What's the buzz about Clark?

Warning: Many of these screenshots are difficult to read. I have been wrestling with Blogger for much of the night and morning, and Blogger is winning. No idea why I can't size these images -- none of my techie coworkers can figure it out either. For some reason my computer will not talk to the program. My apologies for the poor visuals.


Choice of subject

Clark University is ripe for an examination of its social media strategy. I’ve chosen Clark as the subject of my study for a number of reasons. First, Clark’s success in attracting and retaining students is in part linked to how well those students — all of them raised in the digital age — are communicated with via social media, and how they communicate back to the university. Second, our outreach to alumni and the cultivation of Clark’s reputation in the media also contribute to raising the university’s profile and inspiring folks to give to their alma mater. The challenge here is that alumni are not universally inclined to seek out social media platforms to remain connected, especially older alumni who continue to express a preference for print vehicles such as the alumni magazine.

And third, as a member of Clark’s Marketing and Communications team, part of my job is to help ensure a robust presence for the university in social media circles — so this project is, in a sort of curious way, an act of self-preservation. No, my job doesn’t hinge on it, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to stand back a bit, objectively assess what we’re doing well, what we can do better, and put those lessons to practical use by recommending effective change to the vice president of MarComm.

Where we stand

Clark University makes use of the typical social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and student blogs known collectively as Clark Diaries. Examining the activity surrounding Clark on social media, I’m seeing some patterns emerge.

Clark has a reputation as being a serious place, which may explain why when we Facebooked the appearance of Ali Fedotowski ’06, best known as “The Bachelorette,” when she spoke on campus a couple of years ago, the post received about 70 responses, most of them from alumni complaining that her notoriety for such a frivolous pursuit diminishes Clark’s reputation. That being said, in the last month, this item about Clark’s new Quidditch team received 46 comments, by far the most of any other post within the last few months.

The bottom line is “frivolity” sells. As I look over our Facebook postings it’s clear we’re churning the site to remain fresh and relevant, but the posts about professors’ research or students’ academic accomplishments, as valuable and as necessary as they are, seem to earn little interest. Too many posts receive few or no comments, and maybe a handful of Likes or Dislikes at best. The hard truth is that the “softer” items revolving around pop culture or life on campus inspire engagement. To continue protecting our brand as a serious academic institution while cultivating active participation for the fun stuff going on at Clark will require us to be committed to posting a variety of items that are as diverse as our audience.

Clark is making some inroads on sites like Pinterest, including for our pioneering education model known as Liberal Education and Effective Practice (LEEP). The inroads are tentative right now, but I see potential on this site.

 

If you look at this graph from Google Trends charting the online traffic for Clark over the last few years you’ll notice two spikes—in 2005 and in 2009. I’m investigating the reason for the earlier spike, but I think it’s safe to assume that the 2009 peak relates to the worldwide attention the university received that year for the 100th anniversary celebration of Sigmund Freud’s lectures at Clark, his only United States speaking engagement.

 

Can we make more hay of our historic association with Freud?

 

 

 We use a number of social-media platforms at Clark, including our own YouTube channel. Here are the stats over the course of the last month. I’m inclined to believe that 7,214 views and 10,300 minutes watched are impressive, but I’m disturbed by the engagement stats which are, to be generous, paltry. Two total comments in a month! Our videos are being passively viewed, but not inspiring reaction. We need to be more dynamic.

Drilling down even further reveals a gender disparity in our viewership: 67.3% female, 32.7% male (enrollment is 59% female to 41% male). Which leads me to this question: Are we neglecting men when we choose our video topics, or are we just being true to our student ratio?

One critical take-away is under the category “view referrals,” which finds that 60% of Clark YouTube viewership came from mobile apps and direct traffic.

Clark’s following on Twitter (@ClarkMatters) is about 2,000 people, a nice solid number. But with only 1,741 tweets sent out by the university in the 3 years since it’s been on Twitter, there clearly needs to be more engagement.

The Clark student demographic — young, educated, social-media savvy — makes it an ideal source for feedback. One of the most invaluable resources is the twice yearly Online Buzz Report compiled by our web team, which monitors 15 different sites like collegeconfidential, yelp, cappex, and unigo for chatter about Clark. Rather than get into too much heavy detail about what students perceive as the university’s strengths and weaknesses, I’ll simply say that we rate highly on academic quality and for having a friendly and accepting student body, but we do poorly in the areas of location and personal safety. To be blunt, the Main South neighborhood is a marketing challenge (no, I did not say nightmare). Check out Clark’s grades on CollegeProwler.com.

B+  Academics C-  Athletics B  Campus Dining A-  Campus Housing A  Campus Strictness B-  Computers B+  Diversity C+ Drug Safety C  Facilities B-  Girls

N/A  Greek Life B  Guys C-  Health & Safety C+ Local Atmosphere B  Nightlife A   Off-Campus Dining B+ Off-Campus Housing A  Parking B- Transportation D+  Weather

Predictions/recommendations

We are in the groundswell, where transparency rules. So a comment like this:

“Clark has the most incredible and dedicated professors EVER!” (collegeprowler.com)

Can easily be followed by a comment like this:

“Clark’s campus is small and in the middle of a nasty dirty city.” (studentsreview.com)

No amount of social media expertise will finesse opinion in your favor. But that’s okay. Nobody can control social media; we can only enhance our presence on it and increase our engagement with users.

While this isn’t the final report for this project, I have come away with some early recommendations:

·         Increasingly, we have to fashion our social media presence for mobile users.

·         Think viral. Yes, our videos, blogs and tweets are in service to the institution — but they don’t always have to be so institutional. We could be a little less safe.

·         We need to market Worcester better. Yes, we must be honest about the strengths and weaknesses of the city, but we can’t let the conversation get away from us.

·         Tweet more. Make our Twitter feed a “destination.” Also, bloggers shouldn't just be students, but faculty as well, including the president.

Look, our social profile is not nearly as strong as it could be, judging by our stats on Social Mention.

I am encouraged by Clark’s efforts to get the conversation started among incoming students, and with the university, before they arrive on campus, such as with Facebook groups targeted to each new class.

Now that we’ve got them for four years, we have to figure out how we can best continue the conversation once they leave.