The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing research new study

The new study on social media use by U.S. Universities focuses on the external use of social media for marketing and enrollment

• Over half of college presidents studied are posting on Facebook (58%) and tweeting (55%), while 35% host their own blog.

• Schools show an interest in new tools including Pinterest (31% adoption), Google+ (25% adoption) and Instagram (16% adoption).

• Over two-thirds of US colleges and universities have some official school blogging activity on their campus. 

• Forty-one percent of school officials believe they can directly attribute an increase in enrollments to their social media efforts.

• Some schools (30%) report spending less on printing, newspaper ads (23%), television (17%) and radio (16%) as a result of increased online presence.

• Thirteen percent of schools report researching students through their social networking sites as part of the admissions process.  Last year 19% made this claim.

• Thirty-eight percent of school officials reported they monitored the internet for buzz, posts, conversations and news about their institution, the fifth straight decline since 2009 when 73% reported monitoring their school’s name online.

• Even though there is enormous activity, much of it by students, half of the schools surveyed report that they do not have written guidelines for acceptable online behavior.