social media usage at universities - how should it be done?

Social Media Usage at Universities

How should it be done?

Jennifer-Carmen Frey, Martin Ebner, Martin Schön, Behnam TaraghiGraz University of Technology

Donnerstag, 09. Mai 13

Agenda

MotivationsResearch Questions

AnalysisResults


Social Media in Marketing and Public Relations


Social Media in Universities


Efficient presence in social web

which factors have to be kept in mind when doing social media work at universities

Which activity characteristics have an impact on user engagement in social network

Which influencers can be identified?

Social Media Goals


Analyze the present activities of universities in social media

Evaluate the success by measuring the user engagement concerning different characteristics

How to Reach Goals


Communication behavior of first semester students at TU Graz

Social Media at Universities


Selected Universities


Analyzed Characteristics

TimeTime the post has been published

Addressed target groupsStaff, students, future students, public

Post componentsVideos, pictures, text, hyperlinks, composition of these

Post text lengthNumber of characters of the text

Post contentSubject, function, time reference

Frequency of postings

Brinker text function model


From Post to User interaction


Facebook Edgerank Algorithm

Selects posts to be shown on users‘ news feed:

AffinityHow strong is the relation btw. user and the fan page / friend?How often does user interact with the page? (interaction rate)How is the interaction rate of friends of the user?...

WeightValue to promote specific content vs. other content types

Time decayTime has passed since the post has been published

Possible reach factors:

Number of fans Talk-about count Edgerank settings


Measuring User Engagement

Assumption:average interaction rate decreases while fan number increasesA grand amount of fans influence overall interaction rate (Jochenmich, 13)

Scale reaction per fan reaction per talk-about

> 100000 fans 0.0015 0.0626

5000 - 100000 fans 0.0021 0.0622

< 5000 fans 0.0076 0.1207

Efficiency(P) = 100 * ( Act(P) / Est(P) )

Estimated User Engagement:Est(P) = 0.5 * ( fans(P)*fanFactor(size(P)) + talk-about(p) * talk-aboutFactor(size(P) )


Statistical Analysis

Goal: Potential relations btw. post characteristics and efficiency

Methods used:Pearson‘s Correlation

Spearman‘s rank correlation

Clustering methods, ...

Time period: 09 - 11 2012


Statistics in Detail

Number of posts per University 09 - 11 2012



Number of comments per University 09 - 11 2012



Number of fans / talk-about count per University 09 - 11 2012



Average reaction rate per post 09 - 11 2012


Results - Identified Influencers

UE does not correlate with a single characteristic

Composition of characteristics can define an efficient post

Detected influencers:

TimePost components

Post content (subject, function, time reference)


Influencers: Time

1: Monday...

7: Sunday

1: 22:00 - 05:002: 05:00 - 08:003: 08:00 - 11:004: 11:00 - 13:005: 13:00 - 18:006: 18:00 - 22:00


Influencers: Post Components

Negative correlation btw. UE and posts without visual elements


Influencers: Post Content


Results - Other Characteristics

Text length: not influential

Addressed target group: not influential

Frequency of postings per day: 1 <= f <= 3

Comparison of university efforts:Some universities obtain higher UE rate although lower fan base / talk-about rate

Best Example: Ohio State University vs. Harward


Some Social Media Strategiesfor Universities

Strengthen social aspectsPresent university as a common work place

Supply opportunities to keep in contact with communityAccomplishment of social conventions (Greetings etc.)

Combine visual posts with text.Post on weekend at night

Post some contents just for funAvoid information about research

Avoid pure announcements, use other media instead


Graz University of Technology

SOCIAL LEARNINGComputer and Information Services


Behnam Taraghi

http://elearning.tugraz.at

Slides available at: http://elearningblog.tugraz.at

behi_at







social media usage at universities - how should it be done?

Education

post characteristics

social media goalsdonnerstag

detailnumber of fans

user engagementassumption

user interactiondonnerstag

post contentdonnerstag

impacton user engagement

social webwhich factors