Social Media Strategy for Study Abroad

Marketing and recruitment strategies

YOU are the main marketer for your programme. Students often connect with you through courses y'all have taught on campus. Marketplace to your convict audition!

Top reasons student employ to programs

A friend told them about the program
Location and term
Courses offered fulfill graduation requirements
Who is leading/pedagogy

Below are some marketing and recruitment ideas to go you started. The most successful recruiting strategies are directly and personal.

Marketing your program

Marketing your program to potential students starts with choosing a simple and appropriate title that grabs attention and interest.
Make the title a telling one; avoid jargon or obscure references – aim for concepts with which students will instantly connect and understand.
Write a program description to explicate the program and the goals of the course.
Utilise clear, curtailed language.
Employ photos and video so that students tin better imagine themselves on your program.
Make your program audio educational, adventurous, challenging and fun.
Let students know non simply what they will be doing, simply what they will be getting from the program.
Leverage the power of peer-to-peer marketing by request current and past participants to aid spread the give-and-take via social media and personal connections, and by involving program alumni and our UW Written report Abroad Ambassadors in presentations.

Contacting students

Use the UW Study Abroad online application management system to contact students every bit soon as they use to the program.
Let them know when your information sessions and office hours volition take place. Ask them if they have whatsoever questions. If you don't know the answers to their questions, forrard them to your program manager.
Schedule your interviews early. Fix aside interview slot and message students that they tin sign upwardly in advance. Let them know they need to have completed their awarding past the application deadline in order to be considered for the plan.
Visit the Managing application online page of the website for instructions on how to electronic mail students through the online system.
Admissions decisions must be made 12 days after the program deadline for students to be considered for UW Study Abroad Scholarships. See our Scholarship data for Programme Directors page for more information.

Website, blogs and social media

Students need access to data most your program. We will create a page for the program within the UW Study Abroad website, including promotional information and details from your plan proposal. Students volition apply to the program through this webpage.

You lot may besides want to create a webpage that students can access through your section's website. Consider sharing pictures, testimonials, videos, travel plans, etc. We volition link to any supplemental webpage that y'all provide to u.s.. Brand sure that your site links to ours and does not have contradictory content.

Examples:

CHID International Programs
Honors International Date
Department of English language Study Abroad
College of Engineering report abroad options

Blogs (i.due east. WordPress) and social media are also great tools for sharing information, scheduling events, and giving an overview of the programme dates, course descriptions, site visits, housing, and field trips. Since students are accustomed to using social media in their everyday life, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube can be a great platforms for promotion.

UW Catalyst Learning & Scholarly Technologies offers a multifariousness of free tools.

Videos

Consider creating a short 1-iii minute video to promote your program (encounter Tips for Creating Promotional Videos). Nosotros can feature this video in your program brochure and on our social media channels.

For recurring programs, you can also see if any of your students put together a video of the program and ask them if you tin utilise it for marketing purposes. Below is an example from the Urban Planning & Design United kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark: Sustainable Urban Mobility plan. Video credit: Collin Frietzsche

Watch

Flyers, posters and brochures

Make them simple and informative.
Provide simply the most pertinent information: championship, program and info session dates, contact info, and images of the site or past programs.
Directly students to the program website and contact information.

Beneath is a sample affiche for the UW Study Abroad Fair that includes simple design, minimal text and bolded relevant information.

Where to post and share:

Distribution at special events. If your programme is proposed by Nov, promote it at the UW Report Abroad Fair.
Most buildings have open message boards or volition post approved information.
Residence halls will post flyers and posters around their buildings if you lot deliver them to the reception desks.
Target bookish departments with a connection to your program and distribute recruitment materials to these sites – try contacting academic advisers for aid.
Delivered to student affairs offices around campus.
UW Study Abroad will distribute and mail service flyers in our office. Having promotional materials on hand makes it easier to advise students.

Information sessions

Information sessions are an opportunity to elaborate on your plan and course, entice students, respond their questions, and introduce them to maps, pictures, syllabi, even past participants.
Schedule during the recruitment period to help jumpstart applications anduse the UW Study Abroad Events Calendar form to make sure the sessions are posted to your program brochure and the UW Report Abroad Events Agenda.
Programme a short presentation allowing for questions at the end.
Posting flyers that annunciate the appointment and fourth dimension of your info session around your department and other pertinent locations is of import.
This information should also be posted to the program website and tin exist sent out over departmental e-mail lists and posted to campus calendars.
Invite a study abroad program manager to your info sessions to help respond questions about fiscal aid, the application process, credits, etc.
Provide our Recruitment FAQs hand-out to students to help respond their questions:

Download Recruitment FAQs

Classroom visits

Visit classes in your department and also those roofing material related to your programme topics.
Collaborate with colleagues to suit promotional visits.
Large lectures assistance y'all attain the widest audience and maximize your time.
Classroom visits should last only 3-7 minutes.
Provide flyers or brochures then that interested students tin can get more than information.
Bring a simple overhead flyer that's easy to read with just the nearly pertinent information on it.

Departmental outreach

Home department

Enlist the assistance of kinesthesia and advisors. They have directly contact with students and can spread the word and help match students with your programme.

Other departments

Reach out to other departments with curricula related to your program.
Explaining why your program is a good fit for their students.
Many departments have advisory blogs, listservs, Facebook pages, and other methods to regularly share information and opportunities with students – enquire if they will share information about your program.

Be artistic!

Enquire your electric current and previous students (and program alums!) to aid spread the word via social media and personal connections.
Post program data on existing departmental resources: newsletters, websites, meetings, RSO, and other UW email lists.
Promote your program to relevant linguistic communication and area-studies departments. Call back virtually which kind of students you desire on the program and market toward that population specifically.

Non-matriculated students

Eligibility

Students from other universities are eligible to participate in UW study away programs.
These students enroll as non-matriculated students and receive UW credits on a UW transcript that they can transfer to their abode university.
Non-matriculated students can add value and numbers to your plan, simply they should not take the place of UW applicants.
UW students should take get-go priority on all faculty-led programs.
Non-matriculated students should meet the same eligibility requirements every bit UW students and will need to complete the aforementioned pre-departure requirements as UW students in order to be enrolled and receive credit.
All students participating in your programme must receive credit, including non-matriculated students.
High schoolhouse students and graduating high school seniors are not eligible to participate in UW report abroad programs.
If your plan has the space to accommodate a educatee from some other university and the educatee's interests are aligned with the program curriculum, information technology is advisable to offer the student a place in the program.
Depending on the size of your program, yous should limit the number of non-matriculated students to 3 to 5.

Awarding process

Non-matriculated students will use to your program online, through the study abroad site, following a process similar to that of UW students.
Your programme is open to non-matriculated students, please see the Non-matriculated student application section of the Managing Applications Online folio.

Non-matriculated student application procedure:

UW Study Abroad generates a contract for non-matriculated students, including a non-matriculated awarding form. Students volition exist able to submit the contract online along with the not-matriculated application.
UW Report Abroad requests a temporary student number from the Registrar'south Function.
UW Study Abroad Office emails the student with their student number. The student tin can so fix upwards a UW NetID and admission their MyUW account. Non-matriculated students can access sure UW resource, tools, and UW Libraries with their NetID.
From this signal, students follow the same pre-departure, enrollment and payment procedures as UW students.
The student is added to the official program roster.
Grades are reported in the same way for UW and non-matriculated students.