Brain Waves Blog

How to appeal to students seeking career value from a college degree

June 17, 2025

Social intelligence tells us that prospective students seek peer guidance on social media and Reddit about if and where to go to college nearly 10x more than they did 10 years ago. The authentic and unfiltered insights from social intelligence give you a deeper understanding of the voices in your community and enable you to design and assess programs with learners at the center.

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Strong campus brands positioned with social intelligence

May 29, 2025

A strong brand is a strategic advantage. In good times it helps you grow faster, and during times of uncertainty and change it’s a powerful anchor. A strong brand means you have increased audience confidence, greater credibility among public and private stakeholders, and a foundation to make challenging and innovative decisions. Your brand isn't just about visibility—it’s about credibility and building trust over time.

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Smart leadership transitions supported by social intelligence

May 6, 2025

Leadership transition is a time when your campus needs to balance continuity and change management. If you’re supporting a leader or are an incoming leader, social intelligence allows you to quickly communicate historical perceptions and stakeholder engagement, as well as gather and share real-time internal and external feedback during the transition. Leaders at every level of an organization make strategic decisions and social intelligence supports your understanding and informs priorities.

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100 years of social intelligence

March 5, 2025

Educators have discussed social intelligence for over 100 years. So why am I still asked to introduce the topic to leaders so often? Perhaps because language has evolved in ways that make it hard for us to recognize the innovative application of a century-old concept that now means more than one thing. I bet you’re just as nerdy as me; let’s break it down.

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First-year enrollment mistake reminds us that methods matter

January 24, 2025

Everyone with an interest in postsecondary enrollment or the health of the industry seems to be talking about research methodology these days. A 5.5% increase in first-year student enrollment was misreported as a 5% decline due to a data coding error announced by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Professionals are frustrated that “a thermometer for a feverish sector” could have such an inaccurate reading; some maintain that a preliminary report created in response to a worldwide pandemic and possibly carried forward due to its headline-grabbing nature should never have been considered a reliable industry indicator.

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5 secrets to partnership success

January 10, 2025

I had the most wonderful campus visit in November. Two members of a university leadership team invited me to speak with a group of stakeholders about social intelligence and Campus Sonar. The visit stood out to me because they followed some best practices to vetting and building a relationship with an expert partner. Here’s how to adopt their approach.

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Brain Waves Blog: Proactive Strategies for Navigating Reputation Management

Proactive Strategies for Navigating Reputation Management

October 24, 2024

Brand and reputation management is one of the earliest and most significant applications of social intelligence. In the current higher ed landscape, reputation management issues surface almost daily. This broad topic stretches across all areas of campus and includes things inside and outside of your control. But you do have control over when and how you prepare for and respond to each situation. 

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Use Social Intelligence to Shape Strategy and Manage Risk: Strategy Insights

Use Social Intelligence to Shape Strategy and Manage Risk

September 18, 2024

Social intelligence is market research that uses online conversation data to answer key business questions. The internet is an always on focus group that allows you to better understand markets, audiences, brands, or organizations. In higher ed, social intelligence can inform organizational strategy, enrollment, alumni engagement, advancement, academic planning, and reputation and brand strategy. 

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How One Campus President Is Building Trust: An Interview

How One Campus President Is Building Trust: An Interview

September 11, 2024

We’ve shared our strategies and recommendations for how leaders can rebuild trust on campus, but it’s not always as clear-cut to put it into practice. When we developed our social intelligence research, we had the opportunity to share it with Rebecca Ehretsman, president of Wartburg College. She shared some thoughts on the implications of our research.

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Building Trust in Divided Times, Brand Insights

Building Trust in Divided Times

August 28, 2024

Last academic year ended tumultuously for many campuses with protests and graduation converging at the end of the semester. We’ve spent some time thinking about how campuses can reimagine, reframe, and rebuild their place in communities and society—and the public’s trust—amidst the current state of unrest in the Middle East and on many campuses. A key concern is understanding how to center our audiences and their needs when we know they’re far from homogenous.

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The Power of Alumni: Engagement Strategies to Advance Your Campus, Brand Insights

The Power of Alumni: Engagement Strategies to Advance Your Campus

August 21, 2024

Alumni are a valuable asset and nurturing relationships with them contributes to the future success of your campus. Proud alumni share their experience with others to potentially sway an undecided student or make a gift to help current and future students shine even brighter on campus. Their authentic campus outcomes stories strengthen audience connections and generate positive affinity for your brand. 

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Stop Defending, Start Serving: 4 Ways to Rebuild Trust in Higher Ed, Strategy Insights

Stop Defending, Start Serving: 4 Ways to Rebuild Trust in Higher Ed

June 27, 2024

We don’t need another study proclaiming that public trust in colleges and universities is at an all-time low in our country. The conclusions are predictable, and so is the response; a defense of higher education as it always has been, often putting the blame on the public who just doesn’t get why it’s so important. Defending, rather than listening to understand, is doing more harm than good.

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Navigate Graduate Enrollment Challenges, Enrollment Insights

Navigate Graduate Enrollment Challenges

June 18, 2024

With the demographic shift and many other changes happening on higher ed campuses, leveraging graduate enrollment as a campus growth opportunity is top of mind for many. Before you begin development, it’s critical to think through how to build competitive graduate programs and understand how to effectively recruit and retain graduate students. 

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Leadership Strategies for Rebuilding Trust on Campus: Part 2, Strategy Insights

Leadership Strategies for Rebuilding Trust on Campus: Part 2

April 17, 2024

In Campus Sonar’s latest industry trends report on “Rebuilding Trust in Higher Ed,” we explored the gap between trust and value to understand what audiences discuss about a college degree using social intelligence. We focused on how audiences explain the purpose of higher ed, the value of a degree based on current outcomes, and how those outcomes could evolve if trust and values aligned. 

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Presidents and Boards Need Social Intelligence: Strategy Insights

Presidents and Boards Need Social Intelligence

April 10, 2024

You’ve been giving your president and board the wrong information from social media, and you need to fix it as soon as possible. I’ve spent the last few weeks listening carefully to trustees, current and former presidents, and the people who advise them. These were positive conversations, but they revealed a huge gap. One former president put it plainly.

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Leadership Strategies for Rebuilding Trust on Campus: Part 1, Strategy Insights

Leadership Strategies for Rebuilding Trust on Campus: Part 1

April 10, 2024

In Campus Sonar’s latest industry trends report on “Rebuilding Trust in Higher Ed,” we explored the gap between trust and value to understand what audiences discuss about a college degree using social intelligence. We focused on how audiences explain the purpose of higher ed, the value of a degree based on current outcomes, and how those outcomes could evolve if trust and values aligned. 

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What's the Brand Value of a College Degree? Brand Insights

What's the Brand Value of a College Degree?

March 26, 2024

At a macro level, the value of a college degree is a constant topic in higher ed. At a micro level, you invariably need to consider how that value relates to your institution’s brand. There are many indicators of value, as well as internal and external factors contributing to this drop in confidence. But, as contributing expert Mallory Willsea shares, the decline is countered by research from Axios that college grads have significantly higher earning potential—indicating that perception doesn't match reality when it comes to the value of a degree. We see this same gap in perception in our latest research on rebuilding trust in higher education.

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Reddit IPO Implications for Higher Ed Leaders Seeking to Rebuild Trust

Reddit IPO Implications for Higher Ed Leaders Seeking to Rebuild Trust

March 7, 2024

Reddit filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange last month, and I paid close attention. Its prospectus highlights the impact the anonymous forum site has on public trust—and how higher education leaders can leverage the insight within its 17 billion posts and comments to rebuild trust and inform a proactive, audience-centric market strategy. Higher education didn’t understand the impact Facebook would have on its operations when it went public over a decade ago. Don’t make the same mistake with Reddit. Here’s what you need to know.

