Lessons from the First Survey on How Colleges Use Social Media

Succeeding with Social Media:
Lessons from the First Survey
of Social Media in Advancement
by Cheryl Slover-Linett and Michael Stoner 1

Succeeding with Social Media: Lessons from the First Survey of Social Media in Advancement 1

Table of Contents

page 3 » Succeeding with Social Media: Lessons from
the First Survey of Social Media in Advancement
A report on what we learned from the survey; our reflections on
what we learned

page 15 » Appendix 1: Social Media and the Admission Office
What others have learned about how admission and enrollment officers
use social media

Case Studies
In-depth looks at how four institutions use social media in coordinated,
multi-channel campaigns

page 24 » Oregon State University: Powered By Orange

page 28 » William & Mary Mascot Search

page 31 » Integrating and Managing Social Media at
Northfield Mount Hermon School

page 35 » Coordination and Decentralization of Social Media
in the Emory University Alumni Association


All institutions are trying to engage with their constituents with social
media tools. But how are they doing? Are constituents commenting,
liking, and otherwise interacting with the Facebook pages sponsored
by institutions to engage alumni, influence parents, encourage donors,
and build awareness of institutional messages and brands? What are
barriers to using of social media in institutional advancement? How do we
measure success? What does an effective social media program look like?

Early in 2010, a task force composed of people recruited from all three CASE Commissions began to
explore these and related questions. Led by Andrew Gossen, senior director for social media strategy
at Cornell University, and Charlie Melichar, associate vice chancellor for communications at Vanderbilt
University, they began attempting to understand what was happening with social media on various
campuses around the world by interviewing colleagues about their social media activities.2 What they
lacked was data.

So when mStoner and Slover Linett Strategies approached CASE with a proposal to conduct research
on how advancement offices were utilizing social media, everyone was keen to jump on board. As Rae
Goldsmith, vice president of advancement resources at CASE, explained, “Social media is something that
professionals in all disciplines—fundraising, alumni relations, communications, marketing, advancement
services—are struggling with. It’s a universal advancement issue.”

She noted, “There just isn’t much data about what people are doing in advancement to better
understand social media and to employ it to achieve their goals. We need a way to better benchmark
where people are to help us understand their needs and determine what resources could be meaningful
to them.”

Working with Goldsmith, Gossen, Melichar, and other CASE staff and task
force members, we developed a 39-question survey that we tested with a
focus group of attendees at the April 2010 CASE conference on social media
and community. In June, we emailed a link to the survey to a random sample
of 18,000 CASE members in the United States and abroad. We received nearly
1,000 responses, providing a demographically representative cross-section of
CASE membership. As a result, we have a high degree of confidence in the data.
The results have a 3% sampling error, very similar to most national polling data.

1
Cheryl Slover-Linett is managing partner of Slover Linett Strategies, a research firm that conducts audience research and
planning for education and cultural organizations. Michael Stoner is president of mStoner, a communications and marketing
firm that works with schools, colleges, and universities. We partnered with CASE (the Council for Advancement and Support of
Education) on the survey discussed in this White Paper.

2
Both Andrew Gossen and Charlie Melichar shared some thoughts about the survey results reported in this white paper and
are quoted in the text and in sidebars. We also interviewed Andy Shaindlin, founder of Alumni Futures, who, as director of
alumni relations at Caltech, was a founder and participant in the early work of the CASE social media task force. You can follow
the work of the task force on its blog, CASE Social Media, which is posting transcripts of conversations with advancement
professionals around the world. To encourage broader participation and sharing, CASE created a listserv for people engaged in
social media (SOCIALMEDIA-L) and established a LinkedIn subgroup on social media.


A number of caveats about our findings

» Respondents may skew toward those CASE professionals who are the most engaged with
and—the heaviest users—of social media. In other words, to the social media enthusiasts
among CASE members.

» Because most CASE members are fundraising, institutional communications (PR, media
relations, marketing, publications, and periodicals), and alumni relations professionals, the
views of enrollment and admissions professionals are under-represented. To help address
this gap, we’ve shared what others have learned about the use of social media in admission
and enrollment in Appendix 1. Similarly, because the survey focused on the use of social
media in advancement, our results do not represent perspectives on the use of social media
in learning and teaching.

» We did not conduct research on how audiences (alumni, donors, parents, or other
influencers) are using the various social media established by institutions to engage them. If
you’re interested in learning about how people are adopting and using social media in their
personal lives and for business purposes, you’ll find many resources on the Internet. Start
with the research on social networking by the Pew Internet and American Life project.

We also want to clarify two terms that we use a lot in this white paper: social media and social net-
working. Social media are web-based media used for social interaction. Examples include blogs, Flickr
for photos and images, YouTube for videos, and Facebook, which provides a suite of social media tools.
Social networking refers to the interactions facilitated by those media, which include sharing,
commenting, ranking, posting, and so forth.

Snapshot of social media use in advancement

Here are some key takeaways from the research, that provides the first in-depth look
at how schools, colleges, and universities are using social media to engage with
significant external audiences.

Most institutions are using one or more social media tools.

