With offers from three universities to pursue an undergraduate law degree, Charlottetown native Ryan Anstey picked the University of New Brunswick based on a YouTube video: his own.
Egged on by friends who had seen a television ad, he entered a contest sponsored by UNB to attract first-time students. In the 3:30 minute video, with a pounding Corey Hart rock tune as the soundtrack, the 25-year-old waves an acceptance letter from UNB and makes his pitch to the camera. "I want to go to UNB. Everyone knows how cool it is," he said, urging friends to join Facebook and vote for his video in UNB's onlyoneu.ca contest. His exuberant performance (which played off a YouTube video that went viral called My New Haircut) attracted more than 1,300 supporters on Facebook and 6,000 hits on YouTube — enough for first prize and $5,500 in tuition credits for his studies last fall.
"It showed me they [UNB] are on the ball and using the latest things on the Internet to try and bring in students," says Mr. Anstey.
The UNB campaign is only one of many at Canadian universities as they rush to harness the power of social networking sites to raise their profile in an increasingly competitive post-secondary marketplace.
"It provides a lot more opportunity to differentiate yourself, to develop awareness and brand yourself a little better and engage more people," says Susan Mesheau, executive director of integrated recruitment and retention for UNB.
Universities are dabbling in all kinds of social networking sites: micro sites (specialty websites for recruitment tied to the main home page); student and parent blogs; Facebook groups for incoming classes; YouTube educational channels; Flickr photo-sharing; Twitter, for micro-blogs; iTunes U to post campus video tours and lectures. The idea is to send a cool, hip message that defines the university's "brand," such as interdisciplinary studies or an intimate learning environment.
There is a financial imperative to reach young people on their terms. Starting next year, the population of 18- to 21-year-olds is expected to decline nationally, with Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada at risk of the steepest declines, according to the Association of Universities and Colleges. Full-time university enrolment in Canada is expected to peak at about 850,000 students in 2012, with varying forecasts that predict between 70,000 and 120,000 fewer of them enrolled by 2024.
"A lot of institutions are looking at not being able to subsist on their traditional catchment areas," observes Ken Steele, senior vice-president of education marketing for Academica Group, of London, Ont., which advises universities on branding and social media marketing. "They need to go outside their region to recruit students ... and then you need a reason to drag a student past 30-40 other institutions on the road to yours."
In short, the competitive race is on, with social networking sites one way to get an edge.
University administrators are climbing a steep learning curve.
"We are still at the stage of saying, 'Is it working? We don't know yet,'" concedes Don McLaughlan, director of public affairs and media relations at Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, B.C. "But we have to grasp it as effectively and enthusiastically as we can."
Along with its menu of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages, the university is launching a new interactive recruitment micro site to promote its "brand" as a top research university for interdisciplinary studies, summed up in its tagline "thinking of the world."
The idea is that, at the micro site, Grade 11 and 12 students submit contact information and write a 250-word essay on their solution to a world problem, with students voting for the best submissions. With prizes of customized T-shirts and tuition scholarships of up to $1,500, the contest has a dual purpose: get the institution noticed in a crowded field of more than 20 post-secondary institutions in B.C. and generate a contact list of potential recruits.
"We need to convey our story, you need to differentiate and you need to make sure that those who are searching and looking for an environment such as ours know what to expect," says SFU director of enrolment Mehran Kiai.
At nearby University of the Fraser Valley, in Abbotsford, B.C., recruiters this fall urged prospective students to follow them on Twitter, with prizes for those who responded when their name was posted on the site.
Last year, the university invested $100 to advertise on Facebook to recruit students to a new equine coaching course. The ads generated 800 visits to the UFV website, more than enough to fill the course, says director of marketing and communications Kim Lawrence. But this year the same campaign yielded few results.
Despite uncertainty over how to capitalize on social media, universities say they have to try it out.
