There are a few things that always come to mind when I think about good social media.

It’s usually conversational. It makes people and ideas seem more approachable. It leans toward the casual. You never know what to expect next. And, most importantly, it celebrates our humanity in everything it does.

But, as the Office of Admissions was working to completely redesign our website, we asked, “Why do those great attributes have to be chained to social media?”

Long story short; they don’t.

Let’s let social breathe

I get to work with some incredible people and, even though we always have student success in mind, it can be hard for the public to see us as anything but the office that sends out the dreaded denial letter. Combine that with an outdated website and we noticed that our counselors weren’t having the best interactions with many of their students.

So, why not take the proven principles of social media and apply them to our web design in the form of social profile pages?[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Personable and approachable

Our counselors come from every walk of life, have a huge variety of interests and all bring something different to the workplace. There was no reason to keep that to ourselves.

We made sure to include the things that make them special. Their passions, goals, family life, and even food preferences make appearances on the personal pages.

Visual first

This was the fun part. Each of our counselors got a personal photo shoot with our great campus photographers. They were all encouraged to bring props and have fun with the experience.

In addition, we asked counselors to provide photos from outside of work, showed their skills in simple infographic form, and added video embeds from RamChat if they have participated in the past.

Easy to engage

Just like social media, communicating is only a couple clicks away. Instead of only providing email and phone information, we included a quick form for students and families that didn’t want to go through the hassle of leaving the webpage. As a result, we’ve seen a significant increase in student outreach.

Unique and unexpected

We also tried to add some Easter Eggs on many of the counselor pages. Each counselor included something they were bad at in their list of skills, the photos are engaging (to say the least), and one of our counselors preferred method of communication is through Hogwarts Owls.

What does this all mean?

Beyond the anecdotal evidence we have that these new counselor pages have been successful, we feel optimistic about taking the lessons we’ve learned on social media and applying them to everything we do.

And that simply means putting people first.

See all of our counselor pages right here.

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