Social Media for graduate student recruitment

Good afternoon, and I hope it has been good.

One the most recent trends I have been noticing is the growth of social media usage in traditional and non-traditional graduate students.  An interesting sidebar to this point is that many graduate admissions offices do not have the same financial or other resources to recruit graduate students as the undergraduate offices.  Its time to use social media for graduate student recruitment!

The first thing that social media can do is help you to solidify relationships with stealth applicants very early in the process through various outreach efforts or graduate forum participation.

Here are some interesting statistics from the Pew Foundation on adult social media participation:

-Adults on social media sites has quadrupled over the last 4 years, 8%-35% now (2005-2009)

It would be interesting to note here too that the US adult population is larger that the US teen population (source Pew Foundation).

A graduate admissions office would be wise to participate in graduate forums (paid impression advertising is nice as well) and encourage weekly chat sessions for folks interested in your particular graduate school.  Geographic targeting within social media would be beneficial as well, especially the 50 mile range.

Enjoy your day,

matt (marketmpb)

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