» Facebook is the clear leader, with » About three in five institutions » About one in three maintain
nearly every institution (94%) also use Twitter, LinkedIn, and/or blogs, use Flickr, and/or offer a
using Facebook to engage with YouTube. social community via an outside
multiple audiences. vendor like Harris or iModules.
» Only 4% of respondents
» Almost 60% of institutions said they weren’t using any social
have added social networking media (most of these
features to their own websites. respondents represented
development offices).3

3
We note that the BlueFuego staff, who visited 1,387 college and university websites to see where these institutions place social
web callouts, determined that 86% of the institutions they visited in July 2010 had links to destinations on the social web on
either their homepage, admissions page, or alumni page. These links indicate that the destination social sites are sponsored by
the institutions. Furthermore, 60% of the alumni websites they visited had callouts to social media.


Institutions are using social media to engage
Percent communicating with
this audience at all
with multiple audiences. The table on the left
(using any type of social media) offers an idea about just whom advancement staff
are attempting to reach with social media.
ALUMNI 96%

FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS 77% The top three goals are engaging alumni (86%), strengthening
institutional brand (72%), and increasing awareness/advocacy/
CURRENT STUDENTS 69%
rankings (58%). Marketing professionals also use social media to
DONORS 66%
recruit students (70%), engage admitted students (65%) and engage
CURRENT FACULTY AND STAFF 64% current students (62%). Nearly half of development professionals
reported using social media in fundraising.
PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS 57%

PARENTS OF CURRENT STUDENTS 49% Right now, we understand that fundraisers often don’t see value in
PARENTS OF PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS 43% social media. Anecdotally, we’ve heard fundraisers argue that using
social media is a fine long-term strategy, but that it won’t help them to
MEDIA 42%
raise money in the short term and is a distraction, especially for those
EMPLOYERS 37% engaged in campaigns. It doesn’t help that there are few examples
HIGH SCHOOL GUIDANCE COUNSELORS 23% within education in which social media have been used to raise
significant amounts of money.
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS 18%

EXTENSIVELY (5)
SOMEWHAT (3)

QUITE A BIT (4)
NOT MUCH (2)
NOT AT ALL (1)

#12
To what extent Goals of social media

MEAN
is each of Engage alumni 3% 2% 10% 27% 59% 4.4

the following Create, sustain, and improve brand image 4% 5% 20% 35% 37% 4.0

social media Increase awareness/advocacy/rankings 12% 8% 22% 23% 26% 3.5

objectives Improve community relations 10% 12% 28% 28% 23% 3.4

a goal for Engage current students 13% 12% 28% 27% 20% 3.3

Engage current faculty and staff 13% 17% 34% 24% 12% 3.1
your unit? Engage prospective students 28% 16% 15% 18% 23% 2.9

Engage admitted students 26% 13% 20% 24% 17% 2.9

Raise private funds 16% 22% 31% 18% 13% 2.9

Engage parents of current students 23% 18% 29% 21% 9% 2.8

Recruit students 30% 16% 14% 20% 20% 2.8

Manage crises and issues 32% 30% 20% 11% 7% 2.3

Recruit faculty and staff 47% 31% 16% 4% 2% 1.8


Advancement officers like Facebook. Respondents consider Facebook the most successful tool in meeting their goals
(85%). Having an institutional website with social network features ran a distant second (31%). LinkedIn ran third (27%),
and Twitter (25%) and YouTube (23%) nearly tied.

Usage and success of social media platforms in reaching unit goals

PERCENT USING FOR ANY AUDIENCE 94% 67% 61% 59% 58% 36% 33% 33% 5%

SUCCESS RATING 85% 25% 27% 23% 31% 15% 8% 12% 1%

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Attitudes about social media
While many advancement offices are participating in social media, but the demand is growing, illustrates one
social media, they recognize that they are not, by and of the real issues we face. And it’s reinforced by the open-
large, the primary drivers of that effort. Nearly all are ended responses. People aren’t going to get any more
motivated at least in part by demand from alumni or people to do social media, so some staff members are
other constituents (86%) or competition from peer going to have to unplug from at least some of what they
institutions (84%). While most (71%) believe social are doing and switch their responsibilities.
media have great potential for achieving important goals
for their unit, fewer say they have either institutional “This is a management challenge to the institution’s
support and buy-in (46%) or the expertise to help their leaders, who have to figure out how to incorporate social
social media efforts (26%). And institutions are not media responsibilities into the org chart with the full
making significant investments to support social media understanding that they’re not getting more staff, and
in staffing or budget. Only 14% expect to add staff they may actually lose some people. And let’s be clear:
committed to social media this year. this isn’t a new challenge, but an ongoing manifestation
of change. The world has changed and if you want to be
As Andy Shaindlin, founder of Alumni Futures, pointed in it, you have to be ready to change, too.”
out, “The fact that only 14% expect to hire more staff for


