Facebook and EducationUSA: An Update

Facebook is the driving force in social media today. Four or five years ago many thought of this fledgling social network as just a fad, limited to college campuses in the US. Today, the number of users on Facebook worldwide (as of this blog post: over 262 million) would make it the 4th largest country in the world, only 38 million or so behind the US. Keep in mind that 70% of all Facebook users are outside the US. This is where my US international admissions colleagues really have an opportunity to break ground.

While there are certainly a multitude of types of social media (from microblogs, to blogs, to photo/video sharing sites, to newsfeeds, and many more) out there to use, the big dog they are all looking to is Facebook. I've covered some of the other options and avenues to reach out using social media in other past (and future) posts, but today, let's focus on the current state of affairs with regards to the use of Facebook.

At present, 38 countries worldwide have more than 1 million Facebook users:

1. United States 79,808,380
2. United Kingdom 19,042,180
3. Turkey 12,834,260
4. Canada 12,091,440
5. France 11,654,520
6. Italy 10,598,540
7. Indonesia 8,358,660
8. Australia 6,293,200
9. Spain 6,251,860
10. Argentina 5,996,380
11. Colombia 5,934,060
12. Chile 5,178,360
13. Mexico 4,505,500
14. Philippines 4,477,400
15. India 3,959,980
16. Venezuela 3,943,660
17. Germany 3,725,060
18. Malaysia 2,549,180
19. Belgium 2,430,020
20. Sweden 2,397,560
21. Hong Kong 2,192,800
22. Denmark 2,059,480
23. Norway 2,058,300
24. Taiwan 1,950,680
25. South Africa 1,870,900
26. Greece 1,796,400
27. Egypt 1,786,500
28. Israel 1,669,160
29. Switzerland 1,557,480
30. Singapore 1,533,040
31. Brazil 1,439,080
32. Czech Republic 1,298,140
33. Netherlands 1,260,140
34. Finland 1,195,040
35. Peru 1,107,140
36. Thailand 1,077,140
37. Serbia 1,041,840
38. New Zealand 1,030,060

All of these stats can be found on http://www.checkfacebook.com/ which also provides data on the fastest growing countries and a demographic breakdown by age group of each countries population. In almost every country, 50% or more of the Facebook users, are in the 14-24 year old range, i.e. prime college material.

Many domestic admissions offices in the US have been increasingly using social media: YouTube channels, iTunes podcasts, student blogs, and webchats, and also social networks like Facebook to recruit and/or convince to enroll at their respective institutions. But I ask today, how many of you are using these tools explicitly to attract international audiences?

We have realized at EducationUSA that we need to "live" where our student advisees live. And in so many (not all, mind you) countries that place they live most is online, and increasingly online on their mobile phones/devices. Even in some of the most remote countries on earth, mobile phones are must-haves. In fact, in many developing countries families go from no phone at all to having a mobile phone (and no land line).

Specifically as it relates to Facebook, we have made a concerted effort to encourage and train our advising centers to set up and use center profiles, groups and fan pages to reach out not only to their student advisees, but also to help connect those advisees to former students who are now in the US, and probably living on Facebook. We have created an EducationUSA page which we invite you "become a fan." This page serves a multitude of audiences but can connect you with our advisers and their Facebook profiles, groups and fan pages as well.

I invite you to check out the "Info" tab on the Fan page to see a list with hyperlinks to the growing presence of EducationUSA on Facebook--17 center profiles, 22 groups, and 26 fan pages from centers around the world. This list is updated fairly regularly so bookmark the page and come back often.

We encourage our colleagues in international admissions to set up their own Facebook fan pages and/or groups specifcally for international students looking to get connected with your institution. For more ways to connect with our EducationUSA centers as you recruit internationally, please contact me for details.

Six Must Have Links for International Admissions Folks Using Social Media

Let's face it, technology is advancing faster than we can possibly have imagined when we first entered international education as a field. The rise of social media and increasingly mobile social media tools are fundamentally changing the way prospective international students live their lives. These lives are lived online. Are you active where they live? Personally, a large part of my world these days is spent researching social media tools updating US institutions and our EducationUSA advising centers on how some of these can be applied to our common goals to bring/send more international students to the US for higher education.

To help provide my colleagues in higher education with my top 6 must-have links/resources for understanding, tracking some of the key trends and applications of the social media world I submit to you the following:

1. Mashable.com The gold standard for all things social media--many guides on how to use different tools.


2. http://www.checkfacebook.com/ If you're not on Facebook or think it's going away anytime soon, think again--70% of the nearly 270 million users are outside the US. This site will allow you to see the demographics by top country, fastest growing countries on a weekly basis, and individual country age breakdown of users. Great data!


3. DIOSA Communications This company does regular reasonably priced webinars on using social media in higher education, but also has some worthy blog and video posts on the usefulness of these tools.


4. http://www.statmats.com/ These folks do quite a bit of research on use of social media in higher education. They also have a free white paper on "THE FIVE FUNDAMENTAL STEPS
   FOR DEVELOPING A POWERFUL SOCIAL NETWORKING STRATEGY FOR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES."


5. Rachel Reuben -- http://www.doteduguru.com/ -- Rachel is a leader in the higher education field for using social media in marketing and communications. Great resources from following her, very active on Twitter.


6. http://www.nickburcher.com/ Nick is based in the UK, and is on top of examples of how businesses are using various social media tools. Nick occasionally does Facebook demographic updates as well.

Hopefully, by following these few folks/sites (and me!) the murky waters may become a bit clearer, and a path for your institution's approach to using social media in international admissions better defined.

I certainly invite others to make comments and suggestions as to other sites to include as my list is not exhaustive. Happy hunting!