Why You Matter More Than You Know

Majority of modern college students have smart devices;

smart devices mean social apps and 24/7 social connection.

This is a massive opportunity for digital engagement, which

can be just as effective as face-to-face communication, if not,

more.

Top 8 Benefits of Engaging Students

1. Personal Development

2. Creativity

3. Productivity

4. Failing Forward

5. Communication Skills

6. Leadership

7. Supporting A Team Environment

8. Project Management Skills

You Know About Retention, But What About Recruitment

• There is so much focus on engaging and retaining students while at the university, but here’s an interesting thought: what about recruitment?

• Start getting them involved during orientation or even before. This all becomes possible digitally.

Coach Organizations To Get Students Involved

• Communicating with orgs and student leaders on the latest and greatest trends in technology and effective communication methods can help everyone grow.

• Students can keep SAPro’s in the loop on what’s hot, and SAPro’s can apply their experience and time management ideas to these new technologies and find the most effective means of engaging modern college students.

Nothing Will Ever Replace Face-to-Face Communication. Funnel Them To You.

• Nothing will ever replace the success and impact of face-to-face communication so lets reframe technology as something actionable.

• Think of social media as a funnel.

• The gist of a funnel strategy is running your target market through a funnel (series of steps, processes, or journey) where you lead them to your end destination.

• This is how you reach modern college students, build relationships, and get them to the end goal, which could be a face-to-face interaction with you.

Defining The Modern College Student

• 73% of college students said they cannot study without technology.

• 70% of students us keyboards to take notes (no more paper).

• 91% of students use email to communicate with professors.

Technology is a Huge Part of a Modern College Students Life

• This new generation grew up in a connected world.

• This generation grew up in social age, an age where a friend on the other side of the world is less than seconds away due breakthroughs with the Internet and social media.

• We communicate more than ever, in fact, we are communication machines.

Last Backpack Generation

• With new online tools and platforms operating off of the cloud, textbooks being offered on tablets, and phones with 4G and wifi that allow access to all of the above, one can question whether a backpack is really necessary.

• 98% of students who own an eReader read eTextbooks.

• 65% use digital devices to create presentations.

Shorter Attention Span

• Thanks to 24/7 digital connection, students are also more distracted than ever before.

• The constant advertising and notifications students soon learn to ignore make attention a short-lived and rare commodity.

• Developing creative ways to capture this attention and communication quickly and efficiently is what SAPro’s must learn to adapt to.

• According to a study conducted by Pew Research Center, many teachers said that internet and digital search tools have had a ‘mostly positive’ impact on their students’ research work, they also believe that these tools are creating an ‘easily distracted generation with short attention spans’.

Change is constant. New social networks are being created on a yearly basis.

How You Can Leverage Technology

Viral Factor

• Social networks have a major advantage when it comes to marketing, that is if you do it right.

• The most effective means of marketing for events is currently word of mouth. A hybrid of word of mouth is available through social networks, you’ve all heard the term: viral.

• If you make a quality post, video, tweet, graphic, picture, or message that is clever enough, the chance of that message reaching a large audience (extremely fast) is very possible.

Trends

• By following what’s trending, you can stay current and relevant in online communication. You can also benefit from using these trends to your advantage to get students’ attention.

• Twitter makes this extremely easy by adding a trending section on the home screen of your user profile.

• Google has a trending feature where you can see what the most popular searches are all over the world.

• Facebook even has a news trending section on the right side of your home screen.

• Staying current has never been this easy.

Involvement is Key To Student Engagement

Retention

• Making sure students are involved and giving them opportunities on campus has been shown to increase student retention.

• Studies have shown that students involved in at least 3 extracurricular activities or student organizations have a higher retention and graduation rate.

• That is to say, a student who is intimately connected with student life and campus culture is much more likely to finish their degree at that institution.

Leadership

• Leadership experience is an important part of a students’ communication skills and preparation for real world jobs. Learning how to lead is one of the most important skills you can help students develop.

• Next to creativity, leadership and communication skills are the most in demand skills sought by employers of college graduates.

Push Content To Start Those One-on-One Conversations

• Pushing content and starting conversations is key for engagement with modern day students.

• “Posts with 80 characters or fewer received 66 percent higher engagement.” -Kevin Lee

How Do You Know Your Engagement Strategies Are Working?

The Art of Data

• There are two types of data: qualitative and quantitative. These are metrics from different bits of information, gathered and combined to give you an overview of your data.

• Qualitative and quantitative data can tell us a lot about our students. Learning how to track and analyze this data can be a game changer when it comes to assessing engagement.

• Advances in technology, easier access to data, and tools that convert data into beautiful and easily understood visualizations have made it possible for anyone to gain a deeper understanding of their target market.

• Set goals and milestones. Marketing and engagement are about trial and error. Assess and analyze what is working and what is not.

Free eBook: The Art of Data: Successfully Unlock The Secrets of Student Engagement

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Reactive vs Proactive

• Reactive: Implies that you don’t have the initiative, events set your agenda and affect your reaction. Reactive is a lack of mindfulness and can mean the situation has control of you rather than you having control of the situation.

• Proactive: Implies having control over a situation. You analyze what the situation is before reacting. Proactivity means formulating a strategy and executing it with intent.

• Taking the time to step back and think about what is in front of you rather than simply reacting is crucial. Communicating with students and having access to meaningful data gives you the opportunity to be proactive when engaging students on campus.

Unless it’s Working, it’s an Assumption

• Never make an assumption! Never neglect an idea.

• The students are all around you and they are all available to communicate with.

• Running your ideas by students is often overlooked. They are the ones participating, they are the ones interacting with their peers, and they know what is being used and what is effective. Students are an asset to your planning and programming attempts.

Check I’m Here: The Complete

Campus Engagement Platform

Check I’m Here gives Universities & Colleges the power to Manage, Track, Assess, & Engage students

& organizations on campus.

Check I’m Here combines the power of mobile with the power of card swipe technology to produce

beautiful realtime reports of event data and the students that are attending events. This puts the

power of data into universities hands to know exactly how and what students are responding to and

what students want more of. There is no other technology that combines a powerful platform, with

the portability of mobile, and the convenience of card swipe technology. Check I’m Here is the #1

solution for your university.

CHECK I’M HERE

LEARN MORE NOW

Are you interested in learning more about how Check I’m Here can help your campus start benefiting from data? Please take some time and browse through the following resources:

• Top 10 Things You Can Learn in College Outside of The Classroom

• Creating A Highly Effective #SAPro Team

• Track Student Involvement with Card Swipe Technology

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