Adapting Your Content Strategy to the Evolving Social Media Landscape
- Gray Manning
- May 7
- 3 min read
Our recent research – The Social Media Gap – uncovered a number of key insights on the use of social media by further education students and their parents. Findings from the report included:
Most students spend three to six hours per day on social media.
Students want to see “authentic content” featuring fellow students.
Parents are the biggest influence on student decisions.
94% of parents use social media to research colleges.
60% of parents use Facebook, with 49% using TikTok.
Beyond the trends we uncovered in our report, we then held a series of follow-up sessions with college marketing teams to stress-test the findings. Not only did these discussions corroborate our research, they also brought them to life by confirming that many colleges are already shaping new strategies to adapt to the changing social media landscape revealed by our insights.
Here are some of the most valuable lessons and practical applications for colleges from those conversations:
1. Authenticity Not Perfection
Our finding that students want to see “authentic content” featuring fellow students is already being heard and responded to in the sector. The marketing teams we engaged with are shifting towards more natural and engaging content, rather than over-produced videos. The emphasis is increasingly on relatable content – such as ‘day in the life’ student experiences – which can not only be turned around quickly, but tend to perform significantly better than traditional promotional material. As one of our participants said, "We can create, edit, and post in the same day.”
2. Stress-Free Student-Driven Content
While students may be the best content creators, they’re often reluctant to participate directly. Colleges are tackling this by:
Using media and digital marketing students for content creation.
Capturing student experiences but using voiceovers if they are camera-shy.
Recruiting younger college staff or apprentices to act as presenters.
This approach maintains authenticity, yet overcomes the common challenges of relying on students to generate content themselves.
3. Platform-Specific Strategies
Rather than posting the same content across multiple platforms, many college marketing teams are tailoring content to fit each audience. For example:
TikTok – Tends to be used for short-form video content, but some colleges use it to do paid adverts aimed at driving parents to the website.
Instagram & Snapchat – Focused on student-friendly content, but Snapchat appears to be losing popularity among students.
Facebook – Still important, mainly for reaching parents, with organic posts on things like open days and student success stories.
The colleges we spoke with also noted a shift in behaviour, with a growing trend being that people don't necessarily like and share stuff as frequently as they used to.
4. Quality Over Quantity
With limited resources, marketing teams are prioritising fewer, higher-quality posts that resonate with both students and parents. This ensures that every piece of content serves a clear purpose rather than simply filling a content calendar. One participant summed this up saying, “If we haven’t got good content, we don’t post.”
5. The Importance of Internal Buy-In
Social media success isn’t all about external engagement. Just as crucial is internal support. We found that marketing teams who have strong backing from their Senior Leadership Team (SLT) reported greater freedom to experiment, more investment in marketing resources, and also a better ability to measure success.
However, for those who do not have this support, demonstrating the impact of social media efforts through the use of data and analytics – whether engagement metrics or direct links to enrolment – can prove to be a vital part of building the case for greater investment.
Adapting to an Evolving Landscape
With the social media landscape evolving, college marketing teams also need to evolve their strategies and approaches to adapt to new realities. GMP's The Social Media Gap highlighted the need for content strategies to be agile, and our follow up sessions showed how many colleges are trying to achieve this. Colleges that embrace appropriate, authentic content with a clear purpose, posted on appropriate platforms, and who have the freedom to experiment afforded them by support from senior leadership, will be best placed to engage both students and parents effectively.
Get in touch to arrange a free initial consultation, where we’ll take you through how we can help you develop a communications and content strategy that will maximise your brand-building, recruitment, and lead generation.
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