The Undergraduate Admissions office has been using social media sites, such as Facebook to get information out to prospective students for the past four or five years, Ann Kiefert, Assistant Director of Marketing said.
“Regarding undergraduate recruitment, social media enables the university to express who we are in an informal, media rich, and social context–a context that is different from other communication channels such as print and email,” Kiefert said.
Prospective students use social media to get an “insider’s view” of the university, Kiefert said.
Director of Admissions Lloyd Scott said Facebook is used to provide information for prospective students and their parents.
This is considered a more “passive recruiting measure,” Scott said.
“I think we’re using it somewhat as a recruitment tool,” Scott said. “I think we’re using it probably even more as a communication, dialogue-social site for students once their admitted here, just to be able to ask questions, share information, not only amongst themselves, but with us.”
Kiefert said she feels social media plays a critical role in assisting potential students in learning what life is like at Appalachian and that the conversation shared over social media is always beneficial.
“Students often use the Facebook page to reach out to us via direct messages when they have questions about the application or admissions process,” Kiefert said.”They frequently reach out to each other via posts and comments to learn more about each other–who will be in what dorm, who wants to meet up at orientation, etc. In this way, it is helpful to them to get quick answers to their questions.”
Director of Marketing and Communications Design Megan Hayes is part of the department that manages the university’s primary social media accounts. They are also referred to as the Social Media team in University Communications, she said.
“Staying on top of trending topics, changes in policy and logistics, emerging media, evaluating which media seem to have “staying power” and which are waning in popularity are all challenges faced by everyone involved in social media marketing, but we enjoy it, and our team has a lot of fun,” Hayes said.
Story: KATELYN BYNG, Intern News Reporter