Education Marketing: Email vs. Social Media

According to a number of sources, included in reports from the likes of The Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian, email is dead for UK students today, due to the belief that modern students now prefer to communicate using social media.

But is this really the case internationally, particularly within education marketing and student recruitment? According to the new QS report, Students Online: Global Trends, the answer is a resolute no. Having surveyed over 2,200 prospective students from 49 cities across 35 countries, the report’s aim was to find out more about how prospective students use online resources in order to research and contact universities. The results show that email is still considered by students to be the best method of contacting and being contacted by universities, while less than 10% said they preferred using social media.

The potential of social media within education marketing isn’t to be ignored, however, thanks to generally speedier response times and vital online engagement with current and prospective students. The question is: can email marketing compete in the long term?   

Email vs. social media

Social media is the most popular use of the web today, and the power of social media marketing has been well documented. Almost 23 million users are purported to be following the ‘Top 100 Social Media Schools’, a list compiled by College Atlas, on Facebook alone. Studies have also shown that prospective students are being strongly influenced in their higher education choices by the level of ‘social media clout’ certain institutions boast. But does that mean email is dead?

The ability to engage with students in real time is a true advantage for social media marketing in the battle of email vs. social media for student recruitment and communication. According to an Inigral report, universities that engage with students on social media – through conversation, contests and video chats – are considered to be the most influential universities online.

So, is this social media marketing engagement changing the way students view more traditional forms of online communication such as email? The findings of the Students Online: Global Trends report may in fact suggest the opposite.

One finding in particular shows how prospective students are hesitant to view social media as a favored method of communicating with universities. Only 7.9% of those surveyed about their preferred means of communication – email vs. social media – stated that social media was their preferred method of contacting schools, while 65.7% chose email. The report also highlights the preferences of prospective students when being contacted by universities, with 71.1% preferring email and only 5.2% of respondents preferring social media. These figures support the idea that students don’t consider social media to be as reliable or as official as email – an opinion voiced by some of those interviewed in more depth for the study.

Why email is here to stay

Whether we’re talking about email as a way of communicating with current students or as a form of education marketing to promote student recruitment, email vs. social media is not currently a very fair battle.

Email is still by far the most consistent, reliable online resource in our communicative arsenals today. It is the most recognized form of online communication and appeals to those the world over. The same cannot be said for social media. In China for instance (which sends 235,000 students to the US alone annually), western social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter are banned, making social media marketing more of a challenge here for universities and other organizations based outside of the region and not au fait with local equivalents such as Renren and PengYou.

On a global level, even the youngest respondents to the Students Online survey were unconvinced of social media’s place in the education world. Although they were the most likely to already be using social media to contact universities, they were the least likely to select it as their preferred method of being contacted, instead preferring both phone calls and letters. From this we can deduce that social media is still widely viewed with some caution, and lacks the official status students would prefer when it comes to this sphere of their lives.

Admittedly, social media has an important position within education marketing, which will continue to grow. In fact, it can already be tough to beat if well executed, backed by skilled and knowledgeable full-time staff able to respond quickly and reliably. But in no way does this mean that email is dead. Both modes of communication have their own functions, advantages and disadvantages when it comes to education marketing and student recruitment.

Before you put a bet on the email vs. social media battle then, just one final reminder that social media owes email everything; without an email address, for instance, you’d never have been able to sign up to Facebook.