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Listen to Lead the Way: Audience Insights to Guide Your FAFSA Response

Listen to Lead the Way: Audience Insights Guide Your FAFSA Response

February 21, 2024

It’s no secret by now that the redesign and relaunch of the FAFSA form at the federal level has caused stress and confusion for higher ed leaders and college-going families alike. Staff and administrators are navigating frequent updates and shifting processes and timelines; and further uncertainty about aid and finances has added to the worries prospective students already feel about affording a degree. (Our national industry listening continues to reveal scholarships and financial aid as top topics discussed online in terms of the college decision-making process.)

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Independent Colleges: Four Headwinds for Leadership to Navigate in 2024

Independent Colleges: 4 Headwinds for Leadership to Navigate in 2024

January 24, 2024

Our 2024 kicked off with a trip to sunny Florida for the Council of Independent Colleges Presidents Institute. The conversations and sessions covered the toughest current topics, such as endowments, cost of attendance, artificial intelligence, and others, giving us renewed appreciation for the hardest job in higher ed. 

Attendees navigated issues and solutions critical for campus leaders this coming year. Although the focus was on independent colleges, the issues and trends affect every institution in some form. We’re sharing four challenges that will shape the 2024 higher ed landscape.

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3 Ways Social Listening Aligns Athletics & Central Marcom: Brand Insights

3 Ways Social Listening Aligns Athletics and Central Marcom

January 22, 2024

Athletics and central marcom rarely join in strategic cohesion on campus. Fragmentation and political territorialism have frequently led institutions to detach athletics from the central brand, freeing teams for more flexibility and creativity, but often at the expense of collaboration and consistency. It’s a key reason we see so many bland higher ed ads promoting undergraduate enrollment during high-profile games. Yet there are signs more forward-thinking marketing leaders are unlocking the full power of their brands’ potential using common data-led decision-making.

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Brain Waves Blog: Guiding the Way: Mastering Effective Reporting to Leadership

Guiding the Way: Mastering Effective Reporting to Leadership

August 30, 2023

“We report quarterly, but no one really gives feedback.” “Our information goes into an annual board report, and we’re not sure if anyone even reads it.” “We work hard, but don’t always feel seen.” “We have a new leader coming in and want to position our team’s value effectively.” We hear comments like these all the time, and campus communicators are genuinely concerned their efforts are lost in the sea of competing priorities. 

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Brain Waves Blog: How to Set You Team Up for Success

How to Set Your Team Up for Success

June 28, 2023

As a marketing leader you have a lot on your plate. Between managing competing goals, responding to urgent requests, attending last minute meetings, satisfying tight deadlines, and more—it’s a lot. That’s why support is critical to your success as a leader and campus. Setting your team up with the right tools and resources empowers you to achieve your goals.

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Brain Waves Blog: Supporting Your Social Media Manager in an Impossible Job

Supporting Your Social Media Manager in an Impossible Job

May 3, 2023

Your campus social media manager’s job is never done. They’re on call 24/7, very few people understand exactly what they do all day, and their talent and expertise are regularly dismissed by colleagues and the general public. Often they’re not appropriately compensated for their skills, overtime hours, and the comments and DMs they monitor and respond to may hurt personally even if they're not meant for them.

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Brain Waves Blog: Elevating from Social Media Monitoring to Social Listening

Elevating from Social Media Monitoring to Social Listening

April 19, 2023

Monitoring and listening seem like the same thing, right? It can be hard to understand the difference between these two activities. You’ve probably even used the words interchangeably. We’re here to tell you there are critical differences between them; differences that prove monitoring alone is not enough. Once you start listening, you’ll realize the moments and opportunities you missed when you thought you were listening. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Getting Ready for Graduation

Getting Ready for Graduation

April 5, 2023

The culminating representation of many years of hard work, exploration, change, and perseverance, graduation is a pivotal moment for grads and their friends and families, one they anticipate all year long. There are high expectations for everyone involved! 

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Brain Waves Blog: 5 Ways to Yield Black Students

5 Ways to Yield Black Students

March 29, 2023

When developing a strategy to enroll Black students your first step is to yield. Historically, the Black student experience is riddled with disparities and broken trust, but you can activate change by reflecting and acknowledging your institution’s history with Black students and having the hard conversations. Next, prepare yourself to participate in a public conversation about advancing future Black lives in this country. Finally, secure the resources to build a community where Black students are truly comfortable, welcomed, and embraced. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Student Community Building on Forums

Student Community Building on Forums

March 15, 2023

It’s no secret that online spaces provide students with opportunities to connect to others and build community, but do you know how often that’s happening on your campus’s Reddit page? A quick peek at your page will often reveal questions, comments, and potential concerns—all right on a public page that anyone can see. Higher ed communicators are community builders, and understanding what happens on forums could help your campus grow a stronger real-world and digital community. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Let Your Audience Guide You to Yield Success

Let Your Audience Guide You to Yield Success

February 15, 2023

Looking back on conversation topics and trends we’ve seen in our five+ years of industry research, we see lessons and insights you can use moving forward to make the most of yield season (or the recruitment process at large) and build a robust incoming class. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Collaborating for Long-Lasting Brand Impact

Collaborating for Long-Lasting Brand Impact

February 1, 2023

I had the pleasure of presenting a workshop at the 2022 AMA on “Combining Marketing and Communication for Long-Lasting Brand Impact” with all-star higher ed leaders Jenny Petty (University of Montana), Binti Harvey (Scripps College), and Teresa Valerio Parrot (TVP Communications). We showed campuses how they need both marketing and communications professionals to collaborate to achieve institutional goals. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Leverage the Everyday Impact of Athletics

Leverage the Everyday Impact of Athletics

January 18, 2023

Brand fragmentation is a consistent theme we see in our industry and client research. There are lots of reasons for this, but mainly the folx charged with “managing the brand” are thinking about “the flagship.” When you embrace the adage that “brands aren’t what you say they are, they’re what they [your audience] says they are,” the fragmentation is obvious. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Unifying Social Across Campus

Unifying Social Across Campus

December 14, 2022

“Starting social media accounts is the puppy adoption of higher ed” is a Darron Bunt quote that we repeat often. Does your campus have hundreds of campus accounts creating confusion for your audience? Research shows that your prospective and admitted students often turn to Instagram to get an insider’s view on campus life. If their search terms return a handful of inactive accounts before the official, well-managed accounts, it impacts their perception of your campus.

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Brain Waves Blog: Create Audience-Centric Cohesion to Differentiate Your Brand

Create Audience-Centric Cohesion to Differentiate Your Brand

November 30, 2022

Your campus is working to tell a cohesive, compelling brand story, but if you’re not working with a collaborative shared strategy, your message is being drowned out by conversation from accounts managed within departments, colleges and units, research centers, and other disparate areas of campus telling a different story in a different way in hopes of meeting very different goals. Let’s count the ways your brand is fragmented.

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Brain Waves Blog: It's a Demographic Shift, Not a Cliff

It's a Demographic Shift, Not a Cliff

November 2, 2022

At best, the “demographic cliff” is an oversimplified, incomplete, and misleading phrase for the very real and inevitable demographic shift happening in the United States. The world is not ending; this isn’t going to deplete the value of higher education; and even if there are less “traditional college students,” there will still be humans who need and want postsecondary education. Those folx are just going to look different; come from different backgrounds; have different needs and experiences; and be different people than they have been historically. Despite those whose fear is attempting to stop or slow it down, the make-up of this country is changing and that’s not a bad thing.

