The Game Has Changed: Social Media in College Admissions

Nora and I have just released the next major installment of our research into social media usage by organizations. Here's the intro:
For the approximately 2,000 four-year accredited colleges and universities in the US, the name of the game is recruiting the best students. It is a highly competitive process often influenced by factors that are more subjective than objective and more emotional than logical. In this challenging environment, social media (in the form of blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, videos and wikis) has become an important new marketing tool.

Following up on our popular study of the Inc. 500s social media habits, this new study examines the familiarity with, usage of, and attitude towards social media by the Admission Offices of 453 US colleges and universities. The results are fascinating and drive our statistically-based knowledge of organizational social media habits even farther forward.

Generally, the marketing teams of academic institutions are more familiar with and adopting social media faster (especially blogs) than even the innovative companies of the Inc. 500. Even more importantly, they are using social media and search engines to research potential students. No longer can applicants behave irresponsibly online without potential consequences to their futures (and their parents' sanity).
A detailed executive summary can be found here in PDF and MSWord formats.