Understanding Social Media Advertising in Higher Ed: A Case Study from a Small Graduate Program Laura Palmer Southern Polytechnic State University 1100 South Marietta Parkway Marietta, GA 30060 1-678-915-7203 lpalmer2@spsu.edu ABSTRACT This paper describes how a small academic program used social media marketing—specifically, a Facebook advertising campaign and a Facebook page—to attract prospective students. From the results obtained, the design and deployment of Facebook as part of a strategic departmental communication and marketing plan requires more study. While advertisements brought users to the page, the conversations and engagement typically expected in a social network site did not materialize. In the end, the online advertising and promotion resulted in no new student applications to the graduate program. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.3 [Group and Organizational Interfaces]—web-based interaction, synchronous interaction, theory and models General Terms Measurement, Documentation, Design Keywords Social media, higher education, social media advertising, Facebook, communication 1. INTRODUCTION The English, Technical Communication, and Media Arts (ETCMA) department at Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU) offers an online graduate degree called the M.Sc. in Information Design & Communication (IDC). Faced with increased competition and waning applications, the graduate faculty in ETCMA sought new ways to promote the degree and attract more applicants to the program. Social media advertising seemed to be a logical and cost-effective choice. As an online program, recruiting through a channel like a social network site (SNS) would be a way to capture individuals who were digitally literate and possibly interested in pursuing distance education. Additionally, it was thought that this group would be willing to share and exchange program information and experiences through an SNS due to their familiarity with online interactions. Yet, the design of social media communication as a way to reach and recruit these students for a small program within a university was unfamiliar territory for the IDC graduate faculty. At educational institutions across the country, social media marketing is gaining ground. It provides a viable opportunity for marketing higher education offerings [1], p. 15. With the ability to reach an ever-growing online market easily and with a financial outlay measuring as fractional compared to traditional advertising mediums, targeted social media advertising is a logical choice. What follows is our experience of creating a Facebook presence for the purpose of promoting our graduate degree offering via Facebook advertisements. Specifically, this research focuses on the design and targeting of the ads deployed through Facebook’s advertising feature. It also examines how the page functioned as a site of engagement for promoting the graduate program. The results, as assessed by Facebook interaction metrics, web site traffic statistics from analytics, and applications to the program, define our limited understanding of the design of social media communication for marketing small programs in higher education. This study makes a strong case for further research. 2. BACKGROUND The IDC program experienced a drop in applications starting in the fall semester of 2010. The program—formerly a Master of Science in Technical Communication—traditionally had solid application and enrollment statistics; however, the recent decline in applicants meant it was time to reconsider our marketing efforts. Print ads in professional societies’ magazines, once the bread and butter of the advertising plan, were not yielding results. Changes in professional societies’ membership significantly decreased the number of people who saw the ads. As these societies moved their professional publications from print to digital-only formats, our opportunities for visibility also dropped. Radio spots, another tried and true tactic in our advertising arsenal, were also losing ground as a marketing initiative. While the Gordian knot of metropolitan traffic practically guaranteed a captive radio audience, changes in technology reconfigured the drive-time audience base. MP3 players, satellite radio, and GPS systems with real-time traffic information meant drivers selected media other than radio. Print, radio, and other traditional outbound advertising media were also becoming more costly and proving to be the least effective means available to reach Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Conference’10, Month 1–2, 2010, City, State, Country. Copyright 2010 ACM 1-58113-000-0/00/0010 …$15.00.