Gen Z make up a large proportion of those who travel internationally for education and unlike the generation of Millennials, email communication is not as popular with this group.  Many International Schools are still of the view that sending an email to a student is sufficient confirmation that they will receive and read that message quickly.  

Some schools (and software providers) have begun to challenge this perception by accompanying emails with a SMS alert to the student reminding them they have an email.  This is a good first step, but students are still unlikely to check their email. 

Speaking of this topic, Intrinsiq recommend that all schools should collect social medis account names (such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat & Instagram).  Schools must actively begin using these details to communicate with their students.  

Direct Messaging

If a student’s attendance has dropped and you need to send them a warning, this could be done with a Twitter Direct Message in addition to SMS.  

Soft Marketing

By tweeting students with their successes you can improve not just individual students’ engagement with the school, but promote the school to students’ followers, some of whom may consider international education programmes.  

Many schools are attempting to do this on a manual basis, however, the power of software can provide a more consistent and rapid social media experience for all students.  

Some examples:

1. As your team enters a student’s exam results, the system calculates their improvement at the school, and if it meets pre-set criteria of improvement sends out a tweet congratulating the student for their success. 
2. When running a group excursion, the system sends out a tweet automatically the night before, reminding the student when/where they need to arrive for the excursion.
3. When taking photographs of students and classes, tagging the students in the photo means that the system could then post this to their Facebook feed.  

Alumni Relations

Many schools have little or no managed  communication with past students, which is missing out on a major marketing opportunity.  Posting special offers to alumni students to share with their friends can become an effective student recruitment solution.  

All of this may sound like an additional workload to add to already busy school administration staff.  However, with effective use of software, and the resulting time savings in other areas, real results are achievable without adding additional workload.