2011 eduWeb Conference San Antonio, TX GCF reviewed data and college student opinions about current social media use by colleges. Included in the review were Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

12. Greatest Creative
Factor Brenda Foster
and Katie Pugh
@.eduWeb #students
#facebook #twitter
#youtube #in

13. 100 institutions
75 student opinions
10 administrator interviews

14. Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Flickr

15. Which was most popular?
What did students think?
What do administrators
advise?
Where do you go from here?

16. Agnes Scott College Howard University Transylvania University
Allegheny College Immaculata University Trine University
Amherst College Ithaca College Tulane University
Bellarmine University James Madison University University at Buffalo
Bethany College King’s College University at Albany-SUNY
Bloomsburg University Lawrence University University of Dallas
Brigham Young University Louisiana College University of Georgia
Brown University Loyola University Maryland University of Iowa
Bryant University Macalester College University of Kentucky
Bucknell University Montana Tech of the University University of Maine Farmington
Carnegie Mellon University of Montana University of Mary Hardin Baylor
Champlain College Mount Holyoke College University of Miami
Christian Brothers University New Jersey Institute of Technology Missouri University of Science
Clemson University Northwestern University and Technology
Coe College Occidental College University of Northern Iowa
College of Charleston Oral Roberts University University of Notre Dame
College of the Holy Cross The Pennsylvania State University University of Oregon
College of William and Mary Pepperdine University University of Puget Sound
Concordia University Texas Pitzer College University of Richmond
Cornell University Quinnipiac University University of Southern Carolina Aiken
Dakota State University Rosemont College University of Southern California
DePauw University Rutgers, The State University University of Tennessee at Martin
Dickinson College of New Jersey University of Tulsa
Drexel University Salisbury University Valparaiso University
Duke University San Diego State University Villanova University
Elizabethtown College San Francisco State University Wagner College
Emory University St. Bonaventure University Warner Pacific College
Fairfield University St. Olaf College Washington & Jefferson College
Fordham University SUNY Maritime College Washington University in St. Louis
Gettysburg College SUNY College of Environmental Wellesley College
Gonzaga University Sciences and Forestry Western Washington University
Goucher College Sweet Briar College Westminster College
Hendrix College Texas Christian University Wofford College
High Point University The George Washington University Xavier University of Louisiana
Hofstra University The Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania

17. 100 institutions

18. 77% of the 100 had links on their homepage.

19. Social Media Icon Placement on the Homepage
Top Left Top Center Top Right
3% 1% 9%
Center Left Center Center Right
7% 3% 8%
Bottom Left Bottom Center Bottom Left
22% 18% 29%

20. Homepages had anywhere from 2-12 different social icons.
With the most popular being 5 icons.

21. Social Sites on the Homepage
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
Flickr
LinkedIn
Podcasts
Futura
Blogs
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage

22. Other Pages with Social Icons
Admissions
Athletics
Alumni
All of the Above
None of the Above
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage

23. Facebook
97% of the institutions have a Facebook page.

24. Facebook Profile Image
School Logo
Building
Mascot
Statue
Arch
Students
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage

25. Facebook
Likes
2–187,595
Average: 14,672

26. Facebook Wall Posts in One Week
0-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
> 41
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage

27. Twitter
93% of the institutions have a Twitter page.

28. Twitter
Followers
45–12,769
Average: 2,556
Following
1–5,956
Average: 601

29. Tweets in One Week
0-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
> 41
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage

30. YouTube
85% of the institutions have a YouTube page.

31. 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

32. Flickr
54% of the institutions have a Flickr page.

33. Flickr
Photos/Items
0–11,125
Average: 1,816

34. LinkedIn
96% of the institutions have a LinkedIn profile.

35. LinkedIn
Followers
32–8,627
Average: 1,641

36. Overall Consistency Across all Social Media
Pages in Relation to the Institution
Colors
Links
News/Updates
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage

37. 75 student opinions

38. Student Demographics
28% Male
72% Female
98% 19-24 years old

39. Student Use of Social Media
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr
Daily
LinkedIn Weekly
Monthly
Podcast Never
Futura
Blogs
Tumblr
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage

40. 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

41. Student Use of Social Media to Get Information About an Institution
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr
Daily
LinkedIn Weekly
Monthly
Podcast Never
Futura
Blogs
Institution's Website
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage

42. 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

43. Student Opinion: Three Favorite Social Media Sites
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
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.

44. 96% of students believe that institutions should be using social media

45. 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.”

46. Where Students Look First for the Social Icons on the Homepage
Top Left Top Center Top Right
21% 9% 39%
Center Left Center Center Right
3% 1% 7%
Bottom Left Bottom Center Bottom Left
0% 8% 12%

47. Social Media Icon Placement on the Homepage Comparison
Top Left Top Center Top Right
21% 9% 39%
3% 1% 9%
Center Left Center Center Right Students
3% 1% 7%
100 College Results
7% 3% 8%
Bottom Left Bottom Center Bottom Left
0% 8% 12%
22% 18% 29%

48. If an institution offered the links on their homepage, 82% said they would
be likely to visit those pages.

49. 10 administrator interviews

52. 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?

55. 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.

56. 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.

59. 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.

62. 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.

65. 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.

66. 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.

69. 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.

72. 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.

75. 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.

78. 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.

79. Where do you go from here?

80. Six of one half a dozen
of another Rules to follow

81. Rule 1 Take a risk

82. Rule 2 Be yourself

83. Rule 3 Don’t be flawless

84. Rule 4 Let users interact

85. Rule 5 Give them what
they need to know

86. Rule 6 Have a contest

87. Rule 7 Use the 20/80 rule

88. Rule 8 Teach your staff

89. Rule 9 Keep feeding
the beast

90. Rule 10 It’s called “social
media” for a reason

91. Rule 11 Let them know
it’s there

92. Rule 12 Be your own expert

93. Audience participation
Rules from eduWeb
attendees

94. Rule Know your audience

95. Rule Determine the best
time to post/tweet

96. Rule Experiment to find out
what does and doesn’t work
for your institution

97. Greatest Creative
Factor 410.467.4672
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katie@gcfonline.com
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