How Schools Can Use Social Media To Attract New Students And Make More Money

The last time I checked, the more students a school had, the more money they made. And money (correct me if I’m wrong) is a good thing. We all need it in order to keep doing our jobs… and we all need it in order to survive.

So, if you understand that more money can come as the result of having more students in your school, the question then becomes, “How do you attract more students?”

Based on my experiences, the best way to do this is through the creation of social proof.

Social proof is something one creates in order to prove to others that what he or she says or does is worth paying attention to. In short, it’s a way of building yourself up so that you can sway the actions of a large group of people.

The principle behind social proof is that since most people make the assumption that the people surrounding them possess more knowledge about a particular situation than they do, they will deem the behavior of others as more appropriate or better informed… and therefore, follow in the footsteps of those around them.

Social proof gets people talking about grand brands. Social proof convinces people to buy a particular product. And social proof sways students to attend one school and not another.

The more social proof your school has, the greater your chances of attracting new students.

In order to attract more students and make more money, however, you need to create an ever-increasing amount of social proof around your school.

Need more money? Get more students.

Need more students? Create social proof.

If you can create enough social proof, you’ll have students begging to attend your school. With enough social proof you’ll have parents clamoring to register their children. And with enough social proof your community will thrive because of the appeal your institution is creating.

Social proof is powerful.

If you understand this, you’re on the right track! But the question then becomes, “How do you create social proof within your community?”

One way to do it is through the use of SOCIAL MEDIA.

What you may not realize about social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is that not only are these tools an excellent way of communicating with the parents, teachers and students in your community… but sites such as these are also one of the best (and fastest) ways of building social proof.

To build social proof with social media, you need to do three things.

1) Increase your follower counts. The more people you have following you on Twitter, subscribing to your RSS feeds, or becoming a fan of yours on Facebook, the more important your school will seem.

2) Get your school’s message to spread online. The more your school’s content is Re-Tweeted, emailed back and forth, voted on, Digged, or StumbledUpon, the more “popular” your school becomes.

3) Have people talking about your school in the real world. When the story you spread about your school is so great that it has people talking about your institution outside of the World Wide Web, then you know you’ve succeeded in generating positive social proof.

The formula looks like this:

  • Need more money? Get more students.
  • Need more students? Create social proof.
  • Need social proof? Harness the power of social media.

Social proof is created by continually proving that your school is an amazing place; that you’re constantly pushing the boundaries; and that your school is doing something special – something others will want to be a part of.

If you are not yet using social media in your school as a tool for communication, marketing, promotion, and social proof creation, now is the time to begin!

Social proof doesn’t just pop up over night. It takes time to build and grow. The longer you wait to get started, the longer it’s going to take before your community starts talking about you and your incredible institution.

What are you waiting for? There couldn’t be a better time to harness the power of social proof through the use of social media!

Photo by Malkav

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One Response to “How Schools Can Use Social Media To Attract New Students And Make More Money”

  1. John Carson  on October 5th, 2009

    Good tips, Darren. I have a social media case study for a school you may find interesting.

    http://www.edsocialmedia.com/2009/04/case-study-upper-canada-college/

    Cheers,
    John.


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