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Marketing and student recruitment can be expensive ventures for any higher education institution. The funding required for printed materials and advertisement can be cost prohibitive, and, with spending increasing from many institutions, some specialized schools have struggled to attract talented students. Rather than try to compete with the large marketing budgets of comparable graduate universities; such as Naropa, CIIS, Marylhurst and Pacifica; Southwestern College, which offers Masters Degrees in Counseling and Art Therapy, has instead turned to social media as the primary recruitment tool, and its efforts are paying off.“In the three years that we have been using social media almost exclusively to market our graduate school, we have had our two highest fall enrollments in the school’s history,” says Dr. Jim Nolan, President of Southwestern College.
Increased enrollment is only one of the results from the effort. The college has also benefitted from improved retention rates as its ten person social media team, made up of staff and graduate students, has turned the school into its own publishing and broadcasting company. New students come to Southwestern with a feeling of knowing the faculty, other students and even the region after reading blogs, updates and watching videos that the college releases.
In terms of expenses, Southwestern College is also seeing a greater return. Due to the scalability of social media, the school is seeing five-fold exposure for only a slightly higher expenditure than the old models. They are also on the leading edge in terms of providing valuable marketing experience by utilizing graduate students within the social media and recruitment team.
When asked how long it took for Southwestern College to fully switch to social-media-based recruiting after seeing the positive effect, Dr. Nolan had this to say, “The shift in marketing strategy, once we ‘got it’ was almost immediate. It was the classic ‘light bulb’ moment. ‘One ad in Ode Magazine costs thousands of dollars, and it gets thrown away next week. Social media is less expensive by far and lasts forever.’ The paradigm had shifted.”
Now in its 34th year, Southwestern College’s motto is Transforming Consciousness through Education. It is a graduate level institution that focuses on counseling and art therapy. Offering a holistic environment for learning, students undergo rigorous academic work that follows national standards for the Counseling and Art Therapy professions while also afforded opportunities for deeply meaningful interaction and sharing.
Contact Info:
Name: Dr. James Nolan
Email: Send Email
Organization: Southwestern College
Address: 3960 San Felipe Road, Santa Fe, NM 87507
Phone: 877-471-5756
Website: http://www.swc.edu
Release ID: 23438
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