Survey of Use of Facebook in Higher Education Marketing 02/2016 (ISBN No:978-157440-373-2 )

The study looks closely at how North American colleges are using both paid advertising and general Facebook marketing in attracting new students and fortifying relationships with alumni.  The study helps its readers to answer questions such as:  how much are colleges spending on their paid Facebook advertising? How have colleges felt about their paid advertising experience on Facebook?  How much staff time do they spend on Facebook in their college marketing efforts?  How do they view the efficacy of Facebook compared to alternatives such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and other marketing venues.  What kinds of content are colleges distributing through their Facebook pages? How do they evaluate content for inclusion? How do colleges harmonize their main Facebook page with other campus Facebook pages?

Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:

• The colleges in the sample estimated that a mean of about 48% of their Facebook page’s unique visitors came from individuals that were not currently enrolled or working at the college.
• The mean amount spent by the colleges sampled for salaries, equipment and other production costs in developing marketing oriented videos in the past year for Facebook and other venues was $61,273 with a minimum of $2,500 and a maximum of $225,000.
• Approximately 43% of colleges sampled were currently doing paid advertising on Facebook.