Much is being made of the use of social media in recruiting international students. I recently read an article which stated, “Using social media to recruit new students is no longer a ‘nice to have’, but a necessity.”
I think that’s becoming true, particularly when we are talking about domestic recruitment and social media, ie. US universities recruiting US students or UK unis recruiting UK students. But what about using social media to recruit students in other countries, especially looking at social media platforms which are specific to a country? For example, Renren in China or Orkut in Brazil. How necessary is it for an institution to be active on those sites?
Recently a well-known higher-ed blogger and social media enthusiast tweeted, “For folks who do a lot of international student recruitment, are you using Renren, VK, Orkut, etc as your social media…” And I’ve been to a couple of ‘digital marketing for international student recruitment’-type workshops where we’ve been told that our institutions must be on Renren, Orkut, VK, Mixi, etc, etc. So clearly, the experts are telling us these ‘overseas’ social media sites should play a part in our marketing-for-recruitment plans. But, what I’m not hearing from anyone is exactly how. How should we be on those sites? In what capacity? Doing what?
It can’t possibly be as simple as opening a university account on Renren. First of all, we’d need a Chinese speaker to keep the account updated, because that’s the language students use on that platform. And we’d need a Portuguese speaker if we want a presence on Orkut in Brazil, for the same reasons. And so on. For many institutions, hiring (or even finding) people with those language skills will be difficult and probably not in the budget.
Even if an institution decided to use English-only on those social media sites, they’d need to hire someone whose sole job it is to update all the social media platforms; a communications officer, perhaps. I realize many institutions already have someone like this or are in the process of hiring someone because they recognize the necessity. But what about those colleges and universities which can’t afford a communications officer? How can we compete on the social media stage using limited resources and be active on 10 different international social media sites? I have yet to find an expert who can give me a satisfactory answer.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Jessica,
I think a lot of these ideas are still early right now, especially when some schools still haven’t figured out the English sites yet. The situation is similar to a few years ago when the first universities began to join Facebook and Twitter. Right now there are a few brave early adopter schools that are clearing the path in China for everyone else to follow. They’re taking on all the risk, but if it works out then they’ll be in a prime position to reap the rewards.
I recently wrote a piece on this (http://bit.ly/wm321r) with links to a few ways that can help you get started. But I imagine in a couple of years time, the bigger companies will offer a social media service for recruiting in China. It’s just early right now.
Thanks, Danny. Helpful comment, as always!
It will be interesting to observe the ‘brave early adopters’ and see how they benefit from using social media to recruit. If it actually leads to ROI in a big (or small) way. At least by observing the rest of us will get some idea as to what to do/how to use social media overseas. Because right now, all I’m hearing is a lot of “you must do it!” but not a lot of how to do it.