Newsletter #71: Fewer students are using social media; Meta has found a new app to copy; Millennials are ageing out of the internet
✏️ From the Education Marketer desk
Higher ed, your Facebook followers are about to be worth a whole lot less. Read
More young people use social media than ever before, right? Nope. Read
If student social media use is declining, where is the attention going? Read
📰 HE news
Exams, what better way is there to assess a young person’s ability than to stick them in a sweltering sports hall for the afternoon? The return to normal (what a missed opportunity) A-level assessments were bound to bring some anxiety among students - hardly surprising with Telegraph headlines like “prepare for disappointment” and in The Times, “four out of 10 UK students shut out as top universities pocket fees from overseas.” What rubbish. If Scottish results are anything to go by (and they totally should be) A-level results day won’t be so cataclysmic. As of Monday, 72% of 18-year-old Scottish students had been placed at their first-choice institution - hardly the stark picture the UK’s media is making out. However, Clearing lines will still be busier than usual. About 28,000 A-level students who want to go to university aren’t currently holding an offer - the highest since 2013. Read
It looks like both employers and students value nondegree pathways, but still view them as risky. I wonder what could get them to roll the dice? Apparently, it’s information: Out of 1,500 Gen Z students, only 47% felt they received enough information to make the best career plan. While there’s a way to go before higher ed comes under pressure from alternative providers, they shouldn’t be ignored and has some compelling plus points: 1) Niche skill programs are 1/100th the cost of a college degree. 2) The programmes are only going to get better (some are already exceptionally high quality, like the business publisher and trainer Category Pirates). 3) Gen Z have profound trust for internet creators who educate, but also entertain. Professors aren’t just competing with other professors anymore. Read
📊 Marketing and media news
After Instagram suffered fallout from copying TikTok, it’s pivoting to a new strategy: Copy BeReal. The app’s introducing “duel camera mode” as well as a QR code generator that can place the shots on a map. Meanwhile, BeReal is absolutely flying. It’s just months away from 100M daily users and is extremely popular with Gen Z, especially on university campuses. That said, there’s still no sign of monetisation and I don’t see it opening its door to advertisers any time soon. Some universities are asking their student creators to share uploads so they can be repurposed as Reels and TikToks, but BeReal itself isn’t a place for brands right now. Read
Much like every legacy social platform these days, LinkedIn is getting a new discovery feed. With creator programmes now active in the US, UK and Brazil, it’s testing a feed that prioritises relevance over followers and connections, much like Meta announced a couple of weeks back. If this update goes ahead, it will increase the reach of staff advocacy exponentially. But only if you have individual content strategies in place. I think there’s a real opportunity here. Many universities have student creator programmes, but few give staff the same attention and profile. For inspiration - check UA92’s recruitment team on LinkedIn. Even the uni’s director of student recruitment is a creator, publishing every day and evangelising the brand. If you’re interested in building an audience of parents and partners, LinkedIn is the place to be. LinkedIn discovery feed | UA92 creators
Bonus: Ryan Renolds dropped a new ad on LinkedIn. I hope he leaves something for the rest of us. Look
🏫 What unis are doing
It’s Results Day on Thursday, so this is my last Clearing dive of the year. Liverpool is feeling pretty confident as it’s the first uni I’ve come across to not use the word “Clearing” in a headline or CTA about Clearing. Although, its “results hub” sounds lovely. Further south, Keele impressed me by running subject area landing pages for Google ads. A lot of unis just link off to standard hub pages which do a poor job of telling you which courses are in Clearing - so nice one, Keele. And, finally, I can’t tell if Stirling is in Clearing, can you? Liverpool | Keele | Stirling
The Open University, “experts in distance learning for over 50 years” (i.e. before it was cool) is running its new ad campaign: The Future is Open. And judging by the reaction in its YouTube comments… I think they’ve nailed it. “Anyone needs proof how good the OU is - this advert says it all, proud to be a OU student...” It’s actually a relatively simple ad. It shows students living their life (looking after their kids, working in a bar etc) and then walking through various hidden doorways into their ideal career. Okay, it sounds TERRIBLE and I’m not sure what happens to the kid left on the sofa, but the visuals are on point and the soundtrack makes it. I’m glad to see more unis picking up on the power of audio in ads. Falmouth did the same recently with its video Creativity in Everything. Open University | Falmouth
ETH Zuric’s new campaign “Where the future begins” is a rare combination of A) research being used in a student recruitment ad, B) a university articulating its remarkable point of view, and C) packaging it all in distinctive creative. My highlight has to be how each research topic is positioned with an obvious question, but then takes an unobvious turn. “Everyone is talking about the quantum computer.” Yes, indeed they are. “But the real question is - what’s holding the quantum world together?” Okay, now you have my attention. Look
🧑🎓 What students are saying
“My personal experience of the A-level exams this year was a generally positive one. I feel fairly confident that I did OK and I didn’t have any issues with my exams. However, some of my friends had disastrous exams where the papers got leaked or the advanced information was incorrect, and I know this has been really stressful for them in what is already a stressful situation.” Students on how their exams went this year and their plans for the future. Read
👾 Culture shock
Are you aware of “the millennial pause?” Read
Even Meta’s own chatbot thinks the company is exploiting people. Look