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Brain Waves Blog: Small Campuses: Maximize Your Social Media Strategy

Small Campuses: Maximize Your Social Media Strategy

October 19, 2022

If you work on a small campus, chances are you’re a master at multitasking. Depending on the size of your campus, social media may be the responsibility of one person, or less than one, so it’s important to get the most out of everything you do. If that’s where you sit right now, we can help.

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Brain Waves Blog: 8 Recommendations for Higher Ed Marketers

8 Recommendations for Higher Ed Marketers

September 21, 2022

For the last three years, we’ve been researching and analyzing online conversation about higher ed. We shared some of the multi-year trends we captured along the way, which also led us to eight recommendations higher ed marketers can use to drive their communication and marketing strategy.

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Brain Waves Blog: Use Social Listening to Inform a Student Journey Map

Use Social Listening to Inform a Student Journey Map

August 24, 2022

A journey map is one of the most helpful tools you can build to inform your marketing and communications strategy. In a business context, a journey map outlines the process a customer goes through—from their initial encounter with a brand, to purchase, and ultimately to loyalty and advocacy. It captures a customer’s goal at each stage, and informs the messaging and content a company develops by providing this customer-centric insight.

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Brain Waves Blog: What Is Name Image Likeness?

What Is Name Image Likeness?

August 10, 2022

Following years of debate about the amateur status of student-athletes, Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) reflects a change in policy from the NCAA on July 1, 2021, that redefined college athletes’ amateur status. The NCAA rescinded its policy previously prohibiting college athletes from profiting from their name, image, and likeness garnered through the influencer status that comes with the visibility of playing collegiate sports.

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Brain Waves Blog: Supporting a Campus President on Social Media

Supporting a Campus President on Social Media

July 13, 2022

As presidential digital leadership evolves, marketing leaders and their teams are more likely to support an executive social media presence. Even if you haven’t done this in the past, presidents change, and each change in leadership brings with it a change in social media presence. Being a leader on social media without a strategic focus is risky, and every executive should have a thoughtful approach to their online presence. Marketing leaders can help guide and mold the presidential approach to social media.

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Brain Waves Blog: Should My Campus Be on TikTok?

Should My Campus Be on TikTok?

May 4, 2022

Every time a new social platform surfaces, we hear the question “should my campus be on this platform?” While TikTok has been around for a few years, it’s still incredibly popular with your prospective and admitted students. According to Statista, almost half of TikTok’s users are under age 29 and 25% of them are ages 10–19. 

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Brain Waves Blog: To Differentiate Your Brand, Act Differently

To Differentiate Your Brand, Act Differently

April 20, 2022

For most of the last decade, the way campuses show up on social media has become eerily similar. Campuses are on the same channels, posting similar content, chasing similar metrics. Social media has become just another set of channels on which to broadcast marketing messages in a one-to-many fashion. The pixel size is different or the on-screen images might move, but much of what is posted on social is just a few creative steps away from a billboard or a TV commercial. I refer to the mentions on social networks holistically as “online conversation,” but let’s be real—there’s very little actual conversation happening.

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Brain Waves Blog Identifying Twitter Bots and Trolls

Identifying Twitter Bots and Trolls

April 6, 2022

Lions and bots and trolls—oh my! Online conversations provide organizations with honest thoughts and feelings from their audiences, but are all of those mentions actual people? Bots and trolls aren’t just for science fiction and fairy tales anymore. 

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Want to Build Social Media Success? Build a Successful Network First

Want to Build Social Media Success? Build a Successful Network First

March 23, 2022

Higher ed social media is tricky. Once in a while, you’ll post a unicorn. Alumni competed in the Olympics, your basketball team made March Madness, the university president received a prestigious award. But the day-to-day content that makes you a consistent voice in the social media world results from intentional networking and subsequently reciprocal relationships.

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Brain Waves Blog: Social Listening Trends for Higher Ed

Social Listening Trends for Higher Ed

January 12, 2022

With social listening you collect the conversation as it happens, offering opportunities to understand what’s happening now so you can make changes for the future. But the real power comes with the ongoing analysis and context that allows you to better understand your baseline conversation and create personal benchmarks, track seasonal changes, evaluate the effects of crises, and measure the impact of new campaigns. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Elements of a Strategic Charcuterie Board

Elements of a Strategic Charcuterie Board

December 1, 2021

As many of our readers already know (or can easily guess from the Social Strategy Fundamentals episode I recently hosted), I’m a huge fan of strategy. That’s why I’m excited to work with natural strategists like ours at Campus Sonar every day. Our team of strategists not only develops deep client relationships, but also intuitively looks at each client’s goals from all angles to find the best way to reach them.

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Brain Waves Blog: Reimagining Recruitment Engagement

Reimagining Recruitment Engagement: Give Early Milestones New Meaning

November 17, 2021

In the world of enrollment marketing, there tends to be one dominant query; how do we get X number of students to enroll at Y campus by Z date? Clearly articulated enrollment goals are essential as individuals transition from vaguely interested to “enrolled.” However, many campuses are so highly focused on yield strategies and fanfare in the final stretch of decision-making that they often overlook the more subtle opportunities around earlier milestones in the enrollment funnel. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Using Social Listening to Leverage Your Campus's Media Relations

Using Social Listening to Leverage Your Campus's Media Relations

October 20, 2021

Leading the marketing communications efforts for West Virginia University’s largest academic unit, effective media relations was paramount in every aspect of our content strategy. As a Research 1 university, our faculty were frequently contacted by local, regional, and national media to share their expertise, whether it was on the environment, racial justice, labor movements, or more. 

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Brain Waves Blog: What the Boolean! Get the Most Out of Your Social Listening

What the Boolean! Get the Most Out of Your Social Listening

October 5, 2021

From publicly-available social media posts to blogs to news to forums and more, there is an incredible amount of conversation happening online each day. While there are ways to monitor and measure some of this conversation manually (think, Google Alerts, social media analytics, some social media software), truly strategic social listening not only captures more conversations of interest to you, but does so more consistently over time—ensuring that you’re not only capturing the conversations that matter, but also that you’re able to analyze larger trends in conversation over time.

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Brain Waves Blog: Making the Switch from Software to Sonarians

Making the Switch from Software to Sonarians

September 22, 2021

At Campus Sonar, we take perhaps too much pride in telling the world that we’re NOT a software company. It is within social media management software, however, where most of our clients accomplish their listening prior to living the #SonarianLife. For some, incorporating Campus Sonar into an existing tech stack feels redundant. For others, transitioning away from these products to Campus Sonar can feel daunting. So we sat down with three campus pros who made the switch from listening with social media management software to Campus Sonar. We asked them about their tech stack prior to Campus Sonar, making the move from software to Sonarians, and what life has looked like since the move.