Managing and deploying social media LOCAL
#17
Is the use of social media by
“Right now, management of social media is
43% your unit under your unit’s
decentralized across the institution without much
coordination, and, you know what, we like it that way!” complete control, or is there
At least that’s what our respondents report. More than 21% a coordinating committee or
half (53%) handle their own social media activities
within their unit with some input from other depart- group for the institution
11%
ments; another quarter does it without any input, and as a whole?
about 20% have another department take the lead.
10%
Management of social media at the discretion of How would you like to see this
individual units, and there aren’t many institutional 9% change in the coming year?
policies or standards that they can turn to for guidance.4
Those that exist tend to be graphics and branding
guidelines. Those institutions that report having policies
6% 6% 54% 41%
MORE LOCAL GOOD MORE
say that they are created and/or managed by a com- WHERE COORDINATED
IT IS
munications, marketing, or PR department. Few institu- COORDINATED

tions have considered managing negative postings by
establishing posting or commenting policies. In addition,
most institutional policies do not address privacy,
ethical, or legal issues.
CENTRALIZED
#18
Is the use of social media
Though our respondents like the current “Wild West”
approach to social media—an environment where there 16% at your institution centralized
isn’t much coordination, focus on policy, or standards— in one institutional unit,
many respondents recognize that they could benefit 11%
from more coordination and planning at the institutional
or is it dispersed throughout
level. However, they don’t see the need for a one-size- the institution as a whole?
fits-all strategy, nor do they want to give up control of
11%
staffing or the content of their social media efforts.
15%
Our data reveal a split when it comes to planning How would you like to see this
and control. Only 35% said their social media
development is the result of planning (not spontane-
15% change in the coming year?
ous), and 71% said they would like to see more planning
in the future. Just 15% said social media is controlled by 32% 34% 54% 13%
MORE GOOD MORE
a committee or group, and 41% would like more coor- CENTRALIZED WHERE DISPERSED
IT IS
dination. In contrast, 54% like the level of planning and DISPERSED
coordination they currently have.

4
CASE maintains links to a collection of social media policies from education institutions [login required]. For a more general
collection of social media policies, see this article from SocialMedia.biz and the list from The Altimeter Group, where Charlene
Li, author of “Open Leadership”, is a partner.


To what degree is each issue below
a barrier to the successful use of
social media in your unit?

EXTENSIVELY (5)
SOMEWHAT (3)

QUITE A BIT (4)
NOT MUCH (2)
NOT AT ALL (1)
Not surprising, the biggest challenges Potential barriers

MEAN
inhibiting institutions from doing more
with social media are staffing, expertise,
Staffing for day-to-day content
and funding. Privacy concerns, turf 7% 9% 27% 33% 23% 3.6
management
battles, and institutional red tape are low
Staffing for site
on the list of barriers, partly, we suspect, development
9% 14% 30% 29% 19% 3.4

because social media management is so
Lack of relevant human resources
decentralized. 12% 22% 26% 22% 18% 3.1
in my unit

Expertise in how to implement it 13% 25% 34% 22% 6% 2.8
In fact, social media seems to be at
the same place now that institutional Funding 17% 27% 28% 20% 9% 2.8
websites were in 1997. At that time,
Lack of IT resources 15% 30% 27% 19% 10% 2.8
institutional leaders and administrators
often didn’t understand how important Slow pace of change 15% 27% 35% 16% 7% 2.7

an institution’s website was. As a result, Concerns about loss of control
they provided little formal oversight over content and tone of postings 14% 35% 32% 15% 4% 2.6
by others
and little or no budget for site develop-
ment, essential tools such as a content Lack of institutional clarity about
who is responsible for social 19% 29% 30% 15% 7% 2.6
management system, common design
media initiatives
standards, or staff support. Much has
changed since then. If social media Lack of commitment by decision
19% 37% 24% 14% 5% 2.5
makers
follow the same trajectory as institu-
tional websites have, these issues will be Lack of champions at the
20% 37% 26% 13% 5% 2.5
institutional level
addressed as leaders begin to see how
important social media are in engaging Uncertainty about usefulness
19% 34% 31% 14% 2% 2.5
of social media
their important audiences.
Privacy issues 20% 39% 31% 9% 2% 2.4
One surprise from the survey is the
Turf battles 25% 37% 25% 10% 4% 2.3
fact that fear of negative postings is
a non-issue for respondents. Many Institutional red tape 23% 44% 19% 10% 4% 2.3

of us who speak or write about social Lack of interest from those
32% 41% 19% 6% 2% 2.0
media are invariably asked about how in my unit

to respond to the concern among senior Ethical issues 33% 48% 16% 3% 1% 1.9
staff about negative comments or blog
Legal issues 32% 48% 17% 2% 1% 1.9
postings. Yet, overall, this was a minor
concern for respondents.


Case Studies: We’re starting to see some coordinated yet decentralized approaches to managing
social media, both within institutions and within units charged with broad com-
munications for institutional audiences. For example, at Northfield Mount Hermon
School, an independent school (grades nine through 12) in Gill, Massachusetts,
individuals from a number of offices across campus manage and contribute to social
See page 31 »
media. About three dozen faculty members, students, and administrators post to
NMH blogs. These blog posts, in turn, are syndicated through NMHbook, the school’s
social media aggregation site.

