Students have told us that having the right information, at the right time, would make them feel better prepared and more excited about attending college, school or university.
There is a lot going on in their email inboxes at this sometimes overwhelming time! Here are our tried-and-tested best practices: so you can cut through the noise, and make sure they get the right announcements and reminders, when they need them most:
Step 1: Create a hit list
This 'greatest hits' compilation should be a comprehensive list of your upcoming dates, events, and key information that admitted students need to know.
Think of this list as removing barriers to enrolment by offering timely reminders; but also as another avenue to build excitement.
Here's some examples:
Open houses/open days
Virtual AMAs, social takeovers and webinars
Deposit deadlines
Applications for housing, funding, and visas
Cultural events
Taster seminars and study days
Facilities - i.e. library, mental health support, career services, campus food spots
Initiatives: volunteer center, sustainability, diversity
University ranking announcements
Staff, alumni and student achievements and success stories
Orientation and induction events
Step 2: Who should post Updates?
Admins, Staff, and Student Ambassadors can all post Updates. You can read more about account roles and permissions in Community here.
Your Updates channel is pinned to the top of the Inbox for every member - whatever their role within the Community, so its easily accessible to all. Most importantly - members see every Update posted, no matter when they joined your Community, so you know nothing will be missed.
Decide who can post Updates in your Community. Do you want this to be a curated space, where you share a regular cadence of important info? Are you happy for your Ambassadors to take it away and share their stories, insights, successes, and show-stopping photos?
Perhaps a blended approach works best - University Admins take the reins with a consistent rhythm of key takeaways, and Ambassadors are periodically invited to host an Updates takeover, surfacing diverse voices and keeping peer experience at the heart of your offering.
Step 3: Enrich your Community Updates with useful content
Now that you have plotted your important announcements and decided on a strategy as to who can post Updates, its time to fill your Updates channel with relevant and accessible content, to help provide incoming students with a snapshot of life at your institution.
See below for our ideas and examples:
Informative content | Engaging content | Student requested content |
Announcements, such as an upcoming virtual AMA or webinar | Photos to build a snapshot of life on campus - aesthetic images, clubs and societies in action, historic buildings, recommended coffee shops | |
Dates for the diary, event reminders (e.g. open houses/open days) and deadlines for visa applications, housing, and funding | Consumable chunks of content such as 3 Desert Island items Ambassadors wouldn’t have left for college or uni without, seminar essentials, or links to student-created blog posts | Use the student confidence results to generate the content your admitted students want to see, nudging them over the line to enrolment |
Guidelines for using Community, ensuring the best experience for all | Event listings - build excitement by signposting to arts and culture, gigs, and sports events | Post Updates to coincide with your email communications, highlighting your email comms’ key points |
PDFs can be shared across Community - upload important forms, documents, campus maps, or reading lists | Lend your Updates channel a fun and trending edge by posting GIFs | Refresh and delete Updates when they are no longer relevant, making Community a one-stop shop for the most credible information |
Step 4: Decide your cadence
We encourage your team or your Ambassadors to post Updates once a week to keep the momentum going and get your students excited!
Here's some ideas for your Ambassadors:
A POV-photo of their study set up
Bitesize tips on focus whilst studying
3 best student deals around town
A PDF Campus Map, highlighting landmarks around campus
Fun and topical GIFs to add a lighthearted touch
Using Community Updates with other communication channels:
Updates is another channel to add to your communications toolkit, and can work hand in hand with your existing communications strategy.
Existing communication channels | Community Updates (Unibuddy app) |
Objective: Suitable for longer-form content, topics and detail | Objective: suitable for quick, bite-sized information that aligns to your longer-form content |
Examples:
| Examples:
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See it in action