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Brain Waves Blog: How Clients Use Campus Sonar Strategic Partnerships: Tracking Strategic Priorities

How Clients Use Partnerships: Tracking Strategic Priorities

August 4, 2021

For marketing and communications professionals, each semester can bring anywhere from several hundred to a hundred thousand plus public online mentions about their respective campus. And yet, most marketers only report on the social and news content they produce. That’s not the case for Angela Polec, La Salle University’s Vice President of Enrollment, Marketing, and Communications. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Higher Ed Professional Development: Blogs, Newsletters, & Conferences

Higher Ed Professional Development: Blogs, Newsletters, & Conferences

April 28, 2021

If part one left you wanting more, I’m back for part two of the best higher ed resources to keep you informed and connected. One of the things I love about this industry is the contributions from the community. We learn together, and it's never too early for you to contribute your expertise. To that end, I’ve also included suggestions for ways to share your work and knowledge with others. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Higher Ed Social Media Professional Dev: Communities and Podcasts

Higher Ed Social Media Professional Dev: Communities and Podcasts

April 14, 2021

As part of ongoing professional development, it's important to keep up to date and learn from the successes and failures of colleagues in higher education and other industries. I've gathered lists of communities, podcasts, blogs, and conferences I regularly recommend to social media professionals, ranging from free and on-demand, to annual fee-based events. And there are so many fantastic resources, I’ve broken them into two posts so I don’t overwhelm you. First, I’m covering communities and podcasts, then stay tuned for part two: blogs, newsletters, and conferences.

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Brain Waves Blog: 4 Ways to Understand Your Competitive Landscape

4 Ways to Understand Your Competitive Landscape

March 31, 2021

Harvard and Yale. Ohio State and Michigan. UNC and Duke. Competition within higher ed exists on several different playing fields. Some campuses compete for a coveted top spot in academic rankings. Others exist in close geographical proximity, competing with each other for local and regional students. Others compete primarily on the turf or hardwood, but substantially differ academically. 

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We're Measuring Social Media Wrong

March 3, 2021

Why followers and engagement rate don't matter and how marketers should measure social media to better reflect campus priorities.

“Getting more followers” or “going viral” isn’t why campuses invest in social media. They invest because it’s a primary communication channel used to increase brand awareness and equity, build alumni affinity, recruit students by increasing applications or yield, or any other number of objectives found in a campus strategic plan. The metrics we use to measure it should assess those goals. Yet many social media managers and their CMOs are tied to vanity metrics like followers or engagement rate without a clear path to change. That’s one reason “Goals and Purpose” is the first chapter of my new book, Fundamentals of Social Media Strategy: A Guide for College Campuses. When campus social media efforts align with campus priorities, the way we measure social media changes.

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Brain Waves Blog: Matching Metrics to Goals

Matching Metrics to Goals

February 17, 2021

What comes to your mind when you hear the words measurement or metrics? I've actually asked a lot of people that question and go into some of their answers in our new book. As a community, we need to get serious about measurement. If campus leaders aren't requesting metrics that accurately assess the results of your work, it's up to you to help them understand what metrics actually matter. They likely aren't easy metrics to measure—but they should help us make important decisions. 

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What's Normal? Benchmarking Higher Ed News Sources

What's Normal? Benchmarking Higher Ed News Sources

January 20, 2021

We’re sharing a sneak peek into the types of insights our client partners get by digging into some aspects from our report, Social Listening Benchmarks for Higher Education: January 2021. If you caught our last blog post, we explored social media as a conversation source and how you can analyze your campus’s online conversation against a comparable sample. Now we’re looking into news as a content source and how sites labeled or promoted as news sources can inform your content strategy. The posts should give you an idea of the depth of analysis and insight you can get as a partner.

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Brain Waves Blog: What's Normal? Benchmarking Higher Ed Social Media

What's Normal? Benchmarking Higher Ed Social Media

January 6, 2021

We’re sharing a sneak peek into the types of insights our client partners get by digging into some aspects from our report, Social Listening Benchmarks for Higher Education: January 2021. It’s intended to support you in analyzing your campus’s online conversation behavior against a comparable sample. The report covers online conversation trends in higher education and institutional benchmarks by enrollment size and type. But we also looked at where these conversations were happening—what were the sources of the conversations? It’s important to understand where your annual conversation occurs. It informs where to invest your time and effort, and guides your overall content strategy. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Brand Building through Social Listening

Brand Building through Social Listening

December 16, 2020

Why do campuses and their partners put so much effort into “brand”? Because good brand building leads to enhanced perception. It's good to start with perception because it's a metric that's measurable and can be applied to multiple target audiences. Perhaps more importantly, increased perception leads to increases in revenue generating metrics—enrollment, fundraising, auxiliary income, etc.

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Brain Waves Blog: Puzzling through Social Data Sources

Puzzling through Social Data Sources

December 9, 2020

Social listening may seem simple, especially if you’re getting a pitch from a software company. Just enter your search terms, and ta-da—social data. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Each software product collects data differently, and the data that’s returned may come with nuances that aren’t obvious to the casual user. Since social listening is all that we do, I’m sharing what we’ve learned working with millions of social mentions from about over a hundred institutions. Hopefully it will help you make an informed decision about how to approach social listening for your campus.

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Brain Waves Blog: Phases of Social Media Crisis Management

Phases of Social Media Crisis Management

October 28, 2020

Higher education social media managers operated in crisis mode for at least half of this year. It was—yes, I'm going to say it—unprecedented. It also highlighted, for better or worse, the essential role of social media in campus communications. 

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Competitive Intelligence: Find Your Greatness

Competitive Intelligence: Find Your Greatness

October 14, 2020

The average number of institutions a student applies to has been steadily increasing, and your prospective students evaluate your campus against many others. To help your institution stand out, one of the best uses of time and resources is building competitive intelligence—the process of gathering and analyzing information about peer institutions to inform your own positioning. 

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Digging into Social Data—Indicators & Context Clues

Digging into Social Data—Indicators & Context Clues

September 30, 2020

A savvy analyst can draw conclusions even when the data they’re presented with is limited in scope or volume. While these conclusions come with limitation disclaimers, they still offer a valuable point of consideration when you’re developing your campus strategy and identifying which problems are most in need of solutions. Research Manager Amber Sandall and Client Success Manager Beth Miller share what our analysts look for in social data when the answer to their research question isn’t always obvious at first glance as well as some specific ways that social data can inform campus decision making.

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Brain Waves Blog: Copyright Law and Social Media

Copyright Law and Social Media

September 16, 2020

As a social media manager, understanding copyright is a critical component of your content creation process. And it can definitely be confusing, especially if you have multiple accounts to manage in addition to all of the other aspects of your job.

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Brain Waves Blog: Getting the Most Out of Your Ambassador Program

Getting the Most Out of Your Ambassador Program

September 2, 2020

At the University of Central Florida (UCF), we’ve used influencer marketing with student social media ambassadors to create, collaborate, and distribute content on behalf of the university since 2018. We started the program by finding students who had a decent following on social media and grew it with students who showed eagerness and passion for UCF. The strength of the program and our contributing ambassadors allows us to reach a greater, more influential market of like-minded individuals and create authentic advocacy for our campus.

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Brain Waves Blog: Student Lifetime Value

Student Lifetime Value

July 15, 2020

It wasn’t entirely unexpected, but the anger arose faster and more intensely than anticipated when I referred to prospective students as customers in a conversation about recruitment.

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Brain Waves Blog: Reach vs. Volume vs. Impressions: Measuring Campaign Success

Reach vs. Volume vs. Impressions: Measuring Campaign Success

July 1, 2020

At Campus Sonar, our humans set us apart. Our experience researching and analyzing the nuances of online conversation means we understand how to measure the effectiveness of your content. We know how to analyze who sees your content and understand how that’s impacted by each platform. When you develop social media strategy and create corresponding campaigns, this is ultimately what you need to measure to show success, right? The effectiveness of your campaign. If it worked.