At the Emory University Alumni Association, a three-person team works hard to
educate and prepare colleagues to participate in social media where and when
appropriate. Stacey Gall, assistant director of technology and information manage-
See page 35 »
ment, said, “We’re trying to get to a point where all staff have their hands in social
media. We have around 70 Facebook pages/groups based mainly on events or city-
specific networking. We rely on our staff and volunteers/contacts in these locations
to post and respond to comments.”

Measuring social media and determining success

How successful are we in using social media? Most institutions consider themselves to be moderately successful (64%)
with their social media efforts. Another quarter say they’re very successful. A stark few—13%—don’t think their efforts
are successful.

But how do they know they’re successful? That’s the real issue. Data from the survey show that most institutions are
primarily using superficial measures, such as counting the number of “touches” (friends, click-throughs, participation,
etc.) as their main success metric. Respondents rated Facebook as the most successful platform by far (85%, compared
to 31% for the next most successful one, which typically is the social media platform on the institution’s own website).
Not surprisingly, Facebook makes it easy for a page administrator to count wall posts, likes, and comments.

As Andrew Gossen observed, “It’s an encouraging sign that people are beginning to measure, but the outcome measures
that are used the most are the most basic. We need resources to help people conceptualize and implement more
sophisticated measuring.”

As Andy Shaindlin of Alumni Futures, put it: “The measurements that people are using now are very counting-oriented.
We should be moving away from these metrics and moving toward measuring the impact those numbers
have. For example ‘having 100 more people in the group has resulted in xx% increases in messages posted on message
boards.’ In other words, we should be looking at what happens as a result of the numbers, not focusing on those
numbers themselves.”

Respondents also reported that they weren’t doing much surveying of how their constituents use social media. Charlie
Melichar said, “We need to be integrating more survey research into our social media programs so we can measure the
impact we’re having and adjust our campaigns in response to what we learn.”


Bottom line, it’s difficult right now to Social media use: factors that help make an
know exactly what success looks like. organization more successful
We suspect that those institutions who
claim to be “very successful” (19% SUCCESSFUL OTHER
OVERALL
ORGANIZATIONS* ORGANIZATIONS
of respondents) in their social media
activities are underestimating how much Q9: Percent that report “We handle our
more successful they could be if they own social media activities, without 27% 36% 24%
any input”
were thinking about using social media
as the basis for a broadly integrated, Q12: Percent selecting “Extensively” to describe the extent to which the following are top social
multichannel campaign. In 2010, social media goals within their organizations:

media success rarely involves focusing on Engage alumni 59% 68% 56%
one social media platform or one channel.
Create, sustain, and improve brand
32% 54% 37%
image
Those who say they are successful with
social media report that success factors Increase awareness/advocacy/rankings 26% 42% 21%
include: having specific goals for their
Engage prospective students 23% 35% 19%
activities; being more coordinated and
doing more planning; having institutional Improve community relations 23% 34% 20%
support and buy-in; controlling social
Q16: Percent selecting “planned” (rather
media activities (including content and than spontaneous) to describe the 58% 75% 54%
staff) within their department; and having development of social within their unit
enough expertise in-house so they don’t
Q17: Percent selecting “local” (vs. coordi-
need to look to outside resources. nated) for control over social media 75% 78% 74%
use within their unit
Other success factors include using
Q18: Percent selecting “centralized” (vs.
multiple social media platforms. In other dispersed) for the organization of 38% 44% 36%
words, developing a campaign that moves social media in their institution
beyond a blog or Facebook to incorporate
Q19: Percent selecting “under unit control”
Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, blogs, and (vs. control by another unit) for
82% 93% 79%
other channels. support staff maintaining unit’s social
media

The best example we found of a Q20: Percent selecting “under unit control”
coordinated, multichannel campaign (vs. more outside approval) for 89% 97% 87%
using social media is Oregon State content of unit’s social media site(s)

University’s Powered by Orange. Q22: Percent selecting “in-house
PBO deployed across multiple social resources” (vs. outside resources) for 73% 88% 69%
platforms—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, development of unit’s social media
Flickr, YouTube—and used blogs and a Q24b: Percent selecting “in-house
Google map mashup. But OSU didn’t stop resources” (vs. outside resources)
86% 90% 84%
there: it brought PBO into the physical for conducting evaluations of social
media
world using signage, bus wraps, t-shirts,
and a variety of opportunities for Q25: Percent who agree at all with “My unit
face-to-face interactions. benefits from institutional support
74% 84% 71%
and buy in for social media develop-
Case Study: ment”

* uccessfulorganizationsaredefinedhereasthoseratedeither“verysuccessful”or“amodel
S
forsuccessfuluseofsocialmedia”inquestion14concerningtheoverallsuccessofaunit’suse
ofsocialmedia.
See page 24 »


Susan Evans, director of creative services at the College of William Mary, Feedback from Andrew Gossen
wanted to “involve as many people as possible” in the search for a new mascot
AndrewGossen,
for the college. Using a combination of a blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and seniordirectorfor
Flickr, William Mary ended up with more than 22,000 comments by the time the socialmediastrategy
atCornellUniversity,
campaign closed—and earned significant media coverage.
isco-chairofthe
interdisciplinary
Case Study: Evans noted, “Our main lesson was that the integra- CASEsocialmedia
taskforce.
tion of these social media tools matters. We didn’t
realize the power behind what we were doing was
that we were using all of these channels together, 1. hywastheresearchnecessary?
W

What’sitssignificance?
but in different ways. For example, Twitter was less Theresearchprovidesanecessary
See page 28 »
formal; our blog functioned more like a website and baselinesenseofwhatweare
was more formal. We did plan up front to use all of these channels and had a talkingabout,andwecanuseitto
trackallmanneroftrendsfromthis
strategy of how to use each of them, but all of them together gave us a cohesive pointonward.Thefactthatitwasa
presence.” systematic,CASEmembership-wide
surveymakesitmoresignificant.

