Digital marketers in higher education are best served by using Facebook to attract prospective students over any other social network, according to a report by TerminalFour released today.
The Global Higher Education Survey polled 257 marketing, Web and leadership professionals from more than 150 higher education institutions in Ireland, UK, US, Canada, Australia and South Africa.
The survey revealed that 71% of marketers said Facebook was the most powerful social network for driving traffic to their websites.
Some 44% said Facebook would still be the most important social media account in 12 months’ time, followed by Twitter at 29% and Instagram at 11%. Vine, Snapchat and Pinterest were the lowest concern for institutions surveyed, receiving less than 1% each.
Piero Tintori, CEO and founder, TerminalFour, said: “There have been lots of rumblings about Facebook losing its appeal among the millennial generation in favour of newer platforms. In fact in our 2014 survey, 27% of respondents stated that Facebook was less effective today than it was 12 months ago but the reality is that in terms of pure performance and meaningful metrics no other platform has quite stepped up to the plate.
The survey also uncovered prevailing attitudes to traditional marketing efforts, such as print advertising, billboards and broadcast TV and radio. A total of 63% of respondents said traditional marketing was still ‘fairly important’ to their institution. Almost a quarter (24%) cited traditional marketing as being very important, 5% believed they were as important as online marketing efforts and 8% believed they were no longer important.
Transformative projects
Further results from the survey show that 53% of higher education institutions invested in a transformation project like introducing a new website or content management system within the past 12 months. Of that, 32% of these projects were carried out in-house, 53% were a combination of in-house and external agency, and 15% external agency only.
“Many universities and colleges have been in a holding pattern the past few years trying to weather the storm of the global recession. While understandable, it’s a dangerous and counterproductive stance to take in order to remain competitive,” said Tintori.
“That 53% of respondents have undergone a Web transformation project in the past 12 months is extremely encouraging and highlights recognition that investment in digital strategy is an investment in the business success of universities and colleges.”
TerminalFour is an Irish provider of Web-based content management systems for the higher education sector.
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