Brain Waves Blog

Who didn’t spend 2020 wondering what the heck was going on? COVID-19 was top of mind for everyone. College students included, especially with the disruption of college applications, campus tours, and the “traditional” college experience. That said, let’s dig deeper into our 2021 admissions research to explore and compare COVID-19 conversations to non-COVID-19 conversations that surfaced on social media (Twitter, Instagram, YouTube) and forums (Reddit and College Confidential) among 4-year college prospective and admitted students between August 1, 2020 and October 31, 2020.

Whether enrollment teams embrace them or not, the families of college-bound students have a tremendous impact on the recruitment cycle through their relationships with their students and an autonomous admissions journey of their own. In analyzing parent conversations, one message is clear; no matter how they approach it, their pride, love, and concern for their students is endless.

Our February 2021 admissions research focused on prospective and admitted student and parent admissions conversation for 4-year colleges and universities from August 1, 2020 through October 31, 2020. We also wanted to analyze that same conversation for 2-year institutions to see what unique characteristics emerged. While there are many overlapping trends, our findings may inform tailored recruiting strategies and messaging for this specific audience.

Although they're not the most exciting part of social media management, well-defined guidelines and policies are essential for a consistently effective social media program. In addition to giving you something to turn to in stressful situations, guidelines and policies have a couple of benefits.

The average number of institutions a student applies to has been steadily increasing, and your prospective students evaluate your campus against many others. To help your institution stand out, one of the best uses of time and resources is building competitive intelligence—the process of gathering and analyzing information about peer institutions to inform your own positioning. 

As a social media manager, understanding copyright is a critical component of your content creation process. And it can definitely be confusing, especially if you have multiple accounts to manage in addition to all of the other aspects of your job.