In contrast, the 13% who say they have not been successful with social media cite
some of the following issues as difficulties: 2. nyfindingsstandoutforyou?
A

Iwasencouragedtoseehowmany
respondentsareactiveonatleastone
» Lack of staffing, expertise and funding socialmediaplatformnow.Peopleare
takingstepstowardengagement,and
» Lack of institutional clarity about goals Ithinkthat’sencouraging.However,
wedoneedtoacknowledgethatthe
» Lack of “the right people” to do the job
responseratewassmallenoughthat
» Slow pace of change in a world that moves quickly there’salmostinevitablygoingtobe
abiasintheresponsestowardpeople
» Lack of commitment and uncertainty about social media’s usefulness whoareexperimentinginthisarea.
Trackingtrendsintheresponserate
» Red tape overtimemayhelpusgetabetter
fixonhowwidespreaddigitalmedia
initiativesactuallyare.

We’re all newbies Question16[askingwhethersocial
mediauseisspontaneousorplanned]
revealsadefinitedesireformore
Institutions that fail to pay attention to factors of social media implementation planninginthewayinstitutionsuse
that might increase their success do so because they lack of experience with the socialmedia,andthere’sobviously
aneedforresourcestodothat
technology and have not thought through its full risks and potential. But the vast
effectively:maybeadditionalstaff,
majority of people who are working in social media in academia are doing so part- additionaltimewithincurrentjobsto
time, with little training, and with many competing priorities and responsibilities. thinkmoreaboutwhatthey’redoing,
andadditionalresourcesformCASE
They simply don’t have the luxury of taking time to explore the larger implications tohelpthemdeveloptheirplans.But
of what they’re doing. there’sclearlysomethingaboutthe
statusquothatisnotallowingstaff
workinginthisareatodotheirwork
Some of our findings support the hypothesis that social media is new enough that asthoughtfullyastheywouldliketo
many practitioners still don’t know what they don’t know. doit.

Question21[askingaboutumbrella
Take measurement, for example. Success doesn’t mean simply counting touches, vsindividualstrategiesbytarget
but involves measuring the engagement of constituents over a longer period of audiencesforsocialmedia?]suggests
thatthereisademandforhelpwitha
time and ultimately measuring the action that results from that engagement. But
socialmediastrategy.


defining what that means—and measuring it—is challenging and will take years. Andrew Gossen (continued)

Maybe longer. We have no good models for it in the commercial world, much less
Question23[askingaboutoutcome
in higher education. So counting friends, fans, or comments is a convenient proxy. measuresforsocialmedia]shows
That’s acceptable for the moment: as long as we’re seeking more meaningful ways thattheoutcomemeasuresbeing
usedthemostfrequentlyarethemost
of analyzing data long-term.
basic.Ontheonehand,they’rethe
mostaccessible.It’sanencouraging
Likewise, the fact that worry about negative comments or blog posts has not signthatpeoplearebeginningto
measure,butthere’saclearneedout
inhibited deployment of social media to a substantial degree is heartening. It thereforresourcestohelppeopledo
means that institutions have understood that the benefits of engagement far somemoresophisticatedmeasuring
outweigh the potential drawbacks and have chosen to engage rather than to bothinhowthey’reconceptualizing
themeasurementandhowthey’re
withdraw from engagement. Those that do engage have discovered that healthy doingit.
social media communities can be largely self-correcting. A proactive comment or
There’saninterestingjuxtaposition
acceptable use policy can help to mitigate the worst excesses of negativity.
betweenQuestion27[aboutbarriers
tosocialmediause]andQuestion
This also helps to explain the apparent lack of concern by respondents about 30[askingwhatkindofassistance
peopleareconsidering].Thetwomain
privacy. Andrew Gossen, senior director for social media strategy at Cornell and
barrierstousingthesetoolsbetterare
the co-chair of CASE’s social media task force, remarked, “This lack of concern is lackofstaffingandlackofexpertise,
especially jarring because most of the folks responding to this survey had been butpeopledon’thaveplanstohire
stafforvendorswhocouldhelpthem
ringside spectators to the Facebook privacy kerfuffle5 and, more recently, the news developamorepowerfulstrategyor
about Google’s privacy struggle. These aren’t esoteric issues: they’re the best abetterapproach.They’vegottheir
indicator that we should be worrying about this ourselves.” In other words, privacy problemdiagnosedbutnoplansto
solveit.
isn’t a luxury. As social media evolves, privacy issues are likely to be increasingly
important, especially as the practices of heavily used external social sites like Finally,I’mstruckthatpeopledon’t
seemworriedaboutprivacy,legal
Facebook conflict with strong institutional privacy policies.
issues,orethicalissues.Thissuggests
thatpeople’sengagementnow
Finally, the lack of worry about negative comments helps to explain why mightbetoobasicandthatthey’re
notthinkingthingsthroughvery
respondents are so self-satisfied with their own initiatives.
thoroughly.Ianticipatethatasthe
useofsocialmediainadvancement
This self-satisfaction is curious for a number of reasons. First, the responses matures,peoplearegoingtothink
throughtheseissuesmorecarefully.
indicate that most institutions find measuring their social media activities difficult.
A result, they aren’t measuring their efforts effectively, or at all, beyond counting 3. hatarethekeytakeawaysforthe
W
some basic indicators of participation by constituents. And because they aren’t advancementprofession?
It’sgreatthatpeopleareengaging
surveying constituents, they aren’t setting a benchmark that can show them if withsocialmedia,butthisisn’t
leading indicators change or not over time. Oregon State University conducted thetimetorestonourlaurels.The
reallyhardworkstartsnow.Asfar
extensive survey research with many constituents before launching the PBO
asakeytakeaway,respondentsare
campaign. In three to five years, that research could help them determine whether under-resourcedbothinstaffing
or not PBO altered perceptions of the university. Without it, it would be nearly andexpertise,andunlessthey
addressthat,theywillneverbeable
impossible to measure the campaign’s impact.
totakemaximumadvantageof
thesetools.We’reseeingmassive
increaseinengagementinthese
platformsonaglobalsense.
5
The controversy erupted in March and April 2010, when Facebook changed its privacy settings to
make certain information in profiles public by default. Reaction from the technology press and some
members of the public was swift, with most people condemning Facebook’s actions. The changes
were supplemented by news reports, such as this one from Wired, that revealed that Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg is said to disdain privacy. Facebook has since simplified its privacy settings, but this
is the latest round in the company’s continuing attempt to encourage users to make more data public
rather than private.


