The Game Has Changed

College Admissions Outpace Corporations in Embracing Social Media

Conducted By: Eric Mattson, Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D.

For the approximately 2,000 four-year accredited colleges and universities in the US, the name of the game is recruiting the best students. It is a highly competitive process often influenced by factors that are more subjective than objective and more emotional than logical. In this challenging environment, social media (in the form of blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, videos and wikis) has become an important new marketing tool.

Following up on our popular study of the Inc. 500s social media habits, this new study examines the familiarity with, usage of, and attitude towards social media by the Admission Offices of 453 US colleges and universities. The results are fascinating and drive our statistically-based knowledge of organizational social media habits even farther forward.

Generally, the marketing teams of academic institutions are more familiar with and adopting social media faster (especially blogs) than even the innovative companies of the Inc. 500. Even more importantly, they are using social media and search engines to research potential students. No longer can applicants behave irresponsibly online without potential consequences to their futures (and their parents sanity).

The executive summary that follows gives a high-level overview of this studys findings. Additional detail will be published in several academic papers later in 2007. To be added to our email notification list about those papers and our future research, please email Eric Mattson or Dr. Nora Barnes

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