and personal connection and need to be seen as both credible and useful.  SNS is another component in the recruitment process and when used in conjunction with other recruitment activities, can potentially be a strong marketing tool.

SNS (Social Networking Sties) in general, not just Facebook, have changed the way our market/ audiences communicate with each other. They can spread the word about positive and negative experiences, issues thoughts and beliefs in a matter of seconds and because the audiences can tune into what they want to hear the impact of the message is increased.

Our prospective students, for example, those leaving school, are the most informed generation due to their exposure and access to the internet, which one would expect to see continue and increase with every generation. The ability to make decisions based on information generated from the trial of products and services by others has changed the landscape and rules by which we market. The impact of our markets having access to this information increases the value, focus and importance of generating positive experiences and being strategic enough to leverage off them.

Positive experiences…I am not talking about fabricated student testimonials and bought Istock images, but organic, natural, real, images, comments and videos of your students and your campuses, the things that prospective students engage with and share with others. I agree that direct marketing through SNS would be seen as invasive but the great thing about SNS is that you can be direct with our being direct; the SNS does it for you. Those that do it wrong are seen as invasive because they don’t know how and don’t understand how SNS work.

Facebook provides users (our prospective students) with the opportunity to select information they want to receive or indicate that they have interest in. For example a person can become a “fan of, friend of or even part of a group” lets call it University X. This gives X the opportunity to communicate with them about X just by posting information on the core site which in turn notifies the person that X has posted something. This therefore creates a direct but indirect communication channel between X and audience but does so by through removing the marketer from the process. This communication process is different from sending a person an email and ringing them, they wanted to receive this information and therefore listen and react in a positive nature.

For SNS to actually function it needs a revenue model, most sites, Facebook included use onsite advertising to generate funds to keep the site alive. Facebook gives marketers the opportunity to advertise to selected audiences based on their profile information of which includes level of education and age. Marketers can choose from advertising to generate traffic to their external website or alternatively generate traffic to their Fan Page on the site, an activity currently being used by a number of Australian universities.  

Based on just these points, I would disagree that SNS are not a primary or effective tool for marketing or communicating to prospective students, I would say it is the opposite, especially for international students. The key to success is to be creative, strategic and truthful, you can’t just canvas like other media and if you do then it results in negative experiences. I know that if I were coming from the other side of the world to study in a foreign country, I would want to hear what others thought and what experiences they had and not just take the words in a glossy book as the truth.

SNS by all means are not the sole answer to increasing student numbers, they are as any marketer would know part of a marketing mix and should be used in conjunction with other activities. SNS should be utilised as a tool for online linkage and engagement. Why not let the market speak, listen you never know, you may learn something that might just change the way you market your university.