"We are all grappling with a new universe," says Acadia University president Ray Ivany. The online presence of the 171-year-old institution in Wolfville, N.S., includes Acadia TV and Acadia4U, with a video campus tour, student blogs and testimonials, and Facebook groups for incoming classes. The big challenge for universities, he warns, is to use the new tools in ways that deliver on their promise to students — in Acadia's case, as an intimate, academic environment.
"For institutions like ours, where there is real meaning and depth to the way we want to engage students, I don't want to be in a new technological space and not be able to engage students with the same meaning and depth," he says.
So far, early reviews are positive.
Before she was accepted at Acadia this fall, 18-year-old Andrea Barron of Calgary browsed the university's website to look at videos of student residences. "Once I saw that, I was like 'Wow, that is definitely the place I want to go.'" Thanks to a Facebook group set up by the university, she "met" her next-door dorm neighbour months before arriving on campus and was able to ask questions about the process for settling in for the first week of school.
"I feel like they are being very resourceful with the technology and putting themselves out there," says Ms. Barron. "They are taking the time to answer the questions we have and I don't feel I have to hide my questions."
The big appeal of the new tools is their potential for two-way conversations with students.
"For a lot of years, we had websites and e-mails that were shouting out information," says Terry Rice, associate director of creative services in the public affairs department of the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ont. "Now we are having conversations."
Those conversations help reinforce UWO's branding itself as "the best student experience among Canada's leading research-intensive universities." Through Mr. Rice's unit, and others on campus, the university offers Facebook groups for incoming classes; student blogs; a Flickr account that posts pictures submitted by students and others; an educational channel on YouTube with videos of classroom lectures and student submissions; and an iTunes U account that creates a forum for student-generated podcasts about the campus. Twitter is not in vogue among teens, but Western still uses it to pick up on general comments about the campus, with special "tweets" to inform parents about open houses and other recruitment events.
Try as they might, universities cannot mimic the voice of students.
Last year, when Halifax native Emily Rowe ran for president of Western's student council, the 21-year-old and her friends put together an "I Love Western" campaign video that went viral. Within hours of its posting on YouTube, the video had 1,000 hits that soared to 22,000 in two weeks. She thought it was "pretty cool" the university asked to post her video, produced without any involvement from UWO, on its "Welcome to Western" micro site.
Western recruiters saw Ms. Rowe's video as gold for its grassroots authenticity that backs up the university's claim about the student experience.
"It was a gift, an absolute gift," says Lori Gribbon, director of undergraduate recruitment and admissions. "It brings a face, a feeling, an emotion to students, and it also makes the university more available to prospective students so we can get into a lot of meaningful discussion with them."
But it comes at a cost. Signing on to sites is relatively cheap; what's not is the time and resources required of university officials to listen and respond quickly to students.
"We are constantly watching and evaluating," says Ron Byrne, vice-president, international and student affairs for Mount Allison University, in Sackville, N.B. "Fundamentally, we can only stay current by listening and analyzing what we are hearing from our students."
Faced with declining numbers of university-age students in the Maritimes, Mr. Byrne says his institution is "aggressively engaging in the use of technology for outreach," with video contests, Facebook groups, student blogs and virtual tours of the campus. A prominent feature of the main website is a link to student bloggers on My MTA, where they write about their experiences at the small liberal arts institution.
After feedback from students, the university expanded the number of student bloggers on the site and added more videos, more frequently, about life on campus.
Still, there is no substitute for the personal touch.
Toronto resident Emilie Cook, 18, turned down four universities to come to Mount Allison this fall. What sealed the deal was a personal visit to the campus last year on cold, wet, rainy November day and the warm reception from faculty, students and the local community. But the social networking sites kicked in once she was accepted, with a university-organized Facebook group for incoming students to chat before arriving on campus.
"I think it is kind of cool to have that option to talk to people and share your feelings about going to school," says Ms. Cook.
Back at UNB, Mr. Anstey is still getting attention for his winning video and now has friends are considering the New Brunswick university. "The amount of exposure it gave the school has paid them back in dividends," he says.
For more on this topic by Jennifer Lewington:
A Tale of two newbie Universities