Second, in the open-ended examples, respondents called out initiatives that Feedback from Charlie Melichar
they thought were particularly noteworthy. Some examples consisted of a
CharlieMelichar,
Facebook page or having a president tweet. These examples (and others) associatevice
indicate a lack of clarity about what’s really involved in being successful with chancellorfor
communications,
social media. It may also indicate a lack of urgency in implementing social
VanderbiltUniversity,
media initiatives. isco-chairofthe
interdisciplinary
CASEsocialmedia
Not every social media campaign has to be as broad-based or diverse in taskforce.
tools and strategy as PBO. In contrast, the social media deployed in Nazareth
College’s Flight of the Flyers campaign were used to further the goal of 1. hywastheresearchnecessary?
W
What’sitssignificance?
engaging alumni. During its mascot search, William Mary used social media There’sbeenavoidofgood
and other channels extensively, but its campaign was limited in time and informationbeforethis.Wecan
quibbleoverspecificpointsthat
scope—and received a great deal of interaction and response.
emergefromthedata,butweneed
researchtohaveacommonstarting
While it’s important for institutions to experiment with social media, a real pointthatinformsourdiscussions.This
researchcanhelpputintoperspective
communications strategy must look beyond the tools themselves. Simply using
everythingfromwhatCASEis
Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn is not an end in itself. These platforms, like offeringforprofessionaldevelopment
email, postcards, or phone calls, are tools that should be chosen specifically to towhat’sbeingdoneoncampus.
achieve a defined goal. 2. nyfindingsstandoutforyou?
A
I’maresearch-orientedguyand
enjoymeasurement.SoIappreciated
What’s next? theanswerstothequestionsabout
socialmediametrics.Theresponse
What do respondents expect to happen this year? Here’s what they said when toQuestion23[whichaskedabout
outcomemeasures],onsurveys
we asked them in June: andtargetaudiences,wasabitofa
head-scratcher.Maybewhenpeople
» We can expect to see more institutions creating a comprehensive social answeredthisquestion,theyjust
media plan (50%) didn’ttakeasecondtothinkaboutit.
Ifweareintegratingsocialmediainto
» Expanding social media programs to new audiences (43%) programsandnotconsideringthatin
ourresearch,that’saproblem.Nota
» Adding new social media tools to current programs (41%) lotofpeoplearedoingsurveyresearch,
ormaybetheyjusthaven’tintegrated
» Developing formal policies (37%) itintotheirsocialmediaprograms.

