From tap to trust: rethinking recruitment in a mobile-first world
This article explores how universities can convert attention at any point in the student journey into action through mobile-first platforms and curated digital experiences.
Your future students are already searching for education options. They’re scrolling TikTok for campus tours, watching Instagram Reels of student life, and ‘DMing’ peers for advice, all before they ever fill out an enquiry form.
Yet many universities still rely on traditional channels to make first contact. To compete in today’s global recruitment landscape, institutions must align their strategies with how Gen Z discovers, explores, and builds trust, through social, and mobile-first digital experiences.
DISCOVERY AND DIGITAL CHANNELS
Before they ever visit your website, prospective students are forming impressions through short-form videos and peer reviews on social media. These platforms aren’t just entertainment, they are now trusted research tools. For recruitment teams, this means rethinking content strategy to leverage bite-sized, mobile-first, story-driven content on social media that answers the real questions students are asking.
Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are now acting as search engines, where prospective students explore international universities through student-created content, day-in-the-life videos, and viral recommendations. For Chinese students, platforms such as WeChat, RED (Xiaohongshu), and Douyin are the essential apps for seeking out this content.
Once prospective students are aware and interested in an institution, they will want to reach out and find out more. But it is vital to capture these prospects with mobile-first solutions, to have the highest chance of turning an enquiry into an application. Without the right digital solutions, much of the effort put into social engagement, both organic or paid is lost.
In order to capture this attention, our team at United Media Solution mapped out the entire International Student Journey Lifecycle, to better understand and engage at every education touchpoint.
The cycle starts with discovery via social media and agent interaction, followed by recruitment and onboarding supported by digital tools. As students progress through the study experience and employability outcomes, institutions can strengthen engagement with targeted support.
The journey continues through advocacy and life-long learning, where alumni networks and online credentials can help sustain connection with an institution. At every stage, digital solutions tailored to each touchpoint help build trust, drive engagement, and improve the overall student experience.
CAMPUS CAPABILITY
Many universities focus on satisfaction surveys to measure international student engagement, but tick-box surveys don’t always capture what students are asking for. International students often face unique pressures: cultural adjustment, academic transitions, isolation, and navigating services in an unfamiliar system. Many on campus service and support functions are designed for the entire student cohort, but not always tailored for international students.
Why does this matter? Because choosing to study in a new country, far from home, in a second language, and in a highly competitive global market, is big personal decision. That’s why we believe universities need better digital tools – platforms that that are connected to international student needs and deliver personalised, accessible services.
While many universities have built student services such as career support, resume/CV workshops, and employer panel events, these offerings are often designed with domestic students in mind. International students may struggle to relate to the advice.
Many international students, especially those from Asia, have limited interview and part-time work experience, and need additional resources to help showcase their unique capabilities to potential employers.
This disconnect can leave international students feeling unsupported, even when the intention to provide support is there.
United Media Solution studied these gaps through mapping the international student journey and identified the need for better digital solutions. We developed our Student Experience Platform to help address this challenge. It enables real peer-to-peer interaction, moderated forums, event access, and wellbeing support in a mobile-first environment.
When students feel seen, supported, and connected, they thrive. And when universities can track those interactions in real time, they can refine their services and retain more students.
CURATED EXPERIENCES
University websites are full of valuable content, but to a prospective student, they can feel like a maze. What’s missing is focus. We developed a Digital Prospectus Platform to address this. It helps to focus the prospective student journey by offering curated landing pages tailored to specific audiences – by country, course interest, or campaign. It’s a streamlined, mobile-first experience that focuses on getting prospects to the application stage faster.
We built this platform along with our Student Experience Platform and Job Search Portal, because many institutions face a lot of technical debt with existing systems, including their main website. International marketing and recruitment teams often have the latitude to launch microsites, landing pages, run campaigns, and produce collateral without layers of additional approvals. So our digital platforms are designed to be fast, lightweight, affordable, and quick to deploy. They are designed going live in weeks, not months.
These curated experiences provide useful analytics to show the pages and topics that students and agents are interacting with most often. They also provide a channel to manage enquiries efficiently. By having a focused set of pages, institutions can support multiple languages and localise content more quickly and cost-effectively. These mobile-first solutions help students find what they need faster, ultimately building trust and encouraging them to move further through the application funnel.
BUILDING TRUST
Today’s students trust other students more than institutions. That’s why peer-led content, including student testimonials, day-in-the-life videos, livestream Q&As, and social media takeovers, have become one of the most powerful tools in recruitment. Storytelling builds emotional connection, helps manage expectations, and provides real-world context that polished marketing PR can’t replicate.
Whether it’s a student explaining how they navigated visa challenges or sharing what surprised them most about campus life, these stories offer relatable, reassuring insights. Incorporating authentic student voices into your social media content is essential for building credibility and encouraging action from prospective students that are still deciding where to apply.
Implementing fast and easy to use mobile-first platforms allows institutions to capture this attention and channel it into the application stage more effectively. That’s why we built mobile-first platforms that let universities connect, guide, and support students through every phase, from discovery to graduation and beyond.
Find out more about our digital solutions for education here.
Get in touch with Jessica Miao at United Media Solution here: [email protected]
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