Mumbai students, want information on college admissions? Check Instagram, Facebook
Mumbai city news: Institutes have started reaching out their targets through a mode of communication the younger generation is more familiar with: social networking websites.
It’s that time of the year when students line up outside colleges for admissions, and colleges are busy putting their best foot forward in order to ensure they attract students to their institutes.
Earlier, colleges spent time updating their admission brochures and websites to attract more students, but of late, institutes have started reaching out their targets through a mode of communication the younger generation is more familiar with: social networking websites.
Recently, Kandivali Education Society’s Shroff College hired an agency to work on and regularly update their page on Facebook, Instagram as well as LinkedIn in order to give the most recent information to interested students. Everything from animated videos with information on ongoing admission process, important dates to remember, do’s and don’ts for parents, etc, makes it’s way to their page on the various social networking websites.
“The timely guidance on the admission process is likely to help students and their parents in completing the necessary formalities in time and without any hassel,” said principal Lily Bhushan. She added that the information includes last dates, payment methods, documents required and steps involved. “This has greatly reduced the burden on the front desk and main gates where students keep asking for the same information. The posts are also a big hit on Instagram, and being shared on WhatsApp,” she added.
Using social networking sites to announce new features and important information about the college has been used by various colleges, especially for annual cultural festivals. Introducing information about admissions on these pages is a recent trend. “We have a web committee consisting of students and headed by a faculty to look into all the updates on our social networking pages. It is a fun way to introduce students to ground work by making them responsible for what goes into these pages and how to keep it updated,” said Sobhana Vasudevan, principal of R A Podar College in Matunga.
Most colleges have informal pages on Facebook, usually started by students of the institute and run without any permission of the respective institute. “Every batch tends to start their own page on Facebook and that’s usually for informal discussions amongst the batch. But being given the responsibility of running a page for the institute is big and we learn a lot about administration work, which comes handy in future. Social media marketing is very much in demand now,” said Saroj Malik (20), a TYBMM student.
Some colleges have also used social media to inform students about interesting and new academic programs. These include information on certificate courses as well as other such details.