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Brain Waves Blog: Using Social Listening to Pivot Your Content Strategy

Using Social Listening to Pivot Your Content Strategy

June 17, 2020

A few short months after beginning my MBA at Drexel University, I landed the role of social media strategist in Drexel’s Office of University Communications. With no professional marketing experience under my belt, I was suddenly responsible for being the digital voice of a prestigious institution with a combined social media audience of over 260,000 followers.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: May 19

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: May 19

May 19, 2020

Community College Remains Top of Mind

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from May 11–17. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight conversation about community colleges (again!) and summarize trends from our ten weeks of Briefings.

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Brain Waves Blog: Social Media Budget Items: Professional Development and Advertising

Social Media Budget Items: Professional Development and Advertising

May 13, 2020

If you’re reading along in my series, you’ve staffed your social media team and determined the equipment you need to keep it going. In my final post, I’ll cover the core components needed for a sustainable program. Given the ever-changing nature of social media, this category of resources is just as essential as the other two; prioritizing them is an exercise in futility. This category encompasses everything that continues to build on a strong foundation for a social media program so it grows and innovates over time.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: May 12

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: May 12

May 12, 2020

Community College Convo Stays Viral

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from May 4–10. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight the impact of another viral tweet recommending community college, conversations relevant to recruitment and retention, how students (now alumni) and their friends and family talked about graduation, and the continuing conversation about online classes.

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Brain Waves Blog: Equipping Your Campus Social Media Team

Equipping Your Campus Social Media Team

May 6, 2020

Recently I wrote about the common illusion that a campus social media presence doesn't cost anything. If you’re in higher ed social media, you know how untrue that is. My first post covered staffing a campus social media team—the required positions and skills your team needs. This week I’m covering everything physical you need for your team, from equipment to campus props. It hasn’t slipped past me that I’m preaching to the choir, but some of what I’m covering may be new to you. I also try to add real world examples from campuses I’ve worked on and anecdotal examples I’ve heard from colleagues. I think you’ll find some new nuggets in here and definitely some justification you can use to request resources you may not have.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: May 5

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: May 5

May 5, 2020

Community Colleges' Time to Shine

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from April 27–May 3. In this analysis of volume, topics, and sentiment, we highlight conversation about community colleges, Zoom University, and President Trump.

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Brain Waves Blog: Higher Ed Marketing Is Worth It .... and We Can Prove It

Higher Ed Marketing Is Worth It .... and We Can Prove It

April 29, 2020

I’ve never met a marketer who would tell you their department is fully funded and adequately staffed. Marketing is just one of those wishy-washy, nebulous concepts that can be extremely difficult to grasp unless you’re involved in the day-to-day work these professionals tackle. In higher education in particular, it’s easy for marketers and communicators to feel slighted, like our work is often overlooked and first on the chopping block when the time comes for difficult budgetary decisions. It’s common to celebrate admissions and development staff during times of high revenue—but institutions tend to forget about the communications pros who plan, create, and deliver key messages for those offices. And that’s a mistake. 

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: April 28

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: April 28

April 28, 2020

Influencers Start Spreading the News

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from April 20–26. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight how university research news spreads via online influencers, student athletes seeking new teams, and students continuing to speculate about the fall semester on Reddit.

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Brain Waves Blog: Staffing a Campus Social Media Team

Staffing a Campus Social Media Team

April 22, 2020

It’s a common illusion that a campus social media presence doesn’t cost anything. I’m here to tell you not to fall prey to that illusion, and explain what’s involved in building and staffing a higher ed social media team (including costs) so you know what you need to get started or get leadership support your need for additional resources. This post, along with two additional posts publishing in April and May, are excerpts from Fundamentals of Social Media Strategy.

I'm well aware that this post is being published as campuses consider furloughs and layoffs. Please don't dismiss it as something to think about "when things get back to normal." Staffing your social media team is more important now than ever.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: April 21

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: April 21

April 21, 2020

Focus on Fall Semester

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from April 13–19. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight speculation about the fall semester, conversations from and about Black students, and the reasons students’ families and friends are sharing joyful messages.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: April 14

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: April 14

April 14, 2020

A Little Less Conversation and a Lot More Negativity

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from April 7–12. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight conversations about internship changes and speculation about the fall semester.

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Brain Waves Blog: Evaluating Alumni Conversation: Alumni Sentiment

Evaluating Alumni Conversation: Alumni Sentiment

April 8, 2020

Alumni are one of the most influential voices in building your brand. And, if you’re in advancement, it’s your job to nurture these voices by engaging your alumni and building relationships, creating a stronger connection to their alma mater. To do this well, it helps to understand their pride and pain points so you can better speak to and with them, celebrate their wins, and ease their grievances. 

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: April 7

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: April 7

April 7, 2020

Students Discuss Cheating

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from April 3–6. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight how campuses frequently mentioned in the news are portrayed, stories of students’ family members and the disease, concerns from medical students, and discussions of cheating.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 27

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 27

March 27, 2020

Online Class Meme Themes

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation about coronavirus and higher education from March 24-26. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight political mentions, review continued negative sentiment, and examine the conversation about online courses through the lens of memes.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 24

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 24

March 24, 2020

Media Coverage Shifts to Campus Experts

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation about coronavirus and higher education from March 20–23. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight changing campus news coverage, trending hashtags (some may surprise you), and continuing expression of anger and sadness from students. Since the March 17 Briefing, we haven’t made any changes to our data collection. We have, however, improved our categorization of family and friend mentions; you’ll see a comparison of their expression of emotion in this Briefing.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 20

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 20

March 20, 2020

Student Voices Surface in Media, on Reddit

We made a few changes to our query to capture all relevant conversation. We’re now including “the rona,” an emerging slang reference for coronavirus, mentions of cancellation or postponement of graduation, and new hashtags that refer to the virus (e.g., #BoomerDoomer, #BoomerRemover, #coronapocalypse).

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 17

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 17

March 17, 2020

Word of Mouth Drives Both Information and Misinformation with Students

Today’s briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation about coronavirus and higher education from March 13–16. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight the most popular topics, continued negative sentiment, concerns of parents and admitted students, and surprising trends of where students discussed the issue online.

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Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 11

Coronavirus Higher Education Industry Briefing: March 11

March 11, 2020

As campuses and their constituents grapple with the implications of closures, extended-spring breaks, and online instruction to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic, online conversation on the topic is ballooning. We wanted to see the amount of conversation, find patterns, and develop insights to help campuses with their communication strategy. Yesterday (March 10), we gathered all of the online conversation about the coronavirus, higher education, related closures, and transitions to online coursework. Today, we analyzed it. Here’s what we found.

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Brain Waves Blog: Listen to Your Sonarian Senses: Lessons Learned from Crisis Monitoring

Listen to Your Sonarian Senses: Lessons Learned from Crisis Monitoring

March 11, 2020

Crises happen. The ripples are felt in-person and online. While talking to every person affected would be helpful, it is not realistic. Social listening, however, gives campuses instant access to online conversations about a particular crisis as they emerge on social sites, in forums, on blogs, in the news, and on other websites. Furthermore, social listening allows for unique views into trends within those conversations as the crisis unfolds in real time. All in all, social listening puts campuses in a better position to plan or adjust crisis communication strategies in the moment based on emerging insights. But this is only effective with human analysts teaming up with technology to write the perfect query and easily visualize the data. 

TL;DR

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Brain Waves Blog: The Medium Is the Message

The Medium Is the Message

February 26, 2020

If we asked you to define authenticity, could you do it? When we tried this ourselves, we ended up settling on a definition that was something like, “content that is authentic.” Realizing that the word authentic is also subjective, we tried defining that, only to rely on the word original. But what is original? With each attempted definition, we went  deeper and deeper down a rabbit hole.

