Tracking Performance
To track performance within each channel, J&W uses both Localist’s own system and Google Analytics. According to Putman-Garcia, the captured Localist data extends well beyond the old metrics of how many people registered or attended an event. “We’re able to tell schools their top trending events, their event reach, attendee geography, and the social activity that’s going on,” she said. “We’re able to capture all the social chatter and report that to our clients.”
For each event, J&W embeds a code within the Localist system that can then generate Google Analytics data on web traffic coming to the landing page. “We can easily see the different channels—social media, e-mail, organic search, direct search, or pay-per-clicks if we’re running an ad,” said Garabedian.
Garabedian acknowledges that it’s early days still in trying to discern which channels work best for different events and audiences, but the data helps J&W hone its approach. “It can be a bit like throwing spaghetti against a wall, but the analytics data give you a continuous circle of feedback,” he said. “You try something, check the data, adjust, and try again.”
He is currently working to pair this web traffic data with the school’s Talisma CRM. “We want to unify that data so we can begin to understand activities of personas, be it prospects or existing students, alumni, even parents,” he said.
Calendar Widget
Beside giving J&W the ability to promote events through social media channels, Localist also provides a calendar widget that can be embedded in J&W-related websites or on pages within the university portal. This way, the school can disseminate relevant event information to sites or pages frequented by specific campus audiences. If the Culinary Arts Museum holds a cupcake-decorating class, for example, the event information can be displayed directly on the Culinary Arts Museum landing page, in addition to the university’s homepage and the Events section.
J&W doesn’t have a large communications and media-relations staff, so it was also important that promotion of the hundreds of annual campus events not all fall under their day-to-day responsibilities. A user-friendly GUI allows anyone to publicize an event, meaning university staffers need only review and approve the event listing before releasing it. “We’ve been able to decentralize event creation over the course of a year, including event listings created by alumni,” said Garabedian. “Alumni can now enter events within Localist and then reuse those listings on their channels as well.”
The decentralized nature of the Localist product has helped it gain acceptance at J&W, which, like most universities, has its share of silos. At this point, Garabedian estimates that 75%-80% of all campus events are now put into Localist, but he concedes that a single calendaring system is probably not in the cards. Room scheduling, for example, is handled through the school’s CollegeNET R25 system, and several groups still use their own systems.
Nevertheless, he’s confident that the greater promotional reach of the Localist system will continue to win converts on campus. “Some groups might have a very simple event mechanism to communicate directly with their community, so it makes sense for them,” Garabedian said. “But we can give them broader exposure through our marketing channels. We’re moving from a more traditional marketing approach to a much more agile, digitally focused approach. You want to have that flexibility.”
Andrew Barbour is a contributing editor for eCampus News.
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