Smart marketing doesn’t cost money, it makes money.
Is there a direct correlation between integrating social media campaigns in higher education and increased quality enrollment and dollars raised? According to real time success stories and the survey report, “Wondering what works? The changing marketing mix in higher education” from Lipman Hearne and CASE, the answer is a resounding YES. Institutions that have integrated strategic social media campaigns with traditional marketing/advertising efforts have seen a wide margin of positive results.
Lipman Hearne and CASE partnered together to survey 212 CASE member institutions including liberal arts colleges, master’s level universities, research institutions, community colleges and a number of independent primary and secondary schools. The research reveals significant data centered around marketing dollars spent and positive ROI when campaigns include social media strategies.
Key findings:
- Investors in research and planning were more likely to deploy more – and more varied – marketing efforts.
The extra effort seems to be paying off: Of those moderate to heavy investors, 71 percent reported that marketing efforts had a positive impact on the quality of their applicants.
- Print publications aren’t dead
Data reveals that an increase in spending on interactive media (such as web microsites, online tours, student blogs, etc.) does not appear to be coming at the expense of print publications.
- Between FY ’08 and FY ’09, 55 percent of institutions surveyed allocated more to interactive; and 52 percent allocated more to social media
Moderate-to-heavy investors in interactive were more likely than average to report a positive impact on website hits, enrollment yield, quality of applicants, total philanthropic giving and the percentage of alumni who give.
- Those who were putting social media eggs in their basket were not only keeping that basket diversified – they were also bolstering their interactive marketing spending.
The moderate-to-heavy users of social media were actually spending less overall per student on marketing activities. The moderate-to-heavies spent $83 per student, and the light-to-non-users spent $121 per student.
- When comparing institutions that worked with outside firms on specific activities with institutions that went solo, data revealed that having outside partners made a difference.
Institutions that partnered with outside firms for digital advertising saw more positive results on enrollment yield (88 percent compared to 67 percent) … and positive total giving results (76 percent compared to 49 percent).
For the full report, please click here.
It’s important to note that implementing a “strategic social media campaign” does not equal, “Let’s create a Facebook page and Twitter account and recycle our press releases online.” First, ask yourself some key questions: Are your target audiences even on Facebook and Twitter? How are your target audiences using social medial channels? What are the institution’s goals in utilizing social media channels? Is it to improve your image, increase number of enrollments, increase the caliber of applications, increase the number of dollars raised for the annual fund, raise money for a capital campaign? What about other social media channels, like YouTube and LinkedIn?
A strategic social media campaign should include extensive research to determine appropriate strategies to achieve desired outcomes.
-Heather (@hmillar13)
31
Higher Education Checks Into Foursquare
by FeedbackA few interesting higher education-related news today show the emergence of “place” and geolocation as an interesting angle and channel for communicating with and meaningfully engaging new students.
First up, the University of Oregon spiced up Welcome Week with an interesting use of Tips, a special school-only badge and a self-guided tour of campus. About Foursquare gives details:
The University of Nebraska at Omaha is using a microsite in conjunction with Foursquare to encourage students to visit alcohol-free businesses in the area. The effort includes special deals for the students checking in and promotional opportunities for the participating local businesses.
This isn’t the first time colleges have embraced Foursquare as a means to encourage students to interact with their environment. Recently Foursquare made custom badges for Harvard to correspond with custom tips, info and of course to allow officials to track participation.
What better assets to combine than a tech savvy community and a collection of buildings in an educational realm constantly under evolution away from brick-and-mortar. The concept of “place” online helps marry the importance of physical location with the information flow of the virtual space.
Oddly enough, despite the recent debut of Facebook Places, Facebook simply Facebook debuted Facebook Universities, a special Page dedicated for interacting with the facets of your educational community except for Place and dumps you immediately on the “Deals” tab – so you can interact with sponsored brands before you get to your provost. Sigh. We assume there’s more to how colleges can use Places and of course there will be check-ins regardless.
How next Fall will look for colleges and universities, when the hundreds of millions of Facebook check-in and Foursquare and others are only more rampant, will be the true test. How will your institution watch, research, strategize and take advantage of these trends? Throw us a line, we can help.
-Dean (@dbrowell)
P.S. We would like to lift up one of our favorite blogs, “About Foursquare” which is one of the quickest to deliver media sites on Foursquare developments. Check it out.