» What we probably won’t see; hiring (14%) Ontheflipside,Iwaspleasantly
surprisedbyalotoftheresponses.The
» Getting help from CASE in social media (9%) topfivetosixbarriersareresource-
related;thebottomsixoreightall
» Getting help from social media consultants (7%) indicatethatleadershiporbuy-in
isn’tanissue,andthatsurprisedme.I
» hiring a vendor for social media evaluation (4%) wouldhaveguessedthattherewould
havebeenpeoplesaying“Iwantto
doit,butmybossdoesn’tgetit.”So
And therein lies a conundrum. As Andy Shaindlin observed, “So you’re not thefearofsocialmediadoesn’tseem
tobethere.Ifwecanalignthose
going to get any more people to do social media. But what you do have to do
things—someonewhoiswillingtobe
is unplug some people from doing some of what they’re doing and switch their supportiveandprovideamandate—
responsibilities. Social media has been layered onto everything else. And the resourcesshouldfollow.Itpointsouta
realopportunity.
open-ended responses support what I’m saying. This isn’t a budget issue. It’s
a management challenge. Organizational leaders have to understand how


important social media is and determine how to incorporate it into the org chart. Forme,Question12[whichasked
This isn’t really a new challenge; it occurs all the time. The world changes and if aboutgoalsforsocialmedia]
indicatesaneedtoraisepeople’s
you want to be in it, you have to change too.” sightsaboutjusthowmuchsocial
mediaabhorsasilo.Ifengaging
alumni,creating,sustaining,
Furthermore, while many institutions know they’re held back by a lack of resources
andimprovingbrandimage,and
and expertise, very few have plans to acquire what they need. And 59% of re- increasingawareness/advocacy/
spondents said they weren’t aware of other organizations that were using social rankingsarepriorities,youcan’thelp
buthaveoneaffectalltheothers
media successfully. Few institutions are reaching out to external sources, or CASE, withyourefforts.Ifyou’reinvolved
to expand their horizons. inengagingalumni,howdoyou
bringprospectivestudentsintothe
conversation?They’reallconnected.
Budgets are tight. But there’s every indication that social media is not just a fad.
That it’s here to stay. The challenge for advancement professionals is to recognize 3. hatarethekeytakeawaysforthe
W
this reality and to begin to institutionalize the use of social media—not necessarily advancementprofession?
Socialmediaareastrategic
by focusing on a specific platform. As Andy Shaindlin said, “We should be riding assetwithininstitutionaland
the wave, not the surfboard.” communicationsprogramsthat
needstobeintegratedintoourwork.
Smartinstitutionsaremovingaway
Now is the time to seek models that suggest how social media can be integrated fromspontaneousbuildingofsocial
into existing initiatives and ongoing programs. Charlie Melichar said, “There networksandmovingtowardmore
planning.We’reputtingsocialmedia
shouldn’t be any doubt that social media are a strategic asset within institutional inthehandsofpeoplewhoknowhow
and communications programs that needs to be integrated into our work. We tothinkaboutitanddoit.
should be moving away from knee-jerk, spontaneous solution building. We should
Theotherpartisreallyimportant:
take the time to step back and think about what we’re doing. People need to calm thisisapeople-basedplatform.It’s
down. There’s too much trying to create buzz. People have enough buzz in their notmassmedia.Ifyoursocialmedia–
lives right now. We should be trying to add value to their lives, and that basedcommunicationsdon’treflect
yourinstitutionalvoice,peopleare
requires thought.” goingtopickituprightaway.

Finally,everyoneneedstocalmdown.
We’re looking forward to seeing what changes—and what doesn’t—in the 2011
We’retryingtodoeverythingallat
version of this survey. once,tryingto“createbuzz.”People
haveenoughbuzzintheirlivesright
now:weshouldbetryingtoaddvalue
totheirlives:thatrequiresthought.


Appendix 1:
Social Media and the Admission Office
What about the use of social media in the admission office?

As noted, our survey doesn’t include significant input from admission staff because admission officers
are not well-represented among CASE members, especially where admission or enrollment marketing is
handled by admission office staff.

To provide a glimpse of how admission and enrollment officers are using social media to recruit
students—and how effective their efforts are—we’ve explored data compiled by other people. We
reviewed research that includes a master’s thesis exploring the use of social media by prospective
students and admission/enrollment offices, data derived from questions embedded in national surveys
of broader admission practices compiled by National Association for College Admission Counseling
(NACAC), and observational research on the use of social media and Facebook by consulting firms who
specialize in coaching colleges and universities on the use of these tools in student recruitment
and outreach.

How college and university admission offices use social media

According to the 2009 State of College Admission report from NACAC, 51% of colleges offer blogs by
current students on their websites, 39% link to social networking sites such as Facebook, and 23.6%
offer blogs by admission officers.1

According to NACAC’s “State of College Admissions 2010” report, the use of social media tools
continues to grow. “In 2009, 73% of respondents reported that they provide links to their colleges’ social
networking sites (up from 39% in 2008), and 61% reported offering blogs by current students (up from
51% in 2008 and 42% in 2007). Some colleges and universities also have blogs by admission officers
(31%), podcasts (31%) and online message boards.” NACAC also reported that 36% of colleges allowed
applicants to check their status on the institution’s website. NACAC did not capture data (or did not
report data) about the use of Facebook or other social networking sites in college admission.

NACAC also distributes “Social Media and College Admissions: Higher-Ed Beats Business in Adoption
of New Tools for Third Year,” a report by Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson from the Center for
Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Using data collected in 2009 from
voice surveys of admission offices selected from a directory compiled by the University of Texas, Barnes
and Mattson explored the use of a range of social media, noting that higher ed had lapped commercial
entities in the adoption of social media tools.

