Targeting Millennials: Social Media Strategies within Higher Education.

USING A QUANTITATIVE SURVEY METHOD WITH AN ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE AS THE DATA COLLECTION TOOL, THEAUTHOR SURVEYED 189 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS WORKING AT AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS TO IDENTIFY FORMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN USE, ALONG WITH THE MOST POPULAR STRATEGIES THAT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES USE WITH FACEBOOK.TODAY ioo percent of colleges and universities I \# r\ I j in the United States use some form of social media (Barnes and Lescault 2011); this number, up from 61 percent only three years prior (Barnes 2009), is a testament to the significant role that social media play in the survival of higher education institutions. Although existing literature suggests that colleges and universities have been quick to adopt social media, questions of how higher education social media managers are using these tools and how they can use them strategically to increase the engagement of current, prospective, and former students Unger. With the technology- and social media-dependent Millennial generation on track to be the most educated in u.s. history, and with milhons of 20-somethings flooding graduate schools, colleges, and community colleges in part because they cannot find jobs (Pew Research Center 2010), it is crucial that higher education institutions not only use social media but that they use them strategically in order to better engage this generation of students. Increasing the engagement of Millennial is particularly important in Ught of previous research suggesting that the worlds top universities do not provide forums for open dialogue on their Facebook pages, a practice that consequently has silenced the voices of these key stakeholders (McAlhster 2011). This study sought to identify the forms of social media that were the most widely used by higher education institutions in 2012 as well as new forms of social media that are gaining popularity among colleges and universities. With the most current literature on this topic dating back to 2010-11 and the social media landscape quickly evolving from one year to the next, it is imperative to examine this topic annually to observe significant changes in higher education social media use and to pinpoint new forms of social media that are emerging and gaining popularity in higher education marketing efforts. This study also sought to identify the most popular strategies that higher education institutions are using with regard to Facebook, which 98 percent of colleges and universities reported using in 2011 (Barnes and Lescault 2011). The resulting data also shed light on practical questions, such as what specific purposes Facebook is used for and whether institutional efforts are considered effective.LITERATURE REVIEWMillennials-The First "Always Connected" GenerationIn 2010, the Pew Research Center estimated that Millennials in the United States numbered approximately 50 million. Members of this generation currently account for the largest cohort of college students in the United States (Hartman and McCambridge 2011). According to the Pew Research Center (2010), the Millennial generation is also on track to be the most educated in American history-the product of a "modern knowledge-based economy" and the enrollment of millions of 20-somethings in graduate schools largely because they can't find jobs (p.2). Of the eighteen- to 24-year-olds surveyed, nearly 40 percent were enrolled in college as of 2008-a record share (Pew Research Center 2010). This generation, "the American teens and twentysomethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium," is identified as history's first "always-connected" generation, immersed in digital technology and social media (Pew Research Center 2010, p. 1). Three-quarters have created a profile on a social networking site, and one in five has posted a video of himor herself online. According to the Pew Research Center (2010), "They treat their multi-tasking, hand-held gadgets almost like a body part-for better and worse. …