Over time, the perception of business profiling has gone from a “fashionable choice” to a strategic choice. But there are still those who question: why invest in social networks in Education?
Not knowing the role of these networks and their application for marketing and not understanding how to use them are some of the reasons why some educational institutions do not take advantage of the full potential of these platforms.
With this in mind, we created this post to help you understand why you should invest in platforms like Facebook or Instagram, as well as presenting some educational marketing trends for social networks.
What you can expect to find in this post:
The role of social media for your marketing strategy
Why invest in social networks in Education
The secret to being successful with your educational institutions’ social media
Enjoy your reading!
The role of social media for your marketing strategy
Before anything else, your educational institution needs to understand the reasons for creating your profiles. We have already covered this subject here on the 4RevOps blog in the post: Does your educational institution really need to have a presence on social media? and the central idea is that the public of the institutions is on these networks and uses them frequently. This means that this is where your educational institution needs to be if you want to become known to students, attract them and turn them into your students.
To understand better, creating a profile and sharing relevant posts generates visibility for your brand. This attracts the attention of potential students and allows them to interact with your educational institutions by liking and commenting on posts ― engagement ― or sending direct messages.
Posts made by the educational institution's profile may be links to blog posts developed based on its education strategy content marketing. Each new click results in an increase in traffic to the institution's email address, which opens up opportunities to guide the student through their journey to enrollment.
Anyone who reads a blog post shared by their Facebook profile can be directed to a landing page (or capture page) that allows educational institutions to collect student contact data and nurture and qualify the lead until it is converted into a new student.
Why invest in social networks in Education
As seen, the reasons for investing in social media strategies for educational institutions include:
- take your educational institutions to the right "place" to be in contact with your target audience and increase the visibility of your brand;
- use networks as a platform for sharing relevant content and attracting the attention of potential students;
- having the presence of the educational institutions on the networks as a bridge to increase traffic on the website or blog and optimize the recruitment of students, improving the institution's results.
And so that you understand even more clearly why investing in social networks in Education generates 10 times more traffic to institutions that publish on networks.
What this information shows us is that there is potential in existing networks and that, by following good social media strategies for educational institutions, the return obtained can be significant.
Additional resources to explore:
- 4 tips for putting together a perfect social media plan;
- How to use social media to attract new students;
- How to build a flawless LinkedIn profile for your company.
The secret to being successful with your educational institutions’ social media
In this post we have already discussed the role of social networks in the marketing strategy of educational institutions, one of the points that we highlighted in the introduction as relevant for those who still don't know why to invest in social networks in Education. The other is what we will present now: knowing the secret to success and understanding how to use these networks.
Your institution needs to keep in mind that the use of social networks really needs to be strategic:
- it is not necessary to create profiles on all networks, but to select the ones that your personas, your potential students, use most;
- more than creating a profile, you need to feed it with specially designed posts and interact with the public by responding to comments and resolving doubts;
- You need to know how to use each network and take advantage of your profile to invest in educational marketing trends for social networks. Partnerships with influencers, very present on Instagram and YouTube, also represent a relevant strategy for educational institutions and can be part of their actions and campaigns;
- It is necessary to be clear that social networks for educational institutions do not exist to make sales, but to create relationships.
Why the focus on relationships when using social networks
If you have active profiles on social media, you may have already noticed that there is growing space for sales. Facebook created the marketplace for users to sell and buy products and Instagram reprogrammed itself to serve commercial profiles, allowing the use of price tags and purchases through its platform.
Even though Education is a market, its use of networks continues to focus on social aspects. This is because it is through the creation of relationships that an institution can support its entire inbound marketing strategy, enhancing its power to attract and attract students.
The post: Do you sell your brand or the student experience?, we show how important it is for educational institutions to associate their brand with something that has value for students. To do so and consequently present them with reasons to enroll, the institution needs to focus on the experience and one of the ways to do this is by changing the way it targets its audience and communicates with them.
Social networks facilitate interaction between students and their educational institutions and allow for the humanization of this contact. Thus, they open space for the creation of a differentiated and personalized relationship, which meets the proposal of providing a positive and memorable experience.
Therefore, our final tip on social media strategies for educational institutions is to know how to use them to interact with students and enhance all your marketing actions on these networks.
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