Social Media and Online Rankings

1. Social Media and Online Rankings

2. Online research — including ranking sites — and social media are now primary means by which Americans gather information and share opinions. How can schools adapt to this reality?

3. Majority of Americans connecting, sharing information, & getting news and entertainment via social media How People Gather and Share Information • Most popular platforms among U.S. adults: • Facebook: 68% • Instagram: 28% • Pinterest: 26% • LinkedIn: 25% • Twitter: 21% This compares with 5% in 2005. Pew Research Center, “Social Media Fact Sheet” (Jan. 12, 2017)

4. How People Gather and Share Information “Seeking validation from the online collective” “69 percent [of Americans] seek out advice and opinions on goods and services before purchasing. Of those who seek out advice, shoppers are equally likely to visit user review sites or independent review sites before making a purchase (70 percent), while 57 percent use social media networks for recommendations.” “The collective intelligence of online review sites and social media has allowed consumers to get a second opinion and validate their choices. Others are using their networks as a starting point in their buying process for bigger ticket items or in areas for which they lack expertise.” PRNewswire press release on the Mintel Group report (June 3, 2015) Mintel Group Ltd., American Lifestyles 2015: The Connected Consumer – Seeking Validation from the Online Collective - US - April 2015

5. Millennials Online Millennials go online for parenting advice. Millennials (90% of whom use social media) are twice as likely as Boomers to look to Google most often for parenting advice. Katy Steinmetz, “Help! My Parents Are Millennials,” Time (Oct. 26, 2015) Millennials want to engage with brands on social networks.  “62% of Millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social networks, they are more likely to become a loyal customer.”  Dan Schawbel, “10 New Findings About the Millennial Consumer,” Forbes (Jan. 20, 2015)

6. The Power of Lists “Why our brains love lists” “The article-as-numbered-list has several features that make it inherently captivating: the headline catches our eye in a stream of content; it positions its subject within a preexisting category and classification system…. It spatially organizes the information; and it promises a story that’s finite.... Together, these create an easy reading experience, in which the mental heavy lifting of conceptualization, categorization, and analysis is completed well in advance of actual consumption.” “Nine Psychological Reasons Why We Love Lists,” by Claudia Hammond We know exactly what we’re getting. We don’t like missing out. [Lists] feel less taxing on the brain. We like to think we’re too busy to read anything else. They are easy to scan for information… …and we always know how much is left. It’s fun trying to guess what’s on the list… …and we love being proved right. A list feels definitive. BBC.com (Apr. 13, 2015) Maria Konnikova, “A List of Reasons Why Our Brains Love Lists,” The New Yorker (Dec. 2, 2013)

7. Colleges and Online Rankings

8. The Draw of College Rankings Simplifying a complex and high-stakes process “The college search process can be a formidable task of sifting through enormous amounts of information, and the stakes are high. Ranking systems have an immediate and obvious appeal: they seem to simplify making sense of complicated and confusing information.” Jeffrey Brenzel, Yale Dean of Admissions, “Beyond College Rankings,” Yale University website For some people, rankings may be the most available information.“If students and their families don’t have access to alums and can’t afford to make lots of campus visits, they’ll turn to the most visible, readily available alternate resource: college rankings of dubious real value.” Eleanor Barkhorn, “College Rankings Really Do Influence Which Schools Students Apply To,” The Atlantic (Jan. 17, 2014)

9. The Impact of College Rankings … on institutional behavior “Despite their different contexts… [institutions] respond similarly to rankings. [They] seek to shore up areas that relate directly to ranking indicators.... They integrate these changes into broader strategic planning initiatives and situate them in changing national & international higher education policy contexts…. In some cases, rankings can trigger a shift of institutional resources to nonproductive uses. However, they can also provide evidence of institutional effectiveness…” Institute for Higher Education Policy, Impact of College Rankings on Institutional Decision Making: Four Country Case Studies (2009) …on applications A report from the American Educational Research Association found that “both the U.S. News and Princeton Review lists … have a huge impact on where students apply to college. Inclusion in U.S. News’s top-25 list — regardless of whether it’s in the No. 1 spot or No. 25 — boosted the number of applications received by college between 6 and 10%.” Alia Wong, “A College-Rankings World,” The Atlantic (Nov. 9, 2015)

10. The Growth and Evolution of College Rankings Proliferation of rankings reflects new IT capacity and a desire to track ROI.“U.S. News & World Report … lost its monopoly on the [college rankings] market once the recession hit … when prospective students started to be ‘more circumspect in whether they’re willing to invest their money and time in pursuing an education.’ The rankings that were developed during this era … are in many ways a response to these shifting priorities. They’re also a reflection of new IT capacity that enables access to and comprehensive analysis of troves of institutional data.” Alia Wong, “A College-Rankings World,” The Atlantic (Nov. 9, 2015)

