Exploring Campus Recruitment Methods: A Dive into Social Media (2022)

Employing social media platforms to enhance new-student recruitment is common to all sixty-four SUNY campuses. Our pilot study canvassed the social media platform (SMP) presence on SUNY campuses. We summarized the presence of Facebook (FB), Instagram, and TikTok for all colleges. Sixty-two colleges had a presence on all three platforms. As campus use of FB is nearly ubiquitous, we treated FB-activity as the independent variable in regression analysis. Our analysis shows that Facebook activity, by itself, is a poor predictor for enrollment (R² 0.34, std. err. 4664). Future studies should determine whether other SMPs (or combinations of SMPs) drive enrollment for SUNY colleges. Investigators should create engaging content on SMPs to determine whether enhanced engagement among a target audience can boost enrollment rates of an individual department (e.g., Potsdam’s Biology Department).