Conventional wisdom suggests that Fortune 500 firms are
on the cutting edge of social-media usage while higher education lags behind.
In fact, higher-ed executives are 10% more likely to be using social media compared to their corporate counterparts,
according to a report from the social-media monitoring firm Hootsuite.
The Social Campus Report: 8 Opportunities for Higher Edin 2018 noted that student use of technology has institutions increasing their focus on
social media to keep pace. It also found that 63% of campus administrators say
they believe that social media is important to strategic planning and
fulfilling their institution’s mission.
Students are more likely to use social media regularly,
making it an easier and more cost-efficient way to communicate with them. The
report also found that many administrators view a robust social-media presence
as a way to gain an advantage over other colleges and universities.
“There’s this kind of vacuum of knowledge on social and
how it has impacted education,” said Phil Chatterton, industry principal for
higher education at Hootsuite. “This has changed the way people communicate and
education is a big part of that.”
