Wednesday 11th October 2023

Wednesday 11th October 2023

We all understand that social media is an important part of an international marketing strategy.

But are you making sure you have the capacity to support students on these platforms??

A 2023 report partnership with UniQuest & the Edified Enquiry Experience Tracker found that a third of institutions failed to reply to student queries on social media.?

This resulted in a ratio of one in five students having a positive experience when inquiring to colleges and universities on social media.

The study found that students were either ghosted or redirected to submit an enquiry by email instead.

“It’s simply not good enough to ignore messages on social media or to brush students off by asking them to send an email instead. You really only get one chance to make a good first impression.” Elissa Newall, Edified partner and Project Director of the Enquiry Experience Tracker.

In the 21st century, attention is one of the most valuable currencies we have. And in an era of increased choice and highly consumable short form content, Elissa’s words ring true; you really do only get one chance at making a good first impression.?

The truth is, if your institution fails to make a good impression, students can and will look elsewhere for their needs to be met. And with competitor institutions (both nationally and internationally) tightening up their student comms, those who invest in making their student enquiry approach as effective as possible will reap future rewards.?

For example, the report highlighted that institutions in Australia and New Zealand have embraced live chat more than any other country, with 75% offering live chat.?

Scottish universities were also found to score the top average result, with responses rated the friendliest and most trusted in the world.?

So for universities, it’s important to think about where your own social media strategy may be falling short, and how you can juggle the resources you have in order to support students move through their research and application journey.?

Because whilst it can be nice to offer live chat or direct mobile messaging through WhatsApp to international students, all of these strategies will be fruitless if you don’t make your applicants feel like they are on the receiving end of high quality, personalised interactions.?

So before diversifying widely and implementing things that look great on paper, consider whether you have the money, time and faculty to manage these strategies once in place.

What’s new at BridgeU

• In partnership with our good friends at The PIE, we bring you our latest webinar, where we’ll be discussing exactly how you can connect with international schools, with exclusive insights from one of our international school counsellors. There’s only one day left to register; so don’t miss your chance!
• Are you missing these crucial foundations for a successful recruitment strategy? Read our recruitment checklist to ensure your 2024 strategy is on the right track.
• For US universities, do you want to know exactly how application behaviour to your country varies from region to region? Find out in our latest blog post.

What caught our eye?this week

• Intead's latest blog post covers what your team needs to deliver to ensure a workforce ready student cohort.?

• ?The UniQuest and Edified Enquiry Experience Tracker 2023 report, which informed this week’s newsletter.
• Are universities really listening to what students need? And how do universities take these worries and implement them into strategy? Wonkhe's latest article dives deeper.