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Brain Waves Blog: 5 Tips for Making the Most of Yield Season

5 Tips for Making the Most of Yield Season

February 19, 2020

February is a month of valentines, galentines, and if you’re in admissions, yieldentines! Yield is the stretch of time between students receiving their admissions decisions and choosing where they will deposit and, ultimately, enroll. While decision day on May 1 once signaled the end of yield, at many institutions this is no longer the case. Some students will deposit at multiple schools, and summer melt with ongoing offers is a new reality for many admissions teams.

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Brain Waves Blog: A Presidential Presence: Building Executive Social Media Strategy

A Presidential Presence: Building Executive Social Media Strategy

February 12, 2020

In​ ​an​ ​era​ ​driven​ ​by​ ​24/7​ ​coverage​ ​of​ ​everything, college​ ​presidents​ ​must​ ​be​ ​accessible​ ​and responsive ​while also taking a ​careful​ ​and​ ​measured​ ​approach​ ​to​ ​their social​ ​media presence.​​ The​ ​president owns​ ​the​ ​brand​ ​and​ ​the​ ​messaging​ ​of​ ​the​ ​institution​ ​and​ ​can​ ​quickly​ ​and​ ​effectively​ ​convey​ ​the mission​ ​through​ ​social​ ​media​ ​posts​ ​and​ ​interactions.​

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Brain Waves Blog: Evaluating Alumni Conversation

Evaluating Alumni Conversation

January 29, 2020

As higher ed insiders, we have a vested interest in understanding the individual and collective beliefs, attitudes, and relationships that alumni have with their alma maters. This knowledge provides valuable insight into their future actions and behaviors. As social media data analysts, we decided to conduct social listening analysis of alumni conversations to evaluate how they discuss their alma maters across various social platforms. We examined alumni conversation as a whole, then used multiple ways to segment the conversation to see how different characteristics revealed distinct types of conversation among alumni. 

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Blog image for New Year, New You: Setting Goals

New Year, New You: Setting Goals

December 18, 2019

There’s something about a good goal that really helps focus your behavior over a period of time—both consciously and unconsciously. In fact, studies on behavioral priming, (which is defined as “the incidental activation of knowledge structures … by the current situational context”), indicate that attitudes and other affective reactions can be triggered automatically by the mere presence of relevant objects and events (Bargh, Chen, Burrows, 1996). Set goals for the new year and keep your list handy, allowing the goals to seep into your day-to-day decision making. But on to the main act—how do you set goals anyway?

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Blog-Post

The Iceberg Effect

November 20, 2019

It’s a hot July day in Florida when Bella—we won’t use her last name—uploads a 17-minute video to her YouTube page. Bella has uploaded one video per month since July 2018, but this video, a year later, is her first video since February. It’s a point she doesn’t hide from her 171 subscribers.

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Blog post image for Gratitude: How We Show Donor Appreciation in Higher Ed

Gratitude: How We Show Donor Appreciation in Higher Ed

November 13, 2019

Gratitude was not a word that I used as a child. But writing thank you notes was a common practice in our household. And always saying “thank you.” From a young age, the importance of expressing appreciation for the kind gestures of others was instilled in me. In turn, I've always had a fear of people not knowing how truly grateful I am for their kindness.

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blog-post-hubspot-build-an-influencer-program

How to Build an Influencer Program in Higher Ed

October 30, 2019

We know students' methods for communication evolve regularly. The higher education industry needs to evolve along with those methods so we remain relevant in the minds of students.

Influencer marketing is an innovative strategy that has developed as individuals become more influenced by their peers than by businesses or organizations. Student influencer marketing strategically reaches students through their peer networks. Corporations and big brands have used effective peer marketing campaigns since 2010, but few higher education institutions, especially in student affairs, are taking advantage of this new strategy. In 2017, the Division of Student Affairs at Illinois State University launched one of the only formal student influencer teams in student affairs divisions nationwide.*

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blog-post-hubspot-compare-campus-to-peers

Compare Online Conversation About Your Campus to Peer Institutions

October 2, 2019

As soon as we decided to start Campus Sonar, I committed to providing social listening benchmarks for the higher education industry. This was a direct response to what I heard from campus-based professionals at conferences and during research conversations. While the concept of social listening was intriguing, administrators weren’t sure how much conversation they should expect to find about their campus. Once they looked and knew how much conversation there was, the first question they had was “is that normal?” This is why we released our 2019 Online Conversation Benchmarks study—I wanted every college and university to be able to measure their online conversation and know how it compared to their peers. 

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blog-post-hubspot-campus-influencers-in-higher-ed

How to Use Campus Influencers in Higher Ed

September 18, 2019

Influencers are an important part of the social listening conversation. They create a connection between audience and content, providing experiences their audience can relate to. As more and more people turn to social media to connect with others, share experiences, and search for help in making decisions, influencers have an enormous impact. In fact, a 2021 Edelman study found that 53 percent of people trust what influencers say about brands more than what the brands themselves say. 

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blog-post-hubspot-TikTok

How to Use TikTok for Social Listening

September 11, 2019

By now you’ve probably heard about TikTok, the short-form video app with more than a billion downloads worldwide and over 500 million active users. Launched in China in 2016, it entered the U.K. and U.S. markets in 2018. Currently it supports 15 languages and users in at least 75 countries. According to Google Trends, interest in TikTok as a search term peaked this summer in both the United States and the U.K., and worldwide in April 2019.

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blog-post-hubspot-measuring-brand-alignment

Using Social Listening Tactics to Measure Brand Alignment

September 4, 2019

What is the goal of your content marketing? Whether you’re new to the content marketing game or a seasoned veteran, you probably answered this question by referencing themes such as attracting more qualified leads at a lower cost, as well as success metrics like organic web traffic, keyword rankings, cost-per-acquisition, time on page, etc.

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blog-post-hubspot-campus-gif

Campus-Created GIFs Generate Student Engagement

August 21, 2019

At the University of Central Florida (UCF) we learned through our standard social listening on Instagram that our students wanted campus-specific GIPHY stickers. The large number of direct messages and replies asking us to create GIPHY stickers led us to dedicate time and resources to our rather bland and useless GIPHY channel. While we technically had an account, we officially transitioned it to a brand channel. A few short months later, we released our first GIPHY sticker pack—of course flaunting UCF’s black and gold brand. And in just over nine months, our GIPHY channel grew from a whopping 104 views to more than 104 million views as of July 2019. That’s an average of 11.5 million views a month!

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blog-post-hubspot-leaders-listen

Leaders Listen to the Student Experience

August 14, 2019

When I began in higher education as an academic advisor, I interacted with undergraduate students daily. From each conversation, I gleaned insights into needs, barriers, and successes students experienced at my institution. As I moved into university administration, that student-centered perspective greatly informed my work on retention and graduation initiatives. Heading into my fifth year in administration with little direct student interaction, my sense of the current student experience feels a little out of date. I realized this challenge was likely not unique to me and set out to learn what’s worked for seasoned university administrators to remain connected to the current student experience at their institutions. Here’s what I learned.

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blog-post-hubspot-13tips-for-social-listening

13 Tips for Using Social Listening in Higher Education

August 7, 2019

Regardless of having the word social in the name, social listening is not something you do just to get better at social media. Let’s repeat that—social listening is not just about social media! Social listening is an investment in strategic intelligence (across various channels), that gets you closer to what is being said to and about your institution with implications across almost every area of campus. Listening to your online conversation builds trust, which is arguably the most valuable commodity today.

