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2011 eduWeb Conference San Antonio, TXGCF reviewed data and college student opinions about current social media use by colleges. Included in the review were Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
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Greatest Creative Factor Brenda Foster and Katie Pugh @.eduWeb #students #facebook #twitter #youtube #in
100 institutions 75 student opinions 10 administrator interviews
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Flickr
Which was most popular? What did students think? What do administrators advise? Where do you go from here?
Agnes Scott College Allegheny College Amherst College Bellarmine University Bethany College Bloomsburg University Brigham Young University Brown University Bryant University Bucknell University Carnegie Mellon University Champlain College Christian Brothers University Clemson University Coe College College of Charleston College of the Holy Cross College of William and Mary Concordia University Texas Cornell University Dakota State University DePauw University Dickinson College Drexel University Duke University Elizabethtown College Emory University Fairfield University Fordham University Gettysburg College Gonzaga University Goucher College Hendrix College High Point University Hofstra University
Howard University Immaculata University Ithaca College James Madison University King’s College Lawrence University Louisiana College Loyola University Maryland Macalester College Montana Tech of the University of Montana Mount Holyoke College New Jersey Institute of Technology Northwestern University Occidental College Oral Roberts University The Pennsylvania State University Pepperdine University Pitzer College Quinnipiac University Rosemont College Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Salisbury University San Diego State University San Francisco State University St. Bonaventure University St. Olaf College SUNY Maritime College SUNY College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry Sweet Briar College Texas Christian University The George Washington University The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Transylvania University Trine University Tulane University University at Buffalo University at Albany-SUNY University of Dallas University of Georgia University of Iowa University of Kentucky University of Maine Farmington University of Mary Hardin Baylor University of Miami Missouri University of Science and Technology University of Northern Iowa University of Notre Dame University of Oregon University of Puget Sound University of Richmond University of Southern Carolina Aiken University of Southern California University of Tennessee at Martin University of Tulsa Valparaiso University Villanova University Wagner College Warner Pacific College Washington & Jefferson College Washington University in St. Louis Wellesley College Western Washington University Westminster College Wofford College Xavier University of Louisiana
100 institutions
77% of the 100 had links on their homepage.
Social Media Icon Placement on the Homepage
Top Left 3%
Center Left 7%
Bottom Left 22%
Top Center 1%
Center 3%
Bottom Center 18%
Top Right 9%
Center Right 8%
Bottom Left 29%
Homepages had anywhere from 2-12 different social icons.
With the most popular being 5 icons.
Social Sites on the Homepage
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Blogs
Futura
Podcasts
Flickr
YouTube
Percentage
Other Pages with Social Icons
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
None of the Above
All of the Above
Alumni
Athletics
Admissions
Percentage
97% of the institutions have a Facebook page.
Facebook Profile Image
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Students
Arch
Statue
Mascot
Building
School Logo
Percentage
Likes 2–187,595 Average: 14,672
Facebook Wall Posts in One Week
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
> 41
36-40
31-35
26-30
21-25
16-20
11-15
6-10
0-5
Percentage
93% of the institutions have a Twitter page.
Followers 45–12,769 Average: 2,556
Following 1–5,956 Average: 601
Tweets in One Week
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
> 41
36-40
31-35
26-30
21-25
16-20
11-15
6-10
0-5
Percentage
YouTube
85% of the institutions have a YouTube page.
YouTube
Channel Views 78–62,4250 Average: 44,740
Total Upload Views 0–17,823,150 Average: 188,282
Subscribers 0–14,675 Average: 532
Flickr
54% of the institutions have a Flickr page.
Flickr
Photos/Items 0–11,125 Average: 1,816
96% of the institutions have a LinkedIn profile.
Followers 32–8,627 Average: 1,641
Overall Consistency Across all Social Media Pages in Relation to the Institution
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
News/Updates
Links
Colors
Percentage
75 student opinions
Student Demographics
28% Male
72% Female
98% 19-24 years old
Student Use of Social Media
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Tumblr
Blogs
Futura
Podcast
Flickr
YouTube
Daily Weekly Monthly Never
Percentage
Student Use of Social Media
100% of participants use social media websites
100% use Facebook daily
38% use Twitter daily
52% use YouTube daily
94% have never used Flickr
2% use LinkedIn daily
Student Use of Social Media to Get Information About an Institution
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Institution's Website
Blogs
Futura
Podcast
Flickr
YouTube
Daily Weekly Monthly Never
Percentage
Student Use of Social Media to Get Information About an Institution
38% use Facebook daily
15% use Twitter daily
6% use YouTube daily
2% use Blogs daily
Facebook is used more often than a university’s homepage to find information
Student Opinion: Three Favorite Social Media Sites
YouTube
Besides the social sites listed in our survey (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, Podcast, Futura, Blogs, iTunesU, RSS, and Tumblr), 89% of the respondents said that don’t use any other social sites.
For those that do use other sites, they use foursquare.
96% of students believe that institutions should be using social media
Reasons why…
“It’s a useful tool, we read social networking sites to find out information.”
“We use them all of the time, so it’s convenient and the information will be widely known and accessible.”
“Helps us stay connected to friends.”
