benchmarking your initiatives: findings from the 2016 survey of social media in advancement
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CASE Social Media & Community Findings: Social Media &
Advancement 2016
31 March 2016
Jennifer Mack
jlmack@huronconsulting.com (312) 880-5779 HuronConsulting.com
Senior Managing Researcher
Huron Consulting Group
Michael Stoner
michael.stoner@mstoner.com (802) 457-2889 mStoner.com
President and Co-Founder
mStoner, Inc.
A Few Questions
Do you promote or boost your content on social media?
7
Your Title
Thanks to Ashley Budd, Cornell University!
Who boosts/promotes Facebook posts? Who promote tweets?
How do you decide what Facebook posts you’re going to boost or promote?
How do you convince leaders at your institution that social media is worth the effort and money?
Introduction
This is the seventh year we’ve conducted the Survey of Social Media in Advancement.
As in previous years, this research is a partnership between the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Huron Consulting Group, and mStoner, Inc.
Our pool of respondents reflects the CASE membership generally.
Survey Participants
We had more than 1100 respondents this year. As in the past, they represent a mix of functional areas.
15 30 45 60
CommunicationsAlumni RelationsDevelopment (& Annual Fund)MarketingAdvancement ServicesEnrollment Management/Admissions
45%
35%
30%
30%
19%
4%
Institutional Types
Typically, our primary respondent is in the marketing and communications office at the university or school level.
49
51
Public Private
17
83
Higher EdIndependent Elementary/Secondary
Trends Over Time
Instagram• Use continues to rise. • 2016: 65 percent of respondents use it. • 2015: 54 percent used it.
Snapchat• Use continues to rise, but it’s still minimal. • 2016: 15 percent of respondents use it. • 2015: 5 percent used it.
Days of Giving• Becoming more successful! • In 2016, 45 percent of institutions said they
had done a Giving Day. • Of those, 38 percent found them to be very
successful, compared to 28 percent in 2015.
Crowdfunding success is on the rise
• Use of crowdfunding is flat over 2015. • About 15 percent of respondents used this
approach in 2016. • But: the percentage who consider their
crowdfunding to be successful went up.
Social media is important!
• 86 percent say social media is more important part of marketing/comms mix than three years ago.
• Only 1 percent say it’s less important.
Proving Value, Showing Success
When convincing institutional leaders of the value of social media, respondents point to the opportunity to connect with new audiences (45%) and engage with young alumni (42%).
In general, respondents emphasize the value of connecting with new audiences over the ability to raise money using social media.
Stories we tell
Q 20. In your opinion, which of the following claims is most helpful in convincing your institutional leaders of the value of social media?
0 10 20 30 40 50
Connect with new audiencesEngage young alumniCreate a more informal institutioal voiceShare content generated by our constitutentsLearn from social listeningConnect donors & specific opptys via crowdfundingRaise more money
45%
42%
28%
24%
18%
7%
5%
‘‘My ‘stories’ consist of statistical, factual information that I know my administration will trust. … social media is where [students] are, and I
use reports and information … to encourage leaders to put more resources into this area. . . . I also share trends … to point us in the
direction in which we need to move.
When I first started, we focused on Facebook. Since then, at least for students, our attention has moved from Facebook to Twitter and from Twitter to Instagram, and we're looking into using Snapchat more ….
‘‘ [We talk about] converting non-donors who don’t respond to traditional solicitations like
phone and email.
More successful social media users are more likely than less successful ones to stress the value of sharing content generated by constituents and using social media to listen to what stakeholders are saying.
‘‘ [We highlight] the fact that we can utilize user-generated content that is fresh and changing: [this] gives social
media so much value.
Pay to Play
Boosting a Post• Post promoted to 75,000 fans for four days • Budget: $125. • Reach: organic: 2,051; paid: 16,956. • 8,198 paid post engagements • Cost per engagement: $0.01
Thanks to Liz Gross, Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.!
Advertising to a Custom Audience
• 12 versions of this post used to reach recent students who had not opened emails; not posted organically
• Budget: $2,750 • Reached: 13,498 • $22 CPM • 810 clicks from 498 users ($3.40 CPC)
Thanks to Liz Gross, Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.!
‘‘ Because the organic reach of posts continues to plummet, we boost
almost all of our posts.
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Boost posts, advertise or promote on FacebookAdvertise or promote on TwitterAdvertise or do sponsored updates on LinkedIn
Boosting/Promoting/ Advertising
• The most successful social media users are more likely to boost and/or promote posts on Facebook and Twitter.
• They’re more likely to advertise on LinkedIn.
59%
18%
12%
‘‘ I am personally slightly cynical about being ushered towards paid posts by Facebook themselves, who
seem to be deliberately limited the reach of 'organic' content. I know from experience that paid posts
may have further reach but they don't always reach the people that you want them to reach, even if you
are meticulous in your targeting parameters.
When do we boost?
Q 5. When do you see the greatest value in advertising or “promoting” posts on Facebook?
0 10 20 30 40 50
1417
1925
2933
41Increasing attendance at an eventEncouraging enagement w/ posts connected to important campaignTargeting those w/ specific interestsTargeting a geographic areaEncouraging more engagement w/ most popular postsTargeting a specific age groupIncreasing awareness of Day (s) of Giving
Be selective about what you boost
• Most (68 percent) boost no more that 1 in 5 Facebook posts.
• On Twitter, those who promote tweets, identify 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 to promote.
• Build on organic reach. • Compensate for disappointing organic reach. • Get niche message out to a niche audience. • Promote priorities such as in-person events
or solicitations. • Reflect other strategic priorities. • Experiment.
How do you decide what to boost?
‘‘Two key objectives: to accelerate posts that have exceptionally strong organic
engagement as a way to increase awareness of our presence, and to further the reach of posts that are tied to strategic directives.
‘‘We’ve done it specifically to get reach for a certain post in the hopes of encouraging some action. For example, we found a vinyl LP recorded at a music
camp here in the mid 1960s and boosted a post talking about this record to a 50+ year-old audience hoping to
find people who might have attended that camp.
Lessons from the Most Successful
Be selective about what you boost
• Most (68 percent) boost no more that 1 in 5 Facebook posts.
• On Twitter, those who promote tweets, identify 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 to promote.
Use social prospecting• Identify new prospects based on their
engagement wth social media. • Identify new areas of interest for current
prospects, based on their engagement with social media.
The most successful use these techniques
• Sponsor Day(s) of Giving. • Make strong use of social media
ambassadors. • Have a “Thank a Giver” Day.
‘‘Be as specific as possible. Use video. Make it look like content, not an advertisement. Make a soft
call to action. Great content gets attention and if you boost your post and it's great content, it will
spread beyond the campaign dollar amount.
‘‘Target stories to audiences to increase brand awareness. For example if you have a post about
a professor who is discussing the Greek Debt Crisis consider spending money to promote it
to people in Greece or the European Union.
Thank You!
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