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blog-post-hubspot-using-data-driven-marketing

How to Use Data-Driven Marketing in Higher Ed

July 10, 2019

When I founded Campus Sonar, I wrote a blog post about the need for data-informed marketing in higher education. It’s been almost two years now and the industry has made progress, but I feel like we still have a ways to go. Recently, I contributed to a blog series for Adapt about data-driven marketing and current trends—and I realized I had a lot more to say (most of you won’t be surprised about that). So here’s part two of my thoughts on data-driven marketing, marketing trends, and the impact on higher ed.

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Brain Waves Blog: Using Benchmarks - Higher ed alumni conversation

Using Benchmarks: Higher Education Alumni Conversation

June 26, 2019

With graduations across the country this spring, universities gained thousands of new alumni. But as soon as students graduate and leave campus, it becomes harder to engage with them and continue to build a relationship. One of the keys to connecting with new alumni is to not wait until they’ve graduated, but to engage with them before they become alumni. The more engaged and connected students are to an institution, the more likely they are to become engaged alumni. This speaks to Dr. Jay Le Roux Dillon’s idea of alumni identity—the measure of how deeply a graduate associates their own self-identity with their alma mater. The closer alumni feel to your institution, the more they’ll feel compelled to give—both time and money.

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Brain Waves Blog: Forums as Focus Groups: Online Conversation to Offline Analysis Impact

Forums as Focus Groups: Online Conversation Analysis to Offline Impact

June 12, 2019

Social listening is changing the way economists talk about sexism and gender bias in the profession, illustrating how insights from online conversations can have massive offline impacts. Similarly, understanding conversations from audiences that your institution serves (e.g., professionals working in the field you’re preparing students for, alumni, or prospective students) can transform your marketing, program development, recruitment, or fundraising strategy.

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blog-post-hubspot-social-media-crisis-chart

Be Prepared: Response Chart Offers Guidance in Social Media Crises

June 5, 2019

You can never be too prepared when it comes to social media.

Social media managers, how do you start each work day? Email? Seeing how yesterday’s posts performed? I like to jump right into issues management. What kind of fires do we have to put out today? From viral videos on Twitter of students canoodling in the library to faculty gone rogue to good old-fashioned trolling. You never know what’s in store when it comes to working in social media.

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Owning Higher Ed Hashtags: Brand Insights

Owning Higher Ed Hashtags

May 29, 2019

Hashtags are a symbol that for the longest time was really only found on a button on your phone (yes, there were these things called “landlines” with physical buttons). But now the omnipresent hashtag is something more—an organizer used to group social content that evolved in programming and has seeped its way into many social media sites. Not only does it organize content, it mobilizes movements. There’s a lot to discuss with these little guys—owning them, “owning” them, and why they matter in higher ed.

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Online Presence = Higher Education Ethos

May 15, 2019

The 2019 Online Conversation Benchmarks for Higher Education: A Campus Sonar Social Listening Study opens with “[t]he internet is real life,” and continues with a discussion of how institutions of higher education can use the internet to connect with their communities. It goes on to say, “...the reality is that their online presence is a combination of what they say about themselves and what others say about them.” As soon as I read that, I realized the importance of this study. The combination of what institutions say about themselves and what their community says, if we remove the online part, is also known as educational or campus ethos, which is the story, narrative, or mission institutions build around themselves but don't directly control.

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The World Needs More Cowboys: A Higher Ed Movement

April 17, 2019

“Two ears. One mouth.”

It’s a sentiment that’s been attributed to everyone from Epictetus to the Discovery Channel’s Mike Rowe, but the idea that we must listen more than we speak is one that rings true no matter the source. In higher education marketing, listening to our external and internal audiences is critical to developing communications and strategies that drive meaningful change—whether that’s growing enrollment, protecting and growing the university brand, or telling our stories in a way that connects with audiences on an emotional level. At the same time, as marketers, we’re challenged with attracting prospective students in a crowded marketplace where these students may be questioning if college is even worth it.

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Using Online Conversation Benchmarks: Conversation Volume

March 13, 2019

An institution’s online conversation volume is an indication of how many people are talking about it. Once you know the conversation volume for your institution, you can segment it to see who is talking about you, what they’re talking about, and where they’re talking. All of this helps you better understand the conversation about your institutional brand and create a strategy that resonates with your audiences.

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Blog post image for Five Tips for Creating a Social Strategy that Pays Off

Five Tips for Creating a Social Strategy that Pays Off

January 30, 2019

The competition for current and prospective students is tough and how you interact with them on social can make all the difference. You can turn your institution’s platforms into robust and valued assets by tailoring your social strategy to prioritize recruitment and retention. At Seneca College, we’ve had great success with five strategies.

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The Changing Social Media Landscape

December 5, 2018

Social media is now pervasive in everyday life—roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults use Facebook, Instagram, or both. With so many users, the platforms are constantly evolving. This is especially true with recent privacy concerns over public vs. private information. The changes to data privacy are important in helping you recognize what can and can’t be analyzed to gain valuable insights about your institution. This super technical post can help you understand the data sources we’re able to gather in our social listening analysis. And if you make it past the nerd-speak, we’ll fill you in on what the changes mean for Campus Sonar’s data, the impact on higher education, and how we’re looking forward to help you achieve better outcomes. 

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Brain Waves Blog: Create Long-term Partnerships to Engage Students & Alumni Influencers

Create Long-term Partnerships to Engage Students & Alumni Influencers

October 24, 2018

For several years now, great schools (like University of Central Florida) have been recruiting and training student influencers. At Juniata College, we do the same and have been for several years. Much to our delight, some of our student influencers have gone on to become social media and marketing managers at nonprofit organizations, visitors’ bureaus, colleges, and agencies across the U.S., which led us to some unanticipated partnerships lasting well beyond graduation.

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What Is the ROI of Social Listening?

October 17, 2018

ROI. Everyone likes to ask for it, yet few report it. That’s because it’s hard to quantify both sides of the Return on Investment equation in higher education. The investment should be easy enough: staff time, software, marketing expenses, supplies and materials, vendors/consultants are the most common components of an investment. The return poses more difficulty, as it can take years to materialize (e.g., a major gift, a life-long donor, or an enrolled and retained student). But Campus Sonar and EverTrue are up to the challenge. Let’s talk about the ROI of social listening.

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10 Reasons Why Social Listening Should Influence How, When, or If

October 3, 2018

Even if you haven't seen the musical "Hamilton," its songs and memes are hard to escape.

You've likely seen the one in which Alexander Hamilton's political rival Aaron Burr tells him to "Talk less, smile more." Though not a motto I tend to live my life by IRL, it's the first thing that comes to mind when considering the importance of social listening for strategic marketing and communication.

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How to Talk to Executives about Social Listening

September 5, 2018

Whether your executive leadership is socially savvy or not yet up to speed on "the Twitter," it can be challenging to explain the concept of social listening. Some of the challenge can be chalked up to the presence of social in the term. It's not surprising that their mind may immediately jump to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat and the efforts they've heard about chasing followers and engagement rates. In many cases, these social media efforts haven’t been tied to strategic priorities or value to the organization. That's a problem for another article, but the challenge remains: how do you talk to executives about social listening?

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Brain Waves Blog: How to Use Social Listening Data for Marketing Personas

How to Use Social Listening Data for Marketing Personas

August 22, 2018

Hearing the word “research” may elicit a groan from people—some perceive it as over-thinking a topic or too time consuming. However, the right type and amount of research allows individuals and organizations to make decisions that can save money (by preventing investment in dead-end solutions) or increase revenue (by allocating resources to make the most impact).

