Higher education institutions are increasingly turning to social media to connect with prospective students. While traditional marketing efforts like brochures and mailers once dominated the field, their role has evolved in today's marketing landscape.

Now, social media platforms offer colleges and universities the ability to build authentic and direct relationships with their target audience, drive enrollment, and foster community engagement. We’ll take a closer look at why more schools are investing in their organic social media marketing strategies – and how they’re succeeding.

‍

The Role of Organic Social Media Marketing in Higher Education

Organic social media marketing refers to publishing valuable content across your social media platforms – including Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok – to reach your audience, without paid promotion. For higher education institutions, this approach builds trust and authenticity with prospective students. From showcasing vibrant campus life to highlighting student and alumni success stories, organic efforts allow schools to create meaningful connections.

When schools showcase organic content that reflects their values and is consistent with their branding, their audience will feel more inclined to trust them and their presented image. Because of this, authentic, relatable content is what resonates with today’s prospective students. For instance, sharing student testimonials or spotlighting unique academic programs can make an institution stand out. Over time, these efforts strengthen brand identity and foster loyalty, ultimately creating a lasting impression that paid ads often struggle to achieve.

‍

Why Social Media is a Direct Channel to Reach Your Audience

Social media is embedded in the daily lives of prospective students, particularly Gen Z. It provides colleges and universities with opportunities to connect with students in spaces where they already spend their time. Real-time interactions through comments, live Q&A sessions, or Instagram Stories, make social media a direct and immediate channel for engagement where schools can create a more personalized and compelling pitch.

‍

Knowing Your Audience: Marketing to Gen Z

Gen Z, having grown up on an internet that provided access to an overabundance of information, is now entering college. Members of this generation have unique preferences and behaviors when it comes to digital engagement. They value inclusivity, authenticity, and visually appealing content. Understanding which platforms are particularly popular among this demographic is key to forming a successful social media marketing strategy.

Unlike the generations before them, Gen Z relies heavily on social media platforms for researching anything from restaurant options and vacation destinations to college choices. In fact, approximately 46% of Gen Z adults in the United States prefer using social media over traditional search engines for online information.

With this heavier involvement of social media comes a stronger emphasis on aesthetics. According to an article from the New York Post, how a school is perceived on social media and how the content portrays campus life are becoming crucial factors in Gen Z’s selection process.

Social media is key to grabbing the attention of this generation. In recent years, we've seen content creators have the most success when creating content that showcases glimpses into their personal lives. The internet has become oversaturated with information and material to consume, making it hard to find unique or relevant media to resonate with as a viewer. Naturally, this current generation seems to have found value in content that comes across as "real" or "unfiltered". College students creating content now have demonstrated this by showcasing dorm tours, daily routines, and campus events, providing prospective students with candid, virtual insights into a university environment.

Understanding platform-specific behaviors is critical. If you’re not making the right type of content for the right platform, it won’t land with Gen Z. For instance, TikTok thrives on short, engaging videos with a personal touch, whereas Instagram focuses more on curated visuals and interactive features like polls and quizzes. Conducting research on each platform helps ensure that your marketing efforts are tailored to the spaces Gen Z occupies most. Having the right content to put out is only half of the work—knowing where your target audience is most accessible is equally as important to your marketing efforts if you’re wanting the right content to be seen by the right viewers.

Key Organic Social Media Marketing Strategies for Schools

Effectively engaging with prospective students can be achieved when incorporating these strategies into your organic social media marketing efforts:

• Create Engaging Content: Focus on visual storytelling. Use videos, live streams, and interactive posts to capture attention. Cultivate a variety of dynamic content designed to resonate with your target audience.
• Showcase Campus Life: Highlight events, clubs, and day-to-day experiences that make the institution unique. Authentic, behind-the-scenes content can make a school feel more relatable, and student-centric content can help Gen Z start to see themselves there.
• Lean Into Student Ambassadors/Student-Generated Content: Utilize student social media ambassadors/student-generated content through offered programs or as on-campus jobs. This not only boosts engagement and authenticity, but also adds credibility to the institution’s narrative.
• Build a Community: Leverage groups, hashtags, and comments to foster a sense of belonging. Engaging directly with followers helps build trust and loyalty.
• Keep Things Simple: Don’t over-complicate or over-engineer your content. Gen Z can and will pick up on when content has been created simply for promotion and engagement. Always come back to your pillar of authenticity.

The Importance of Staying Up-to-Date with Social Media Trends

Social media platforms and trends evolve rapidly, and staying up-to-date on what’s going on is essential for maintaining relevance with your target audience. It’s important to maintain a balance of playing into new trends that are constantly popping up and staying up to date without overdoing it. Your audience will be able to clock when you’re trying too hard to appear relatable and will dismiss your content as ingenuous. Simultaneously, it’s crucial to keep an eye on the platforms you’re using and grow with them as well as to evolve with what your target audience wants to see from you in those spaces.

Tips for Improving Organic Social Media Efforts

The little things matter. Implementing small strategies into your marketing efforts can make a huge difference in the long run.

• Consistency is Key: Post regularly to help build familiarity and trust with your audience. Establish a consistent schedule and maintain a cohesive brand voice across all platforms.
• Leverage Analytics: Use platform insights and analytics tools to understand which types of content resonate most with your audience. Adjust your strategy based on performance metrics like engagement, reach, and click-through rates.
• Collaborate with Students and Faculty: Authentic representation matters. Partner with students and faculty members to create content that reflects real-life experiences. This could include student takeovers, faculty interviews, or showcasing classroom activities.
• Engage Actively: Social media is a two-way street. Respond to comments, answer questions, and interact with followers to create a sense of connection. Engagement fosters trust and encourages prospective students to feel seen and valued.
• Experiment with Formats: Explore different content formats, such as Reels, Stories, carousels, and live streams. Experimentation helps identify what works best for your audience and keeps your content fresh and engaging.
• Tell Stories: Use storytelling to humanize your institution. Highlight individual student journeys, alumni achievements, and faculty accomplishments. Stories resonate emotionally and leave a lasting impact.
• Utilize Hashtags and Trends: Stay current with trending hashtags and challenges relevant to your audience. This can boost discoverability and position your institution as relatable and in touch with student interests.
• Balance Organic and Paid Efforts: While organic marketing builds trust, supplementing it with targeted paid campaigns can amplify your reach and visibility to prospective students outside your immediate follower base.

Revolutionize Your Social Media Marketing Efforts with Acevox

Crafting and establishing a unique social media strategy for your institution is now an essential part of higher education marketing. Social media marketing has forever changed the way higher education institutions connect with prospective students, and the schools that master this art will create lasting impressions on the students they aim to inspire.

As experts in higher education marketing, Acevox has perfected the creation of tailored content that grabs attention and converts. When you collaborate with Acevox, we create compelling digital content and build social media marketing strategies that reflect your school’s goals and brand identity and still reach a large audience.

Our vast experience with a diverse group of clients has granted us a deep understanding of social media platforms and the best practices that drive real results. Get started with our social audit services to take a closer look at your organic social content, understand what you’re doing right, where you can improve, and how you stack up against your competition.

Unlock the full potential of your institution’s digital presence with Acevox.

‍