11. The Growth and Evolution of College Rankings “The influx of rankings suggests that no single source is able to provide the absolute right answer. … The role of these rankings is rapidly shifting — from serving as an authoritative voice on which college to attend to, simply, connecting students with data about different institutions.” Li Zhou, “A Roundup of All Those College Rankings,” The Atlantic (Nov. 9, 2015)

12. The Limitations of College Rankings Flimsy proxies for educational quality “There’s no direct way to measure the quality of an institution — how well a college manages to inform, inspire, and challenge its students. So the U.S. News algorithm relies instead on proxies for quality — and the proxies for educational quality turn out to be flimsy at best.” Malcolm Gladwell, “The Order of Things: What College Rankings Really Tell Us,” The New Yorker (Feb. 14 and 21, 2011) Misleading and harmful “The simplicity and clarity that ranking systems seem to offer are not only misleading but can be harmful. Rankings tend to ignore the very criteria that may be most important to an applicant, such as specific academic offerings, ease of access to faculty, international opportunities, and placement rates.”Jeffrey Brenzel, Yale Dean of Admissions, “Beyond College Rankings,” Yale University website

13. Unintended Consequences of College Rankings The gaming of the system “U.S. News ‘had too much influence that was starting to negatively affect the behavior of colleges and students,’ [Brookings Institution’s Jonathan Rothwell] said, in part because it grades colleges based on things like alumni giving, faculty pay, selectivity, and reputation. Eventually, colleges started ‘gaming the system, trying to get more people to apply to their schools even if [those people] had no chance.’” Alia Wong, “A College-Rankings World,” The Atlantic (Nov. 9, 2015)

14. Unintended Consequences of College Rankings Exacerbation of status anxiety “The rankings exacerbate the status anxiety that afflicts so many high school students. The single-minded goal of too many high school students — pushed by parents, guidance counselors and society itself — is to get into a ‘good’ school. Those who don’t land a prestigious admission feel like failures. Those who do but lack the means often wind up taking on onerous debt.” Joe Nocera, “The College Rankings Racket,” The New York Times (Sept. 28, 2012)  A focus on prestige at a time of crisis in access and affordability “Rankings are not benign. They enshrine very particular ideologies, and, at a time when American higher education is facing a crisis of accessibility and affordability, we have adopted a de-facto standard of college quality that is uninterested in both of those factors.” Malcolm Gladwell, “The Order of Things: What College Rankings Really Tell Us,” The New Yorker (Feb. 14 and 21, 2011)

15. Efforts to Resist College Rankings Early organized resistance to rankings In 2007, a majority of the 80 presidents that were part of the Annapolis Group (a nonprofit group of liberal arts colleges and universities) indicated that they would not participate in the reputational rankings portion of the U.S. News survey. Reed College continues to resist participation in U.S. News rankings. Reed participated in the rankings until 1995 when national reporting revealed colleges manipulating and fabricating data. Reed is one of the few colleges/universities that refuse to participate in the surveys/data submission. It provides extensive information on its site and to independent guides that “do a better job of describing the experience, student culture, and academic environment that Reed provides.”  Reed College website

16. Effort to Counter the Effects of Colleges Rankings College counselors banded together to advocate for a student-centered approach to admission. Colleges That Change Lives is a nonprofit, led by a volunteer board of college counseling professionals, “dedicated to the advancement and support of a student-centered college search process.” “In following [author and former New York Times education editor Loren] Pope’s ideals, we believe that the criteria most college bound students and their parents and counselors use, such as name and prestige, do not acknowledge the importance of understanding an individual student’s needs and how they ‘fit’ with the mission and identity of an individual college community.”Colleges That Change Lives website

17. Schools and Online Rankings

18. How Families Research and ChooseIndependent Schools In a 2017 NAIS study of one metro area, parents rated school visits as the most important information during a school search, but recommendations were also rated as important to 74%.

19. How Families Research and ChooseIndependent Schools In an EMA report, in-person interaction is top tool for making a school choice, but referrals and websites are also significant. Online information as an access point for families newer to independent schools? While this study’s results show school websites as less important overall (compared with in-person interaction), this percentage “jumps to 73% among those with an income below $99,000 [and] to 76% [among those] with two years or fewer of college.” Enrollment Management Association, The Ride to Independent Schools (2014)

20. Ranking and Reviewing Schools Ranking and review sites now include K-12 schools, including independent schools. “The ranking methodologies employed tend to be questionable and can be manipulated easily when online reviews are part of the ranking equation. Many online forums allow anonymous postings, so the user has no idea who is responding to the question posed nor the validity of the answer. “Yet this type of social networking site is growing in popularity. … Families tell us that they make school decisions based primarily on school visits, but many are choosing which schools to visit based on information drawn from ranking sites and forums.” Donna Orem, “A Prescription for Rendering Rankings Moot,” Independent Ideas blog (Mar. 13, 2017)

