Results from the digital marketing and web content management platform for higher education revealed insights into the social media priorities of higher education with 71% believing that Facebook is the social media platform most responsible for driving conversion on the website.
The survey of 257 marketing, web and leadership professionals from more than 150 higher education institutions in the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia and South Africa revealed that 44% believe that Facebook will still be the most important social media account in 12 months’ time. This is followed by Twitter at 29% and Instagram at 11%.
Vine, Snapchat and Pinterest were the lowest concern for institutions surveyed, receiving <1% each.
Piero Tintori, CEO and founder, TERMINALFOUR, said, ‘There have been lots of rumblings about Facebook losing its appeal among the millennial generation in favour of newer platforms. In fact in our 2014 survey, 27% of respondents stated that Facebook was less effective today than it was 12 months ago but the reality is that in terms of pure performance and meaningful metrics no other platform has quite stepped up to the plate.
The survey also uncovered prevailing attitudes to traditional marketing efforts, such as print advertising, billboards and TV/radio. Of higher education respondents, 63% recognised that traditional marketing is still ‘fairly important’ to their institution. Almost a quarter (24%) cited traditional marketing as being very important, 5% believed they were as important as online marketing efforts and just 8% believed they were no longer important.
Of the survey respondents, 78% stated that Yik Yak, the controversial ‘anonymous’ social media site that has been associated with bullying on college campuses, has no place in their institution’s marketing strategy. Furthermore, 12% believe it should be banned altogether, while 38% of respondents had never heard of it.
‘Yik Yak is relatively untested in terms of influence. Outside the US, it has little or none of the brand awareness of the other social platforms and it’s seemingly mired in controversy and speculation. It’ll be interesting to see its progression in higher education in the face of such public and media scrutiny,’ he concluded.
Download the survey here: https://www.terminalfour.com/survey2015/