Reap the benefits of social media in higher education
Engage students with a social wall and encourage them to share their campus experience on social media
Collect content from multiple social media platforms
Collect content that you and your students share every day on social media and use it to keep your website fresh and engage your student community. Aggregate user-generated content from hashtags, profiles and pages and select the content you want to display. You can also choose which social media channels you want to include on your social wall. Walls.io offers integrations with the most popular social platforms.
EBOOK: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Learn how you can fully leverage social media in higher education
One of the key resources for information and communication for students in higher education is social media. It’s one of their most trusted sources when it comes to choosing their education. In this guide, you will learn how to develop, optimise and utilise social media in higher education effectively.
THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Create a social hub to collect user-generated content that matters at your university and display it in real-time. Share information about events, courses, ceremonies, and awards.
INCREASE STUDENT ENROLLMENT RATES
A social wall can be a great promotional tool. 2 out of 5 students choose their university based on social media only. By creating a social hub where students can share their experiences, you generate trust with those who are just getting to know you.
GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO YOUR STUDENTS
Celebrations and parties often accompany the arrival of old and new students. Celebrate on social media as well and welcome your students with a social wall, which is a great place for sharing information and friendly messages.
CELEBRATE YOUR STUDENTS ON GRADUATION DAY
A social wall is a great tool for collecting all the impressions on graduation day in one place and presenting the joyful event from multiple angles. Proud parents and students can share graduation pics and see them pop up on the social wall.
MAKE EVENTS AND CONFERENCES INTERACTIVE
If you’re organising a conference, high-profile lecture or other academic events, a social wall helps you centre the conversation and foster interaction among attendees and between speakers and audience. It also lets people who can’t attend the event follow along and promotes the event to the outside world.
LEVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR FUNDRAISING
Hashtag campaigns combined with social walls can make it easier for you to spread the message about fundraising events. A social wall provides a hub for visual materials, support messages and donation appeals throughout the fundraising process.
ENGAGE WITH YOUR CAMPUS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
Use the social wall and hashtags to bring content from multiple university departments, students, alumni, and staff together, and display it all on a prominent screen. The social wall keeps people informed, but it also helps everyone feel that they’re a part of something bigger.
TURN YOUR EMPLOYEES INTO BRAND EVANGELISTS
By motivating your colleagues to post about your university, you get a chance to connect with people you are not able to reach otherwise. They will put more trust in employees speaking well about your university rather than you tooting your own horn. This is especially helpful when hiring new staff.
MAKE SPORTS EVENTS EVEN MORE INTERACTIVE
No matter which sport is big at your school or university — use a social wall to enhance the sense of community and coming together that accompanies important games. Let people share their personal game day experience with everyone else and proudly show their support.
STAY IN TOUCH WITH YOUR ALUMNI
A social wall helps you keep alumni in the loop, but it also allows former students to share their own stories and where they are in their lives right now. Keep in touch with them long after their graduation and show how proud you are of them by sharing their successes on your social media accounts as well.
Social media plays an important role in higher education marketing
One of the key resources for information and communication for students is social media. This is not surprising because, after all, almost every student is active on social media. It is one of their most trusted sources when it comes to choosing their education. At the same time, social media is one of the most effective ways for universities to engage with students and share information. (Sources: www.nacacnet.org and higher-education-marketing.com)
HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA WALLS IN EDUCATION
event walls
Use a social wall to engage students and parents during events. Be it sports events, events organised by students, conferences, graduation and welcome parties, or even fundraising events — a social wall will connect your community, help you collect authentic user-generated content and spread the word about your university.
permanent displays
University social media wall displays help create a sense of community. They foster interaction and engagement and are a great way to show school pride. You can also use them to spread relevant information to students, whether it’s about cancelled classes or upcoming events, or just encourage them to share their campus experience.
website widgets
Using a social wall on the university website helps you keep students up to date with content that you already create for your social media channels. It also adds compelling social proof by displaying authentic content posted by your students. This is content that’s highly influential and will encourage new students to pick your university over others.
Our two-story media wall, with its two social walls, keeps our campus community informed and connected. We get a lot of requests from all over campus, asking us to display specific department accounts or hashtags on the wall. The media wall is also an excellent selling point for conferences and workshops hosted at our venue. Event organizers love seeing content for their hashtags show up on the big screens.
CASE STUDIES
Using social media in higher education
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY CONNECTS WITH STUDENTS THROUGH A PERMANENT SOCIAL DISPLAY
CWRU has integrated a social wall into a two-storey, multi-touch video wall on campus. The social wall has become an integral part of the university’s marketing, providing information, entertainment and creating a sense of community at the campus’ central hub building.
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK ENGAGES STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITY-WIDE INITIATIVE
SUNY uses a social wall for events connected to a university-wide initiative that aims to provide support for victims and survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence. Students and community members post photos and messages which are shown on the social wall during events. This helps attendees engage individually and collectively with the program in real-time.
BRITISH COUNCIL USES SOCIAL WALLS TO ATTRACT INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
This British Council campaign aims to present an authentic view of student life in Britain. Thanks to the social wall, which collates real student posts from international students in the UK, prospective students can see what life is really like there. Authentic first-hand pictures will always resonate better and influence students in choosing a university.
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