“Keeps us updated on what’s going on on campus.”
“Everybody is using it, institutions would be left behind.”
“Makes the institution more connected with us.”
“It is becoming such an important aspect of communicating.”
Where Students Look First for the Social Icons on the Homepage
Top Left 21%
Center Left 3%
Bottom Left 0%
Top Center 9%
Center 1%
Bottom Center 8%
Top Right 39%
Center Right 7%
Bottom Left 12%
Social Media Icon Placement on the Homepage Comparison
Top Left 21% 3%
Center Left 3% 7%
Bottom Left 0%
22%
Top Center 9% 1%
Center 1% 3%
Bottom Center 8%
18%
Top Right 39% 9%
Center Right 7% 8%
Bottom Left 12% 29%
Students
100 College Results
If an institution offered the links on their homepage, 82% said they would be likely to visit those pages.
10 administrator interviews
Jennifer Tucker Assistant VP Communications Lehigh University
Social media is part of marketing and communications. We don’t treat it as a separate function.
Facebook is the #3 referral source to our website just behind search engines.
I believe in the 20/80 rule. 20% of our communications are about the institution and 80% are fun.
You have to listen to the silence.
Why do you want to be on social media? Who do you want to reach? How do you define social media success?
Christine LaPaille Vice President University Relations George Mason University
From 8,000 to 48,000 in one year. Basketball Challenge Sweet 16 Challenge
After our success we dedicated a full time person to social media.
Advertise your competition.
Tara Laskowski Social Media Coordinator Manager Media and PR George Mason University
We went from 8,000 to 24,000 in three weeks.
It’s become organic and we now get about 200 people each week.
Don’t post too much or you will be ignored.
Twitter and Facebook are different. We saw 20 comments to a Facebook post about internships within an hour and none on the same post on Twitter.
Twitter fans like event and announcement posts.
You have to be dedicated to updating the page, and you have to have good content.
Michael F. Scrivener Communications Specialist Howard Community College
Promptness is very important, even if it’s off hours.
Decide if you want your page to be open. Fans cannot post to our page but they can comment and like.
Generate discussions rather than just push out information. Write like you’re a journalist—learn to recognize a good story.
Michael O’Neill Program Administrator Office of Alumni Relations Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Plan? We have social media guidelines and I have an operating plan for the year.
We have over 10,000 fans in our LinkedIn alumni association group.
We discovered we have over 30,000 alumni on Twitter so we’re trying to build our presence there.
It’s best to keep an open approach to negative posts. Don’t be too big brotherish. Other alumni always step in and squash negative information.
My alumni are on during lunch so I post then.
Focus on doing a few things very well.
Lisa Seaman Senior Web Editor, Online Strategy & User Experience External Relations George Washington University
We have best practices but not really a plan.
We’re doing well with 13,000 Facebook fans, 7,300 Twitter followers. We follow and interact a lot.
We hold weekly meetings with web editors.
We tweet about 5 times per day during the school year.
Lisa Seaman Senior Web Editor, Online Strategy & User Experience External Relations George Washington University
A video of our president having a snowball fight got a lot of comments. We do a lot of videos.
Advice: Social media has to be informal and genuine. We don’t recommend ever removing posts that are legitimate. We do monitor spam.
George Thompson Web Content Manager Widener University
Our magazine editor and PR director coordinate efforts.
We have a content manager who focuses on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. He has produced over 100 videos.
Different faculty and departments have established Facebook pages that we need to try to control, but that’s a nasty word.
We meet every month with alumni relations, admissions, and some academic units to communicate and collaborate with each other.
Emily Hafner Communications Associate Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School
We have a total student population of 1,630 and 1,240 Facebook fans.
We went from 330 Twitter followers to 473 in 6 months—small but totally organic.
You have to first determine your purpose and have a very clear idea of your brand. All posts should support your brand.
I’d like to have more active followers than just followers.
My goal for the sites is to provide a rich resource to interact with each other and experience the Carey mission.
Having enough time is the biggest challenge. I spend about 20–25% of my time on social media.
Jim Roberts Director of Marketing Communications Misericordia University
Social media allows for a wonderful depth of engagement with the audience.
We have a team of three student workers who follow social media sites and post.
We include social media policy in the employee handbook.
Craig Adkins Director of Web Strategy and New Media University of Redlands
Social Media is a giant black hole of misinformation.
It’s a great way to understand behavior patterns.
You need to become your own expert for your own social media needs.
We’re using this first year to learn and next year to adjust.
Where do you go from here?
Six of one half a dozen of another Rules to follow
Rule 1 Take a risk
Rule 2 Be yourself
Rule 3 Don’t be flawless
Rule 4 Let users interact
Rule 5 Give them what they need to know
Rule 6 Have a contest
Rule 7 Use the 20/80 rule
Rule 8 Teach your staff
Rule 9 Keep feeding the beast
Rule 10 It’s called “social media” for a reason
Rule 11 Let them know it’s there
Rule 12 Be your own expert
Audience participation Rules from eduWeb attendees
Rule Know your audience
Rule Determine the best time to post/tweet
Rule Experiment to find out what does and doesn’t work for your institution
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