Social Networks, Teens, and College Information

You won’t be surprised to know that high school students use social networking! Nine out of 10 college-bound students visit social networking sites-97 percent of African-Americans, 86 percent of Hispanics, 88 percent of whites-and 84% have a site on Myspace or Facebook. Facebook is the most-visited site (60 percent) with MySpace “far behind.”

And, 70 percent visit a social networking site at least once a day; 50 percent spend about 30 minutes on each site visit. When there, 80 percent of students use the sites to stay in touch with friends they see regularly (so not so many years ago, teens went online when they got home from school to IM their friends—not they Facebook) , and 41 percent have friends they met for the first time online.

Hesel’s findings indicate that teens are a lot more concerned about privacy than we often give them credit for. Nearly half keep private everything in their profiles and “83 percent strongly or somewhat agree that “I am careful about what I put on my profile because I know that my parents or other adults might have access to it.” And:

69 percent are extremely or somewhat concerned that private information in their profile might affect their chances of admission to college.

Only 22 percent looked for college pages on social networking sites. Here’s what those 22 percent were seeking to discover about colleges on the sites:

67 percent (12 percent of all) of those using sites for colleges considering searched to see if they knew anyone at the school
55 percent (10 percent of all) looked for comments about the schools
55 percent (10 percent of all) looked for students groups and clubs
54 percent (9 percent of all) looked at pictures of students
39 percent looks for information about colleges on fan pages

And, they said:

A friend request from a college would make 16 percent of those with personal profiles much more interested in the college and 48 percent somewhat more interested 

Still, despite the high use of social networks by prospective students, the impact that these networks have on studetns interest in colleges is very low. For example, here are the responses of those “much more interested or “somewhat more interested” in information from specfic sources:

Social networking sites: 24 percent
What I read on blogs: 28 percent
Podcasts from college: 18 percent
Emails from colleges: 61 percent
Campus tours: 65 percent
Advice from your friends: 75 percent
Brochures mailed to me by colleges: 75 percent
Advice from your high school counselor: 74 percent
Personal letters from colleges: 81 percent
Individual college website: 88 percent
Campus visits you made in person: 88 percent

Hesel’s takeaways from all this:

There is no digital divide on uses of social networking sites with college-bound students. Everyone does it, at all income levels and among all ethnic groups.

Social networking isn’t a primary or effective tool for marketing or communicating with prospective students. [Though as Karine Joly remarked to me after the session, maybe this is because so few colleges do it that prospective students just aren’t looking for a college presence on Facebook.]
Direct marketing through a social network may be seen as an invasion of private space. [Similarly, I’ve seen market research that indicated teens view texting as something they do with friends, so marketers who want to text prospective students need to ask for permission.]
Greater commercialization of social networking sites may further dilute their potential value as a college communications tool. [In other words, if we come, will they leave?]
Social networking is about making nuanced personal social connections: explicit pitches likely will not work.
Social networking as a communications tool may be more effective with minority students, especially African-Americans.

This survey is fairly recent; Hesel said that a complete analysis would be available in about a month. In the meantime, download a handout here.