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Brain Waves Blog: Missed Influencer Opportunity: When Students Bring Followers to Campus

Missed Influencer Opportunity: When Students Bring Followers to Campus

August 15, 2018

This spring, Gus Johnson graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. In addition to his degree in digital cinema production, he's embarking on his career with almost 450,000 YouTube subscribers, 90 million video views, 28,000 Twitter followers, and 10,000 Facebook followers. The combination should give him a pretty decent foundation to pursue a career in filmmaking and acting in Los Angeles. And he'll be doing that without student debt, since he used the earnings from his YouTube channel and associated revenue streams to fund his education.

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Brain Waves Blog: Case Study: Monitoring Conversations around a Social Media Crisis

Case Study: Monitoring Conversations around a Social Media Crisis

August 8, 2018

There’s a new kind of crisis on campus—the social media crisis. You know the one, the email interaction that gets posted to reddit, the tweet-gone-awry from an official account, or the local news story that catches the eye of someone influential online. Before you know it, a snafu that might have slipped under the radar in the past has sparked a national conversation, and there are literally thousands of people talking about the campus every day.

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Brain Waves Blog: The Importance of Measuring Social Media Content Buckets and Types

The Importance of Measuring Social Media Content Buckets and Types

June 27, 2018

We’re in the age of digital disruption—a time when social media newsfeeds are more competitive than the 2018 NBA Finals. A time when we should analyze our approach to content as rigorously as we select an engagement ring, well maybe not that rigorously but you get my point. All jokes aside, for whatever reason, so many entities today focus on producing the ‘what’ that they often forget to consider the ‘how’ in content creation.

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Social Listening Drives Strategic Engagement

June 20, 2018

Higher education institutions of the future are prepared to identify and share their value with a variety of audiences—from students to donors to federal and state agencies and more. They know and advocate for their brand tirelessly and constantly evolve to meet the changing educational needs of the population. In short, the higher education institution of the future is equipped to drive growth in programs, enrollment, and advancement in ways that are efficient and innovative.

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Brain Waves Blog: Analyzing Prospective Student Conversations with Social Data

Analyzing Prospective Student Conversations with Social Data

June 6, 2018

When you’re recruiting prospective students, you want to know what they’re saying about your university. One way you can learn what students are saying is through traditional audience research methods, social audience intelligence, or a combination of both. The research analysts at Brandwatch used social data to learn more about prospective student conversations surrounding applying to college.

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Brain Waves Blog: Six Ways to Get Social Listening Buy-In

Six Ways to Get Social Listening Buy-In

May 16, 2018

If you ended up here, chances are you’ve thought about social listening. Whether you’re at the beginning stages of your research or actively trying to make the case to invest resources in it, social listening has found its way onto your radar.

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Eureka! The Alumni Engagement Data Gold Rush

May 2, 2018

The data gold rush is on in higher ed advancement, and institutions hope to hit pay dirt by leveraging this data bonanza—whether it’s identifying alumni career journeys to better match mentors to mentees or discovering alumni interests to better target communications and fundraising. But unless advancement offices have a strong strategy backed by defined and talented resources, they’ll be left with little but a server full of fool’s gold.

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Brain Waves Blog: Online Presence Is Your Brand. What Does Yours Say about You?

Online Presence Is Your Brand: What Does Yours Say About You?

April 11, 2018

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr… the list goes on. And for some schools, it goes on, and on, and on: at many schools, dedicated fans, student groups, professors, and departments decide to make social media accounts that are unofficially affiliated with the school. They may use your school name or logo, but the content they post may not have to follow the same guidelines and brand messaging that the official campus social media accounts do.

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Brain Waves Blog: Crisis Management: Key Metrics and a Case Study

Crisis Management: Key Metrics and a Case Study

April 4, 2018

The definition of crisis is “a time when a difficult or important decision must be made.” To effectively monitor and manage a crisis and understand the decisions they need to make, organizations must be plugged into the online conversation. Strong, strategic social listening in a crisis ensures you know a crisis on campus is brewing before you get a call from your president, allows you to monitor the issue in real-time to inform your PR response, ensures campus safety, and mitigates brand impact.

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Brain Waves Blog: Athletics: Getting Past the Madness

Athletics: Getting Past the Madness

March 14, 2018

With March Madness upon us, you might notice a higher prevalence of basketball mentions in your school’s online conversation, or just online in general. While athletics can bring helpful attention and money to your school, for staff members interested in other areas of the conversation, the focus on athletics can overshadow the academic conversation and targeted brand messages. Separating the athletics conversation from the rest of the conversation is possible and can be helpful in strengthening non-athletic conversations.

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Brain Waves Blog: Spring Hill College Refreshes their Brand with Social Listening

Spring Hill College Refreshes their Brand with Social Listening

March 7, 2018

Social listening is a flexible and direct way to earn insight into understanding the mindset of your target audience. Audience research and conversation analysis allows you to identify a target population and analyze all (or a sample of) their conversations over a defined period of time. Campus Sonar recently worked with Spring Hill College (SHC) in Mobile, Alabama. Using conversation analysis, Campus Sonar helped SHC uncover their brand and define it so they could move forward, using brand research to build their strategy.   

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Brain Waves Blog: Using Online Reviews to Deliver Higher Ed Insights

Using Online Reviews to Deliver Higher Education Insights

February 14, 2018

Sometimes when people hear social listening, they think that online analysis is limited to social sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit. Luckily—for both analysts like myself and for our clients—that’s not the case! As many colleges and universities earn reviews from prospective and current students, alumni, and parents on sites like College Confidential and Cappex, it’s important to understand the picture these reviews paint of higher education institutions. Campus Sonar uses social listening to gather reviews from these sites and analyze both positive and negative comments. We capture the thoughts about a higher education institution from across the internet, which could include: the typical student, why others recommend (or don’t recommend) it, opinions on academic programs and resources, or other trending topics from the cost of tuition to the food in the cafeteria.

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Brain Waves Blog: Leading a Social Media Strategy Hub

Leading a Social Media Strategy Hub

January 10, 2018

When I saw the opportunity to lead a centralized social media effort in higher education, I jumped at the chance. Luckily, it was also at North Carolina State University—in one of America's fastest growing cities, Raleigh, NC.

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Brain Waves Blog: Why Higher Education Should Embrace Influencer Marketing

Why Higher Education Should Embrace Influencer Marketing

January 3, 2018

2017 was the year for higher education to embrace influencer marketing. I know, because I googled "influencer marketing higher education" and the top three results for the year were about higher ed marketing trends. If you're feeling a little behind now that 2017 is on its way out, read Five 2017 Marketing Trends and What They Mean For Higher Education from Stephen App at eCity Interactive—he set the precedent for applying the mainstream influencer marketing trend to our industry.

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Brain Waves Blog: Understanding Share of Voice: Terry College of Business

Understanding Share of Voice: Terry College of Business

December 20, 2017

Brand benchmarking is one way to strategically use social listening. As a modern brand manager, you need to understand the online conversations about your brand to gain competitive insights and develop an effective brand strategy. One benchmark metric you can use to evaluate online reputation is share of voice.

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Brain Waves Blog: Introducing Campus Sonar

Introducing Campus Sonar

October 6, 2017

Today I get to introduce the higher education community to Campus Sonar, and I couldn't be more excited! This post details what inspired us, how we developed our service, and what you can expect from us.

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