With more than three-quarters of the adult population using social media, and usage accounting for more than 20 percent of total Internet time, social media is the most important thing to happen to human conversations since the dinner table. Students today have grown up using social technologies. For them, social media usage is a core life skill and not just a hobby. Learn firsthand from our expert, Jeff Berg, on how your social media presence can increase student retention and the amount of enroll-to-starts at your school. This should be one New Year's resolution that you refuse to break.

1. Social Media for Educational Institutions:
Increase Student Retention and Enroll-To-Starts With Targeted Social Media

2. Petersons.com
Petersons.com is the leading online planning resource for
undergraduate and graduate school programs.
• Six million prospective undergraduate and graduate students.
• Premium web listings to build unparalleled program
awareness
– Preferred Placement
– Promotional placements to direct targeted traffic
– Social media integration
• Student lead service matches student profiles with recruiting
needs
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3. CUnet
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4. The Faceless Voice You’re About To Hear
Jeff Berg
Senior Social Strategist
Peterson’s Interactive & CUnet
With more than seven years of
experience, Jeff uses his social media
expertise to help schools streamline
engagement methodologies and create
meaningful, personal dialogues with
current and future students.
Jeff graduated from University of
Southern California with a degree in
Print Journalism.
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5. Agenda
• The World of Social Media
• Social Media and Students
• Social Media’s Effect on Student
Engagement
• What Does This Look Like In
Practice?
• Q&A
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6. The Social Media Landscape

7. The World of Social Media
• Social media has changed how
human beings communicate,
organize, and spend time
online:
– 75% of all adult internet
users.
– More than 20% of all time
spent online.
• Comparisons of most well-
known social media:
– If Twitter were a book it
would be equivalent to
6,000 complete works of
Shakespeare each day.
– If YouTube were a movie it
would take over 400 years
to watch.
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8. 1,966,514,816
2,000,000,000
1,800,000,000
1,600,000,000
1,400,000,000 Oceania
1,200,000,000 950,000,000
South America
1,000,000,000
North America
800,000,000
600,000,000 Middle East
400,000,000 Europe
200,000,000 Asia
- Africa
Total Internet Facebook Users
Users
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9. What is Social Media?
• Social media has changed how
• Wikipedia
human beings communicate, • Social bookmarking
organize, and spend time online:
• Consumer opinions and
– 75% of all adult internet users. • Online niche communities
reviews
– More than 20% of all time spent • Social biographies
• Internet mash-ups
online. • Social news
• Blogs • Livecasting
• Comparisons of most well-known
• Message boards
social media: • Audio sharing
• Online gaming
– If Facebook were a country it • Virtual worlds
would be the 3rd largest in the
• Photo sharing websites
world with 750MM residents. • Information aggregators
• Interactive fiction
– If Twitter were a book it would be • Collaboration tools
• Instant 1,500 completeday.
equivalent to messaging
works of Shakespeare each • Event organization tools
– If YouTube were a movie it would
take over 400 years to watch.
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10. What does this mean?
Not
participating
isn’t an
option
anymore.
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11. Social Media and Students

12. Student Usage
• Prospective students today…
• Grew up with Internet technology
• Nearly three-quarters use social
media
• 18 percent use Twitter
• 67 percent own an MP3 player
• 81 percent access the Internet
wirelessly
• 70 percent believe colleges should
have a presence on social
networks
• 51 percent want to be contacted
directly through a social network
“Scrolling Toward Enrollment,” Noel-Levitz, 2009
Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2010
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13. Digital Natives Interact Differently
For digital natives,
technology is not
impersonal and it
does not pose a risk
to social interaction.
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14. Social Media and Student Engagement

15. How do we even start to think about this?
Exploring academic research in this area leads us three
distinct questions.
1. What factors affect student persistence (and can those
factors be addressed through social media)?
2. Does social media itself affect student engagement?
3. Can targeted social media interactions affect student
engagement?
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16. Why do students leave school?
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17. Why do students leave school?
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18. Social Media Usage is Linked to those factors
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19. Social Media Predicts Retention and GPA
“[…] Social presence is a significant predictor of course
retention and final grade in the community college online
environment.” (Liu, Gomez, & Yen 2009)
• Students that were socially engaged in an online course
tended to retain more and perform better.
• Tracking social engagement in course communities can
be used to:
• Provide early identification of at-risk students
• Foster effective intervention to improve learning
outcomes
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20. Is this more than theory?
• A 2010 study examined academic Twitter usage and its
effect on student engagement and GPA.
– 125 students that tweeted while taking a first-year course
for pre-health professional majors
– Engagement was assessed by a 19-item scale based on
the National Survey of Student Engagement
• Results
– The student group which used twitter for academic and
co-curricular discussions displayed significantly greater
engagement and higher semester GPAs.
– “Analysis of Twitter communications showed that students
and faculty were both highly engaged in the learning
process in ways that transcended traditional classroom
theories.”
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21. And this is just the tip…
Tons of
research
exists that
indicates
this is
true.
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22. What Does This Look Like in Practice?

23. Putting a Community In Place
• You can’t build a community in a vacuum.
• Frame it like Tinto
– What is factors relate to retaining your students?
– What features can help address those goals?
– Test and refine.
• Many platforms currently exists to do this, so focus on
the one that addresses your students’ needs.
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24. Warwickshire College
• Situation
– Lengthy period between program
acceptance and joining the course
caused students’ loss of
momentum, reconsideration of
course and even college
attendance
• Solution
– BTEC ND Media Games
Development Group
• Students engage in pre-
semester group projects
• Allowed for increased
discussion and social
integration prior to actual
college attendance.
• Additionally, increased
academic integration and
faculty interaction
• Result
– 100 percent increase in overall
retention rates
– Decrease in time spent on “ice
breaking” curriculum
– Complete lack of course
withdrawals
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25. The University of Westminster - Connect
• Implemented in Sept. 2007, built on Elgg
• By Jan. 2008
– 3,048 users
– 2,300 students (about 10% of the student population)
• Features
– Personal Blogs
– Discussion Forums
• Staff-run department discussions
• Communities designed to encourage social interaction across subject
boundaries
• Study-development communities.
• Results
– Students
• “It could be the best way for students to socialise and possibly find
partners and be there for one another of all the time.”
– Staff
• 84% thought Connect played a roll in helping students building a
community, both prior to and after arrival at school.
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26. Inigral
• Third-party Facebook
application tailored to
increase retention and
enroll-to-start rates
• A “Facebook Within
Facebook” designed to
meet the unique needs of
educational institutions
and their student bodies
• Private communities
designed to engage
current and future students
and create community
before they begin classes
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27. How has it worked for other schools?
Columbia College Chicago
• 94% of admits used the Schools on Facebook Application
UT Tyler
• Schools on Facebook users were five times more likely to start
than students who did not use it
• Users also had the highest exam pass rates of any students in
the UT system
ASU
• 25% of the student body used Schools on Facebook
• 8% higher retention rate when compared with non-users
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28. Key Takeaways
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29. Key Takeaways
• Ignoring social media itself isn’t possible
anymore
• Digital natives intrinsically interact with (and
through) technology differently
• Targeted social media can affect learning
outcomes and student persistence
• Addressing student needs must be your primary
concern. Worry about the technology later.
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30. Questions?
Contact:
Jeff Berg
Senior Social Strategist
Peterson’s Interactive & CUnet
E-mail: jeff.berg@petersons.com
Phone: 201.477.7687
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