In the last ten years, peer-to-peer online conversation about admissions has increased more than 10x. What students and parents share with peers online drives their decision-making—they want advice from their peers, people who live and look like them.
Jeff Selingo’s book guides students and families to look beyond elite schools by identifying seven measurable dimensions of a “good school” that most rankings don’t capture. Campus Sonar developed actionable strategies from our research to help campuses improve their student-centric approach by focusing on recruiting and enrolling students based on individual fit, ensuring future success for students and sustainable institutions.
We see hundreds of thousands of individuals going online, looking for anonymous peers to connect with, and search for advice, information, validation, and answers. Campus Sonar’s research highlights the opportunity campuses have to create peer-to-peer connections, whether they're named or anonymous.
Campus Sonar’s recommendation is to prioritize the value of peer-to-peer connections. Students want to understand what people like them need and want.
The recommendation overlaps with the Dream School dimension of “student engagement.” We encourage you to read the book’s appendix to learn more about your institutional data that may support our recommendation.
Understand your audience’s authentic thoughts and feelings based on what they’re actually saying so you can directly address issues and confusion in your messaging.
The president’s cabinet at an R2 university wanted to better understand their current perception to help them define and grow their brand.
Social intelligence supported the team’s need to understand their brand, then leverage it to increase enrollment. Research findings revealed the campus was primarily viewed through an athletics lens, in part due to a recent focus on moving to Division 1. Insights from targeted listening presented an opportunity to elevate the brand outside of athletics by illustrating their value proposition and sharing more details about the ROI of their degree.
Additional recommendations encouraged them to leverage the power of their flagship social media accounts, and better coordinate with accounts representing other areas of campus. Amplifying non-athletic aspects of their brand such as the student experience, research capabilities, and residence life will help them use their personality to positively impact audience perceptions. All of these strategies align to develop a holistic brand narrative and create a lasting, positive connection to the institution.
Build messaging campaigns and strategies based on the authentic needs and concerns of your audience, not just survey data.
A medium-sized, highly ranked public university known for its “small feel” and close community wanted to understand and shape their current perception.
Social intelligence found that the university has an opportunity to harness their high brand awareness and alignment of non-athletics themes and topics to shape perception and experiences related to their strategic priorities. With the campus’s outsized awareness and forums as a primary space for admissions discussions and decisions, incorporating forum review helped them understand how they’re described to and among prospective audiences. These spaces can inform timing and topics of email campaigns, social content, and in-person engagements, while providing insight to the user experience of the admissions process.
Identify opportunities to pair prospective students and new students with experienced students or recent alumni for information sharing and relationship building.
A small, private university in the Midwest wanted to understand their brand awareness and perception so they could elevate their brand strengths and differentiate themselves.
Social intelligence research surfaced the brand strengths this university could lead with: faculty who consistently show up as online thought leaders, alumni who visibly contribute in their local communities, and a clear, authentic connection to the institution’s mission and values.
At the center of these strengths is a close-knit feeling of community that’s integral to their culture. Faculty visibility and alumni engagement made it natural to use mentorship to shape prospective students’ impression of the campus and ensure they felt welcomed before they ever set foot on campus. Inviting students into the campus community early and connecting them with real people during the early stages of college exploration helped the university elevate their brand so they could effectively position themselves in a competitive market.