By Abdul Mondal
In this entry on Educational Marketing we will analyze the results of a study carried out by Colleges and Marketing in a private school in Madrid, with 13 and 14 year old students studying 2nd ESO. The reason why this age range has been selected is because it is the most “fresh” generation, and because at this age all students have a Smartphone with which to connect to Social Networks.
The objective of this study was to identify the communication channels most used by the students, in order to reach them more effectively, and to obtain a greater participation in the publications and social campaigns initiated by the School.
The study was conducted in June 2014 with 40 comparable students in age and sex. The test consisted of an individual test (quantitative survey) of 5 minutes in which 6 questions were asked. One of the most repeated comments among the students was “the school does not publish anything that interests me; Only publishes things that interest the parents . “
This comment served to “redesign” the communication strategy in Social Networks of the College. We then analyze the six questions, and some of the most significant results of this study.
What Social Networks do our students use?
YouTube , despite not being considered as a “Classic” Social Network, is the social medium most used by our students to consume information. 75% of respondents use it almost daily. Video is imposed as a means of communication among young people, and schools must take this opportunity to reach their educational community with greater effectiveness.
Meanwhile, Twitter is the most popular “classic” social network among teenagers (68%), closely followed by Instagram (63%), which has experienced exponential growth in a very short time. In third place is Tuenti (28%), which has been losing strength since it was acquired by Movistar in 2010. Google+ (23%) continues to grow slowly, and Facebook (18%) is the least used by the new generations. Therefore, one of the fundamental conclusions of this first question is that Facebook becomes a means of communication with the parents, not with the students. According to the experts at dissertation writing services recommend colleges and other institutes to involve their students through social media.
One of the reasons that teenagers do not use Facebook is because their parents are present in this Network, so they prefer to use other networks in which “their parents are not.” LinkedIn and Pinterest are the only social networks in which there is no adolescent presence (0%).
On the other hand, 40% of the students consider WhatsApp a social network, and 15% are already using SnapChat , a mobile application similar to WhatsApp where received messages are removed from the phone in a short space of time that everyone decides.
Other Social Networks used by a small percentage are Vimeo (3%), Vine (5%), TubePro (3%) and Ask.fm (5%).
Once again we can observe a strong competition between Twitter and Instagram . 30% of respondents choose Twitter as the Social Network in which they spend the most time, and 28% choose Instagram . Between the two they add almost 60% market share, and in most cases they complement each other, because on Twitter the tendency is to publish more ” headlines” and related links, while in Instagram almost exclusively photos are published.
YouTube falls to third position, with 25%. However, in a second round of questions it was revealed that where they use it is at home, “because downloading videos consumes all the data of the phone if you do not have Wi-Fi”. This conclusion further strengthens the position of Twitter and Instagram . Tuenti (8%), Facebook (3%) and Google+ (3%) complete the ranking. Whatsapp and SnapChat were not included as a response since they are chats, and it is evident that 100% of students use it very frequently.
35% of the students did not follow the College object of this study in any of the 6 Social Networks in which it is present. This data is an indicator that, with its current communication strategy, the College is not reaching a third of its students.
While it is true that not all adolescents are equally active in Social Networks, the goal of the center should be that “all students continue to school in any of the networks, so they are informed of everything that is happening . “
Once again we have to stop to think about what kind of videos our students are interested in, and how we can involve them in the creation of these videos.
The other 5 networks that are commonly used by students are:
Docsity
Docsity is ideal for viewing notes, news, videos and content of all kinds. The information is shared by students and includes a large number of disciplines (Biology, Law, History, Languages, Mathematics …). It is a good source of consultation for college students. This network encourages the exchange of opinions between users, taking into account doubts or special contents.
The Capsuled
Launched last February, the tool aims to become a meeting point for teachers, schools and parents, where users can interact , create content and open educational proposals . It has a highly developed interface, with visual elements, color labels, publications and contents of all kinds.
EducaNetwork
This social network allows the creation of learning groups, where users can share files, create courses, chat and even test their knowledge with online tests .
Eduredes
The site seeks to consolidate itself as a ” place of exchange of experiences in the administration of educational social networks , teaching use of networks, possibilities and everything that implies the use of social networks for educational and educational purposes”, ensure their Creators Juan José de Haro and J.Carlos López.
Edmodo
The platform created in 2008 by Nic Borg and Jeff O’Hara offers a space for communication between educators, families and students, through the creation of open or closed groups where you can share materials, make publications, submit papers, attach files, With labels and ratings. To use it is necessary to register, and it is important to note that the only ones able to create groups on the site are the teachers .
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