FOMO (noun - informal): fear of not being included in something, such as an interesting or enjoyable activity, that others are experiencing (Fear Of Missing Out).
Many of us, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, will be familiar with the term FOMO. Even if you’ve not heard of the term itself, you’ll be familiar with the feeling – the fear of missing out on something. A feeling that motivates you to go to that party, attend that event, or buy that trending product.
The term was coined by Harvard Business School student Patrick J. McGinnis and popularised in his 2004 op-ed “Social Theory at HBS: McGinnis’ Two FOs”. The article referred to FOMO and FOBO (Fear of a Better Option), and the role of these two fears in the school's social life.
Showing what people are missing out on isn’t just reserved for influencers promoting the latest lifestyle trend or viral product. The same psychological trigger can sit behind much more consequential decisions, including where people choose to study. On Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn, prospective students are constantly exposed to curated snapshots of campus life, international exchanges, and graduate success stories.
Over time, this creates a feeling that certain desirable opportunities are happening elsewhere — and that making the wrong choice for your education could mean missing out on integral experiences that shape career paths and personal development.
So, how can business schools and universities evoke this feeling through their PR and communications to attract students?
When a student picks their chosen school, they’re not simply choosing a degree programme – they’re choosing an overall experience: a city, a country, social clubs, extracurricular activities, and future opportunities. Depending on their stage of education, the school they choose might be the place they spend the next three or more years of their life, so they will want to make sure they are making the right decision.
Highlighting student and alumni stories through earned media is one way in which you can demonstrate to prospective students what they will be missing out on if they look elsewhere. But they don’t just want to see ads or marketing messages telling them they should study at your institution. They want to know what it’s actually like to study with you, hearing first-hand from real students and alumni, and reading about their personal stories.
You need to show them what they would be missing out on, and why they should apply.
Stories from successful entrepreneurs on how their education led them to success, the current experiences of international students who are studying abroad for the first time, or the opportunities outside of the programme that studying with your institution can offer.
Keep connected with your alumni community, as well as current students, and identify individuals with these stories to tell, or simply a willingness to be involved in media. These profiles can then be used to target the most relevant media publications with the right audiences, such as QS, Poets & Quants, Study International, Times Higher Education, and others.
These stories will demonstrate to prospective students what studying at your institution could offer, and might just make someone go “I want to study there too!”
Gen Z spend around five hours a day on social media, according to a survey from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan. With this the relevant age group for prospective BSc and MSc students, this is an important cohort to reach, demonstrating the need to show off your school on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
This could include content such as:
Allow a student to do a social media takeover of the official school account, and document their day as a student, sharing their personal story and experiences. Alternatively, interview a number of students, recording video to use for clips and reels, as well as quotes for posts.
Interview international students on why they chose your institution for their studies, what attracted them to the school as well as the country, and advice they’d have for future students. This would give potential applicants an insight into what their future could look like, as well as answer questions they may have about the process.
Sharing posts and videos from events run by student clubs demonstrates the extracurricular activities students can be a part off, outside of their academic studies.
This need only be short, simple, and genuine content from real students highlighting their own experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Prospective students increasingly judge institutions not only by rankings and brochures, but by the real-world experiences they see shared online.
As an educational institution, throughout the year, you will host open days, seminars, masterclasses, graduations, alumni events, and other opportunities to gather and generate content that demonstrates life on campus.
As well as using content from these events on social media to highlight experiences of student and alumni, events are also immersive experiences that allow students to visualise themselves at a school. Meeting current students, hearing career outcomes, and exploring campus life turns a potential option into a real choice.
If you’re looking to attract new students, FOMO may just be the most important feeling to harness. After all, none of us want to feel like we’re missing out.
Have you booked your tickets for BlueSky Media Connect yet? We wouldn't want you to get FOMO...
Kyle is experienced in working with leading institutions in far-flung corners of the globe, from London to Kazakhstan. His client list features the likes of the London School of Economics’ Department of Management, ESMT Berlin, BI Norwegian Business School, Nazarbayev University, and many more around the world.
FOMO, the fear of missing out, is the worry that others are having experiences you're not. In student recruitment, it describes the pull prospective students feel when they see campus life, international exchanges and graduate success stories shared by an institution, and start to picture what they'd miss by studying elsewhere.
Yes, because choosing where to study is one of the most FOMO-prone decisions a person makes. Students aren't just picking a degree programme, they're picking a city, a community and a set of future opportunities, often for three years or more. Content that shows what studying with you is actually like speaks directly to that.
Three approaches work well: student and alumni stories placed in the media prospective students actually read, authentic social content such as day-in-the-life takeovers and study abroad interviews, and events that let applicants picture themselves on campus. The common thread is showing real experiences rather than telling people your institution is worth choosing.
Not if the experiences you're showing are real. This approach only works when genuine students and alumni share what their time at your institution was honestly like. That's information applicants want when making a decision of this size. The line is authenticity: curate real stories, don't manufacture them.
Student and alumni stories placed in publications such as QS, Poets & Quants, Study International and Times Higher Education reach applicants with third-party credibility that no owned channel can match, because someone else is saying your institution is worth choosing. Social media then amplifies those stories where prospective students spend their time: Gen Z average around five hours a day on Instagram, TikTok and similar platforms, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan.