[00:00:00] Faton Sopa: So the SEO game today is much different than it used to be, even five
years ago. Visibility is much more complicated today and the college journey is much more
complicated. And the problem is that the students on the other side of the screen are not just
looking for more information. Like they can get all of that information on ChatGPT and other
platforms. What they're actually looking for is, is signals that they can trust. They're looking for
reasons to believe an institution.
And that is actually what is quite different from the past. Because in the past we didn't have AI
and we didn't have that kind of ecosystem of information that we have today.
[00:00:47] Jeff Dillon: Welcome to another episode of the EdTechConnect podcast. Today's
guest has been all over the higher ed conference circuit to talking about how the prospective
student journey has changed in this digital age when they're looking to choose a college. Faton Sopa is the co founder and CEO of Manaferra, a leading digital marketing agency specializing in
higher education.
With over 16 years of experience, Faton has helped colleges and universities boost enrollment by
meeting students where they are online.
His expertise lies in SEO, constant strategy and web analytics and his mission is to connect
institutions with students through data driven digital experiences. Under Faton 's leadership,
Manaferra has become known for its research driven approach, producing influential studies on
how adult learners, graduate and undergraduate students search for colleges.
Based in Brooklyn and originally from Kosovo, Faton brings both global insight and practical
strategies that institutions can act on today.
So welcome to the show Vatan. It was great to have you today.
[00:01:57] Faton Sopa: Thanks for having me, Jeff.
[00:01:58] Jeff Dillon: Well, I want to start off with a little icebreaker and find out before we dive
into higher ed strategy, what's something that's not on your LinkedIn that listeners might find
surprising about you?
[00:02:11] Faton Sopa: Well, not a lot of people know this, but before I ever thought about
marketing or SEO or any of this stuff, I was actually a DJ for a short period of time.
Yeah, DJ, that was like 20, 21 years ago, something like that. I started this small experiment. I
mean, I was obsessed with rhythm, the sound and how mixing two completely different beats
could change the whole mood of Rome. So I started producing my own mixes and creating
beats and selling a few of them.
I mean, it didn't last for long, but maybe a year or two. But I mean it was really a fun experience.
And some of the learnings, I still use them today. I mean, I did my music on the wedding.
[00:02:59] Jeff Dillon: Well, it's funny, when I heard that when you said dj, the first thing I thought
of was avicii Were you a techno music?
[00:03:05] Faton Sopa: Yeah, actually at that time techno was like the real thing. Yeah.
[00:03:11] Jeff Dillon: Awesome. Well, let's get into it. What inspired your transition from being a
developer and a marketing officer to founding Manaferra?
[00:03:19] Faton Sopa: Well, actually when we started the agency and roots are 2011, our goal
was pretty simple. Like we wanted to help organization grow using digital marketing. By that time
I was starting marketing, but I was a self talk developer, I teach myself programming and I was
between two worlds actually.
So I felt better at doing marketing and mixing those two together.
So that when we started Monofera, we worked a little bit of everything at the beginning. Like we
worked with different industries. Education was there from day one, but basically we offered
every service under the sun, like web, SEO, social media, email, ads, design, you name it. And
well, over time we realized that we couldn't be great at everything.
So we started narrowing it down and removing services one by one until we could focus on what
we do today.
And it was that period of time when we learned more about higher education and what impact
we can have in this industry. And actually it turned out to be a great decision and we were happy
about how things went through and we are quite excited about the future as well.
[00:04:34] Jeff Dillon: So when you started Manaferra in 2014, what gap in higher education
marketing were you aiming to fill?
[00:04:43] Faton Sopa: Actually what we understood from the early days was that the way that
students were searching for college and information was not matching the way that universities
were improving their online presence. So there was a kind of visibility gap between how they did
it and how the students actually searched for. And back at the time we didn't have the data that
we currently have about how students search for information for college and how they take
decisions and what influences their decision.
So it was that gap and actually the gap still exists and that is what drives us today because our
goal is to close the gap that is disconnecting how students behavior happen and how institutions
work on their visibility.
[00:05:32] Jeff Dillon: You've worked with institutions across the higher ed spectrum. How have
you seen the student search journey evolve over the last decade?
[00:05:42] Faton Sopa: Well, it changed completely. Not just where students search, but actually
how they search and how they make their decisions. If you look back a decade ago, the college
search process was very linear. Like students will mostly start on Google, they will click a few
results, maybe fill out a form and that was it, that was the whole journey. But today that process
is completely different. It's non linear and it's happening across many platforms and some of
them are out of control. For universities, that's because students are moving between different
platforms. Now we have AI and they are switching between platforms and they're looking for
different answers. They still might start on Google, but they also search on different channels.
And they will check Reddit, they will go to social media and to TikTok and online community
forums and college search platforms. And all these different platforms have an influence on the
student decision. And we recently did a research that understand more than student behavior
and how they search for college.
And we found out that 88% of students cross check what they find by going to another platform.
So that means that they are looking for truth and consistency across multiple sources. So the
SEO game today is much different than it used to be even five years ago. Visibility is much more
complicated today and call it surgery is much more complicated. And the problem is that
because the students on the other side of the screen are not just looking for more information,
like they can get all of that information on ChatGPT and other platforms. What they're actually
looking for is signals that they can trust. They're looking for reasons to believe an institution.
And that is actually what is quite different from the past. Because in the past we didn't have AI
and we didn't have that kind of ecosystem of information that we have today.
So it's not about finding more information, it's about making more sense of it and building trust
with that information.
[00:07:52] Jeff Dillon: So a lot of think what you're talking about came from your research. I've
seen you speak a couple times at some conferences. Your content is really creating a buzz. It's
really insightful. Can you talk about the research, what you did this year across undergrad grad
adult learners and what you mentioned, the cross checking of content was one of the findings.
But what's the most surprising finding?
[00:08:15] Faton Sopa: Also research has found that students are using AI more than we thought
that they are using. And actually the level of impact that AI is having on student decision is quite
big. And I'm saying that because 88% of students who actually found their answers about
college on AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity and others found their answers very helpful.
So this means that AI is already having an impact on the way the students are taking their
decisions.
That was one really big chunk of information that we consumed from the report and that we
found out. Another thing was Reddit. We didn't expect Reddit to have such kind of influence on
the student decision. Reddit actually it turned out to be one out of five platforms. The student
visit along each stage of the journey and they're going to read it to look for authentic content and
they want to hear from authentic voices and from people who actually went through the same
journey that they are going to. That was a big surprise for us. And we have come to
understanding that the vast majority of colleges at universities have no clue about their graduate
presence. And for some of them, what is being discussed there, it might not be very pleasant to
read. So as soon as colleges universities understand this, the better would be actually to put
their brand narrative under control and start influencing the conversations.
[00:09:50] Jeff Dillon: So with Reddit, since you said nearly half of adult and graduate learners
use forums like Reddit to inform their college choices, how should universities engage on the
platform in these informal but these influential spaces? Can you dive in a little more about that?
[00:10:06] Faton Sopa: Yeah, actually Reddit is quite sensitive regarding the content that is out
there. And one of the best ways that we have seen working for work partners is the first thing is
to actually do already sentimental analysis where you understand what's going on over there
and search for your college and start understanding what threats are talking about your
university, what is their perception about your university, who is engaging in those conversations.
And start by understanding what's going on on there, and then building up a strategy that
actually empowers not only your current students, but also your alumni and your staff and your
faculty members to engage in those conversations. And what is really interesting is that those
conversations should be as authentic as possible because people out there are quite sensitive
about the topics and the language that is being used. You will be banned actually, if you try to be
promotional or try to sell anything. So it is all about being authentic. And we have seen this
working for the colleges that we have worked with. But Oreport shows that students prefer more
authentic content than polished advertising. And that is the same on Reddit and that's the same
on Google and other search engines as well.
[00:11:26] Jeff Dillon: Is it common for schools to have their student employees manage the
Reddit content? Is that a valid strategy?
[00:11:35] Faton Sopa: Actually, we have some colleges that are doing it. However, the way that
that is being done is quite different from other platforms. That is because of the nature of Reddit
itself. What we have seen working is that once you have a clear defined framework about the ton
of voice, what things to do and not to do there, and are really clear about the editorial policy
layer and how you're going to write and the approach, then you can have an influence on the
discussions that are happening there. But one thing that feels strange about Reddit is that it is a
platform where you have little to no control over it. So universities are kind of learn to be in
control of information and Reddit is that kind of place where you have less and less control over
time. That is because the real discussions there are happening beyond your university. So the
best thing that you can do actually is to make yourself part of the conversation and start to
influence it as soon as possible. As best as possible. Accept a ton. I mean part of risk there. The
things might not go very the way that you have thought will go, but as soon as you accept that
as reality, you can start actually making a difference out of Reddit.
[00:12:56] Jeff Dillon: And now a word from our sponsor.
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[00:13:20] Jeff Dillon: Your report also shows AI search engines like ChatGPT are consistently used across all stages
of the student journey.
How should institutions optimize their content to show up in these AI driven search.
[00:13:42] Faton Sopa: Tools or research from the students are using like research engines like
Perplexity and chatgpt and other ones from the moment they start exploring schools all the way
to like comparing programs, checking requirements and making the final decisions. And the
challenge for colleges now is that optimizing for AI requires more than just optimizing for SEO. I
mean you can still rank on AI if you have a very strong SEO foundation, but you can win the
SEO visibility game if you do not understand the difference between how to rank on a traditional
search engine versus how to rank in an LLM. That is because the way that LLM works like and
the difference starts from having a generated answer instead a list of blue links. So unless you
are part of that AI generated answer, you will likely be invisible. When your students search on
AI, those LLMs use the information they find everywhere, like your website, accreditation data,
ranking directories, Reddit and whatever plays out there. And they get this information and they
synthesize and they auto generate an answer that the system thinks that will fit to what the user
is asking.
So if those sources are outdated or are inconsistent, that is the version that AI learned from and
the answer that it generates might not like you at all if you haven't done your job making sure
that your content is fresh and and it's consistent. So the first step toward that is understanding
what I call the AI ecosystem. Making sure that all the public information you have out there are
complete or clear or consistent and the Second thing is actually is to teach AI about who you are
and that is to go there and have your website, have your brand out there as more as possible
and make sure that others are mentioning your brand on the relevant context. That is quite
important because AI goes out there, goes to Reddit and goes to other platforms and see what
others are talking about you. And it's more important about your presence that you have on other
sites than that you have on on your site.
[00:15:59] Jeff Dillon: Gotcha.
You know, you mentioned authenticity being one of the most important things. With social media
now being a serious research tool, how should colleges balance the need for authenticity with
their brand consistency?
[00:16:16] Faton Sopa: Oh well, that's not easy question to answer.
This one is one of those areas where higher ed is still playing catch up. That is because like for a
very long time social media has been considered only promotional channel, not a research
channel. Since now we didn't have a proper research that told us the real impact that social
media had in college search. And what we found in our research that we did recently is that
among all segments, students are using social media like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok to search
for schools. And actually 60% of them have told us that they go to those platforms and search
for college. And what is interesting is that the majority of them, 88% go out there and actively are
searching for college related information.
They are searching for college like videos, admission tips and other resources to see what it
takes to get admitted to that college and what life actually would look like once admitted.
So that's where the balance challenge comes in. Because the institutions are built to protect the
brand, but students are there searching for authentic content. So what I always tell schools is
that brand consistency does not necessarily mean seamless, it means alignment. It's about
making sure whatever being said out there feels true to who you are as an institution.
In your research, we found that 70% of undergrads said that they become more interested in a
school after seeing a school on social media. And that is because of the organic and authentic
content that they found out there. So social media is already shaping how students are taking
the decision about college and the sooner the universities start to optimize the their presence on
social media, not only as an entertainment platform, but as a search engine as well. The sooner
they're going to get the benefit out of these platforms.
[00:18:25] Jeff Dillon: I think the way I look at it is that it is such a hard question to balance the
need for authenticity versus brand consistency. That's why universities have marketing teams.
That's your job. That is the core of what you need to do. But if students clearly prefer authentic
content over polished ads and many avoid sponsors search results entirely, how should
enrollment teams shift their messaging?
Should they abandon paid ads entirely?
[00:18:54] Faton Sopa: Not really. From every group that we studied, like undergrad, grad and
adult learners, students said that they skip sponsored results and ignore overly polished content.
That is because they prefer to engage more with authentic content.
But that also means that you also have to reach people, especially at the beginning of their
journey, and increase their awareness that you exist, that your program exists and what it can do
for them. So what I always tell schools is that you should not abandon payde at all. But what you
should actually do is do the right balancing between having the right presence on being visible at
the beginning of the journey with paid ads controlling your presence out there.
But what actually moves the needle and what gains the trust is that authentic content that they
find on organic results and the decision is made actually on organic and authentic content
versus the paid one. So you should do the right balancing, but not attribute the whole success to
one or the other without having the proper data in place to understand what is influential in the
decision.
[00:20:08] Jeff Dillon: So your research covered all different types of students.
How do the student preferences and behaviors differ between the undergrad graduate and the
adult learners? And how should that shape how institutions should reach out?
[00:20:24] Faton Sopa: Yeah, actually what we have found between all the segments is that their
journey looks pretty much the same from when you zoom out. But actually all these different
segments have a different search journey. And that is because the graduates actually are the
ones who are looking more about if they are the good fit, if that college is a good fit for them, and
how does this college life look like for them at that stage? So the stage is more like a reflection
of what they are going through in life rather than what they're searching and what they are going
through at the moment. For the graduate, they know more what they're looking for. They pretty
much have a good idea about the program they're going to go through. So their surges and their
college search looks more more precise regarding programs and regarding the balancing of life
and work and if that program is actually the right choice for them. And on the adult learner side,
that is the most interesting segment because they're trying to balance everything. I mean, very
surprising for us to find that one in four adults is using AI to decide about college. That is quite
interesting because we didn't expect that. And when you think about that, it is obvious because
they are balancing everything in their life and they want fast answers. They don't want to go
through all the pages on Google and and read them. They just want to ask the question like what
is the best MBA I can attend at a specific city? Then they get all the options and then they go out
there and make a further research. So the best thing I would recommend in this case is to invest
in understanding your audience and see how they actually make the search and what they're
searching for, what they are going through. And once you understand what does the Callister
journey looks like from your specific audience, then you can adapt your strategy for it instead of
assuming that the journey looks the same for everyone out there.
[00:22:28] Jeff Dillon: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Fatan, tell me what's next for Manaferra? Are there
new services, technologies, trends or research on your radar for 2026?
[00:22:39] Faton Sopa: Actually, there's a lot of things going on and we are really focused on
deepening what we are already doing and that is helping the colleges to reach their students
when they take their decisions and when they discover information about colleges. Things are
changing very fast now, not just because of AI, but because of like how students are surging and
the whole experience.
And we want to be out there to understand how these shifts are shaping the way that students
are deciding about college. So our focus right now is on making sure that we do a smooth
transition because things are changing there. We are working on something on the background
which I cannot spoil at the moment, but there's going to be some changes out there which
probably going to come sooner than we are thinking, a matter of months. But we'll continue to do
our research and to be at the center at everything that we do.
We have spent quite some time on understanding how students search and verify and decide
about college. Now we are doing more research, we are adding another layer of that. So we're
going to launch new research by the end of this year that's going to actually complement our
recent research.
And research actually is at core at every strategy that we build on. So we're going to see some
changes there.
[00:24:05] Jeff Dillon: Excellent.
Well, I want to thank you for being on the show Fuutan. I will put links to your
[email protected] and your LinkedIn in the show notes and it was really a great
conversation.
[00:24:17] Faton Sopa: Thanks Jeff for having me. It was really pleasure talking to you.
[00:24:21] Jeff Dillon: As we wrap up this episode. Remember, EdTech Connect is your trusted
companion on your journey to enhance education through technology.
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