How to get the most out of student bloggers
Created on the 25th Apr 2013
International student bloggers are a seriously powerful marketing tool. They give prospective students an authentic insight into life at your institution and allow them to imagine themselves studying there. But you need to make sure you're getting the best out of your bloggers.
Here are some tips to make sure you are getting the most out of your bloggers:
Use your social media
Facebook/Twitter/Google+ etc will most likely be a prospective student's main point of continued interaction with your institution.
Young people tend to make important decisions based on irrational emotional attachments. They are keen to get to know the ethos of an institution and picture themselves in that social environment, seeing if they think they would 'fit in'. Blogs are a great way of giving them this insight.
Every time a blog goes live on i-studentglobal, you need to be promoting it on each of your social media channels. This way, prospective students will get to see a more human side of your institution and they will be able to picture themselves studying and living there.
Link to your blogs from your main website
You want to give potential students as many ways of accessing your blogs as possible. When they're on your website searching for course specifications and details, give them the option to click through to your institution page on i-studentglobal where they will find all your blogs and they can get an instant feel for what it's like to study at your institution.
Feel free to discuss this with me and we can come up with ways of doing this. I could arrange to have a nice image made up that they can click to come through to the site. The more information we can offer your potential students, the better.
Get your bloggers on board
Let's not forget that the bloggers are international students who are using social media to communicate with their friends and family back home - some of whom will be considering their international education options.
They need to be using their blog to tell people back home what a wonderful time they're having. Personal contacts are an essential tool in social media. The bloggers' friends and family will be keen to 'like' and share posts and their blog will become an extra line of communication for them.
Plus, it's a new audience for your institution and one that comes with a personal recommendation from your blogging ambassador.
Communicate with me
That's what I'm here for! If you have any ideas for the student blogging programme or any questions you would like to ask, please get in touch.
