Communication Strategies for Student Success

ACADEMIC SUCCESS EXCHANGE

We’ve talked in previous Academic Success discussions about the importance of marketing and communication strategies to promote your center to the college community. Since this was a popular topic, we decided to cover it again this week, and here are some of the new insights that we learned.

First, we polled attendees to ask how many have an official communication strategy for their center. We got lots of no's, and a few saying they have “somewhat” of a strategy, and one saying they are working on a rough draft. We know our sample size is somewhat small compared to the larger world of student support centers, but from this poll, we’re guessing most centers out there don’t have a solid communication strategy.

We get it! With everything going on in your centers, especially right now with so many schools preparing to welcome students back for in-person instructions and services, thinking about a communication strategy is probably the furthest thing from your mind. Sure, we know getting the word out is important, but a whole strategy? Who has time for that?

Well, the good news is, you probably already have a strategy! So now it’s just a matter of sitting down, figuring out what you’re already doing, and refining from there. For example, do you normally visit all classes that you offer tutoring for at the beginning of the term? Make that part of your official strategy. Do you post once or twice a week on social media? That can be a part of your strategy too, with some quick research on how to use social media most effectively.

In fact, the one attendee who said their center is already working on a strategy said they are including techniques that are probably familiar to many center managers already, such as:

• Presenting in classrooms
• Utilizing social media more heavily
• Including a blurb on all course syllabi
• Messaging students through the LMS system
• Targeted emails to certain students and cohorts

As you can see, it doesn’t have to be complex! You don’t have to hire a PR person for your center; just use some common sense methods based on what works for your center and the tools you have available.

When sitting down to work on your strategy, ask yourself, what are one or two things you want to make sure you communicate with students? A good communication strategy will give you the best chance of making sure you communicate those things effectively.

If you’re an Accudemia client, there are a few ways you can leverage the system to be part of your communication strategy as well. The Accudemia home page, for instance, is highly customizable and offers the ability to embed links and videos for easy sharing of information with students. There are also communication features, which allow you to email, text, or chat with individual students or groups, perfect for major announcements and providing general information about your center.

We hope this article has provided you with some ideas for how to effectively communicate with students about your center’s services. If you have any questions, please contact support@accudemia.com. We hope to see you at the next Academic Success discussion during the Accudemia Weekly session!

Join us Next Time
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Academic Success segment recap for 7/20/2021 for the weekly Accudemia sessions. We hope that these questions help you to ponder how you can ensure every student feels welcome in your center. Join us next Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. EST for our Weekly Accudemia Session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!