21. Ranking and Reviewing Schools Elements in online reviews/rankings (of public and private schools) show how much they vary in purpose. Meta S. Brown, “High School Rankings: What Gets Schools to the Top?” Forbes (Aug. 28, 2015)

22. Ranking and Reviewing Schools National sites that rank and review private schools* *This list is not comprehensive.

23. Understanding Niche’s Methodology Methodology for Niche’s Best Private High School Ranking NAIS Note: Niche requires that a school have a minimum of 7 responses to be included in the grading of this category. Niche website Niche.com

24. Embracing the World of Social Networking How do we use social networking for good? “How do we break through all the noise to help parents make good educational choices for their children? I believe that we need to get in the game. Ranking sites will proliferate as long as people are drawn to them. We need to use social media to tell a different story, that is, what constitutes a great education and how to find one that meets the needs of an individual child.” Donna Orem, “A Prescription for Rendering Rankings Moot,” Independent Ideas blog (Mar. 13, 2017)

25. Managing the Rankings Conversation: One Example Jesuit High School’s publication explores with its community the Niche rankings. “The main issue lies in the site’s dependency on student responses in surveys and polls to formulate their statistics. Often, there are only 8-10 responses for any poll or survey question, forcing the site to amass statistics and averages from a minuscule demographic that doesn’t necessarily represent a majority of the school. As a result, the site is prone to create undeveloped school rankings…. “For families who have no experience with the school community, a ranking might play a larger role in their decision to look at Jesuit. Numbers and letters have a greater overall effect — negative or positive — on those students who don’t have a personal connection to Jesuit or any of its students.” Olivia Glaser, “Are Niche School Rankings Accurate?” Jesuit Crusader (Dec. 12, 2014)

26. Managing Your Online Presence: Social Media Basics Strategic social media use includes listening, focusing, and creating valuable content. “The Law of Listening: Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them… “The Law of Focus: …A highly-focused social media strategy has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people. “The Law of Compounding: If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences…” Susan Gunelius, “10 Laws of Social Media Marketing,” Entrepeneur.com

27. Strategic Discussion Prompts

28. Strategic Discussions Prompts RANKINGS Has your leadership team discussed its stance on online ranking sites? Have you communicated with your community in a direct and intentional way about those discussions? ONLINE PROFILE Is your online information (on your website and social media sites) consistent in content and voice, comprehensive, up-to-date, visual, and mobile-ready? Do your website and social media networks work together so that visitors to either one will find the information they need? Have your IT & comm teams explored how to improve your site’s SEO? Are you focusing your school’s communication efforts on the social networks that make the most sense for your target audiences? Are you using the principles of “in-bound marketing” to create and share useful content in strategic places and at strategic times?

29. Strategic Discussions Prompts ADMISSION AND RECRUITMENT How can your website and your social media channels help make the admission process more welcoming and manageable, even for families new to independent schools? Are you providing the data that families seek to help them make the decision to invest in an education at your school? How/where could your administrators and teachers connect with other people online (such as serving as experts in an online forum) to enhance your school’s public profile? How are you engaging your alumni to be ambassadors for your school in person and online? How can you engage even the most casual or one-time visitors to your site or social media pages to ensure that they have accurate information about your school?

30. Resources • Pew Research Center, “Social Media Fact Sheet” • Mintel Group Ltd., American Lifestyles 2015: The Connected Consumer – Seeking Validation From the Online Collective - US - April 2015 • Katy Steinmetz, “Help! My Parents Are Millennials,” Time • Dan Schawbel, “10 New Findings About The Millennial Consumer,” Forbes • Maria Konnikova, “A List of Reasons Why Our Brains Love Lists,” The New Yorker • Claudia Hammond, “Nine Psychological Reasons Why We Love Lists,” BBC.com • Jeffrey Brenzel, “Beyond College Rankings,” Yale University website • Eleanor Barkhorn, “College Rankings Really Do Influence Which Schools Students Apply To,” The Atlantic • Alia Wong, “A College-Rankings World,” The Atlantic • Institute for Higher Education Policy, Impact of College Rankings on Institutional Decision Making • Li Zhou, “A Roundup of All Those College Rankings,” The Atlantic • Malcolm Gladwell, “The Order of Things: What College Rankings Really Tell Us,” The New Yorker • Joe Nocera, “The College Rankings Racket,” The New York Times • Reed College website • Colleges That Change Lives website • NAIS, The Los Angeles Metro Area Study • Enrollment Management Association, The Ride to Independent Schools • Donna Orem, “A Prescription for Rendering Rankings Moot,” Independent Ideas blog • Meta S. Brown, “High School Rankings: What Gets Schools to the Top?” Forbes • Niche.com, Noodle.com, Greatschools.org, privateschoolreview.com, schooldigger.com, startclass.com • Olivia Glaser, “Are Niche School Rankings Accurate?” Jesuit Crusader • Susan Gunelius, “10 Laws of Social Media Marketing,” Entrepeneur.com