The Interfolio Blog

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) released a report last week that indicated a rise in the use of social media tools for the recruitment and admissions efforts of colleges and universities.  More and more often, admissions offices are using online networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to look for more information on prospective students' applications.  25% of survey respondents said that they used these tools to locate more information on students.

Additionally, admissions offices are finding social media to be beneficial in terms of promoting their schools and complementing their recruiting efforts.  In fact, 88% of admissions offices surveyed thought that social media was either "somewhat" or "very important" to their recruitment effort.

Among its other findings, the report concluded:

• More than half of colleges monitor social media for “buzz” about their institution
• A majority of colleges maintain a presence in social media
  • 33% of colleges maintain a blog
  • 29% maintain a presence on social networking Web sites
  • 27% maintain message- or bulletin-boards
  • 19% use video blogging
  • 14% issue podcasts
  • 39% of colleges reported using no social media technology

Is your admissions office using social media tools in their recruitment or admissions processes?  Have they found it successful? Be sure to Follow Us on Twitter: @Interfolio