College and universities can see how they stack up in terms of social media engagement using a new study [1] that ranks the effectiveness of social media across higher-ed institutions.
Rival IQ, a provider of social marketing analytics, and Up&Up, a marketing agency for higher education, released what they say is the first-ever study of the effectiveness of social media across leading universities in the United States.
The study of 338 colleges and universities revealed key insights in who is driving the most engagement with social media–including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram–and showed which universities are winning at engaging their audiences via social.
Engagement is defined as “measurable interaction on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares and reactions.”
Rival IQ used its software to analyze social media posts from 338 institutions of higher education, looking at university-level account posts from June 2015 through May 2016. Up&Up then leveraged their expertise in the field of marketing for higher ed to rank effectiveness, provide deep analysis and highlight best practices.
(Next page: The top 5 overall colleges and universities)
“Using Rival IQ’s powerful and easy cloud solution, we were able to measure and analyze success across hundreds of social media accounts across multiple platforms,” said Adam Landrum, chief executive officer, Up&Up.“When it comes to social engagement, especially on Instagram and Twitter, higher education outperforms the benchmark set by non-education social media accounts with similar audiences. Now we’ve got the data to reveal which strategies drive the most engagement.”
The top 5 overall colleges and universities for social media engagement are:
1. Northern Arizona University
2. Clemson University
3. U.S. Naval Academy
4. University of Dayton
5. Saint Joseph’s University
The top 5 institutions for Facebook engagement are:
1. Temple University
2. Colorado State University
3. Texas A&M University
4. U.S. Military Academy
5. University of Virginia
The complete list of 338 colleges and universities is available in the full report. Also included in the report are “mini case studies” that detail specific best practices culled from the top-performing institutions across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Clemson University, for example, is highlighted for the way it uses photography of its photogenic campus to promote an emotional connection with would-be students and alumni alike.
“At Clemson we love using our social channels to celebrate the people, the stories and the rich culture of learning that makes Clemson so unique,” said Robbie Fitzwater, director of content strategy, Clemson University. “To be recognized for having one of the most engaged social communities is a real honor.”
Taking advantage of athletic teams is another best practice. Quinnipiac University “took full advantage of their #1 ranked college hockey team, documenting their journey all the way to the National Championship game. Athletics are a natural engagement booster.”
Material from a press release was used in this report.