Brain Waves Blog

At Duke, we’re operating on the premise that YouTube isn’t just a bucket for holding video content. It’s actually social media. I’ll show you what I mean.

Monitoring and listening—same thing, right? For most marketers, 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 that 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 were missing when you thought you were listening. 

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.

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.

 

If news about politics, the virus, or messages from angry family members about Thanksgiving plans has caused you to avoid your phone, you may have missed our big announcement. After months of secrecy (no one caved, though Liz came close), we were finally able to announce STREAM, by Campus Sonar. Steve, Master of the STREAM Team, shares more about how we accidentally started another business at Campus Sonar with the main goal of making you smarter.

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.