The Potential of Visual, Creative Social Media Apps in the Higher Education Student Recrutiment Process

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have increasingly used social media in an effort to strengthen recruitment practices and communication with prospective students. Whereas in the last decade, Facebook was considered the best social media site to communicate with prospective students, that does not appear to be the case anymore. Different apps, belonging to a category called creative outlet apps that are based on photos or videos, now appear to be more popular with prospective students. One such app, YouTube, is highly popular with prospective students in Generation Z, and it is already part of most HEIs’ social media strategies. This study sought to understand how HEIs use YouTube for recruitment purposes through the lens of featured videos and featured playlists. A content audit gathered data from YouTube channels from 86 HEIs across the United States. A descriptive analysis of the statistics helped inform the production of a white paper for higher education admissions or social media employees looking to start a YouTube channel for their unit or institution. The study found that HEIs are largely using YouTube to post videos but not to interact with commenters. Two-way communication should be prioritized to fully maximize YouTube’s capabilities of connecting with prospective students.Master of Arts in Digital Communicatio