1
These numbers are from NACAC’s Admission Trends Survey, conducted in 2008.

Appendix 1: Social Media and the Admission Office 15

They found that 51% of colleges and universities have an admission blog and noted that “familiarity with
social networking has jumped from 55% reporting they were very familiar with it in 2007, to 63% in
2008 and now to 83%. Admission officers have clearly embraced Facebook and other social networking
sites as viable forms of communication with their constituency.” The following chart from their report
shows comparisons over the three years of the study:

Which of the following types of social media does your
admission office currently have? (% yes)

100% 2007

87%
90% 2008

80% 2009

70%
61%
59% 59%
60%
51%
48% 46%
50%
41% 39%
38%
40% 36%

33%
29%
30% 27%
22%
19%
20% 16%
14%
13%
10%
3% 5%
10%

94% 67% 61% 59% 58% 36% 33% 33%

MESSAGE
SOCIAL VIDEO DO NOT
BLOGGING BULLETIN PODCASTING WIKIS TWITTER
NETWORKING BLOGGING USE ANY
BOARDS

While they don’t say much about engagement in general, Barnes and Mattson do focus on blog
comments as a measure of engagement, and they report that 78% of respondents accept comments
on their blogs. Comments facilitate “conversation” (the term that Barnes and Mattson use); 86% of
respondents said their blogs were successful. And they don’t call out the use of Facebook specifically,
focusing on “social networking” in general.

In terms of plans for the future, they report that 50% of respondents believe that social media is “very
important” to their future strategy (a 5% decline since the question was asked in 2008).

Robin Lindbeck, a professor at Drake University, and Brian Fodrey, from the University of North Carolina,
studied how prospective students and admission offices relate to social media and other technologies


as part of the admission process. In “Using Technology in Undergraduate Admission:
Current Practices and Future Plans,”2 they reported how admission offices used technol-
ogy. They offered additional perspectives on this research in a presentation at NACAC
2010 entitled, “Integrating Emerging Technologies into Undergraduate Admission.” Their
work, which they shared in two articles in the Journal of College Admission and a presenta-
tion at NACAC 2010, is based on surveys completed by 36 institutions from 11 states.
They found that 25% of institutions were using “social networking” and, of the 69% of
respondents using an online profile for their admission office, 36% rated it as having a
high ROI.

Using a list of colleges derived from the directory compiled by the University of Texas,
BlueFuego staff visited 1,387 colleges and university websites repeatedly over the past
two years. They viewed institutional home pages and the opening pages of admission
and alumni sites and recorded instances in which the institutions linked to social media
sites from these key pages. In BlueFuego’s initial survey, conducted in March 2009, 8%
of institutions displayed “social web callouts” (BlueFuego’s term for icons or specific
links to destinations on the social web such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc.). Of the 113
institutions that used these links on their admission sites, 65% linked to Facebook, 25%
linked to YouTube (with 19% embedding a YouTube video), 14% linked to Twitter, and
12% linked to MySpace.

In July 2010, BlueFuego updated their research with the same set of institutions. Now,
53% of admission websites include social web callouts (links) on their main pages.

BlueFuego observes, “Admission continues to lag behind in promoting their presences via
SWCs directly on their site. Our supplementary research with prospective students has
shown that they are more likely to visit and join presences that are officially promoted by
the institution.” When the research was done (June 2010, about the time our survey was
posted), 94% of institutions linked to Facebook, 67% to Twitter, and 53% to YouTube.

2
Journal of College Admission, Summer 2009: 25-30


Varsity Outreach’s white paper, “Facebook and Admissions: A Closer Look at How College
Admission Offices Use Facebook,” reports on a survey sent to the 601 American universities
in their Facebook Page Directory in spring 2010, at roughly the same time we were surveying
advancement offices about their use of social media. They received 226 responses. Their
topline findings:

» Facebook is the most important and most used social
media outlet for admission offices, ahead of blogs, YouTube,
Twitter, and MySpace.

» Most admission offices have a dedicated presence on
Facebook that typically includes Facebook pages or Facebook
groups. Many have more than one presence on Facebook.

» An admission office’s Facebook presence is typically
managed by a small group of individuals (one to three
people) who spend four hours or fewer per week on this
task. More than half of admission offices place primary Abe Gruber’s master’s thesis “Social
responsibility for this task in the hands of a junior admission
Media in Undergraduate University
staff member with fewer than five years of experience.
Admissions” provides a very nuanced
» Most admission offices are happy with the results of view of the range of social media used in
their Facebook presence, yet less than half agree that their
admission offices and offers a perspec-
presence has had a significant impact on recruitment
or yield efforts. tive of how admission office use of social
media compares to what prospective
students want. Completed in late 2010,
Admission office use of social media the thesis relies upon a sample of 200
prospective students and 70 admission
% of Responents offices. His admission office respondents
indicated that Facebook was the most
80%
popular social media for communication
70%
with prospective students (67% used it).
60%
40% used blogs.
50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

67% 40% 40% 40%% 37% 33% 29% 14% 14% 10% 9% 7% 3% 14%
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Social media technology (from Abe Gruber)


Lessons from the First Survey on How Colleges Use Social Media

Lessons from the First Survey on How Colleges Use Social Media

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