AMA Symposium: The DePaul Quad, a Social Networking Website for Parents

This session is presented by Deborah Maue, Assistant VP for Marketing Strategy at DePaul University.

DePaul hired a Word of Mouth Marketing Agency to try to tell the story more effectively, using its internal audience more effectively as ambassadors. The WOMM plan was built on DePaul’s core values.

They decided to build a social community for people who had a strong affinity for DePaul.
Parents were chosen for the pilot project.

The Quad was launched in August 2007 and targeted to parents of undergraduates (first new freshmen, then deposited freshmen, juniors and seniors and in Jan 2009 DePaul will invite parents of admitted students)

Why Parents?
Strong affiliation with the institution emotionally and financially
Scary time in their lives
Parents are a credible source of higher ed information for other parents

Brad Ward did an interview a few weeks ago about the topic and shared some of the screenshots via Flickr he took from the Quad:

(To see full-size photos, click here)

Results?

1,863 registered members (30% of invited)
2,794 visits per month
1,100 unique visits per month
Forum Participation 2.25%
Email open 45%
Poll participation 1%

Popular Topics
Campus safety/security
Health services
Empty nest syndrome
How/how much to communicate
How to support students without meddling
What’s going on that they don’t know about (career services, advising, student services)

10 things DePaul learned

1. You have to remind members of the value of coming back
   2 to 3 email per week: new content, new parents issues being discussed
   General parenting tips, site updates and did-you-know type of content
   With regular emails, traffic increased
2. It’s about them, not about you
   After launch, they allowed parents to suggest discussion topics
   Parents didn’t want to talk about the pillars, but their experience
   DePaul realized this community could only be a community for parents, couldn’t be scaled to include other audiences
3. More lurkers/readers than participants
   2.5% members are content creators, then content readers and raters
   There are super users, extremely active posters: “The Parents of The Parents”
   DePaul engaged them as bloggers.
4. If you ask feedback, do something about it
   Thank people for their feedback – even if it’s negative
   If you can solve the problem, do it. DePaul did it with an issue around their Health Services
5. Even if people have something negative to say, most will find a nice way to say it
   People are respectful of the institution and want to help
   Offer the possibility to contact you directly (Ask DePaul) so if they have something bad to say they will be able to do it directly
6. Don’t use cash incentives
   Send thank you emails
   Send free stuff to top posters
7. No need to build it from scratch
8. People join communities to connect with each other
   Encourage people to submit pictures
   First discussion topic should be introductions
   Make it easy for parents to connect off-line too (150 said they would like to do it)
9. This takes a lot of time
   It requires a daily commitment from several offices
   Community management shouldn’t be outsourced
10. Figure out your specific goals
    Difficult to measure word-of-mouth

Communities are a great way to do ongoing market research
DePaul just launched its second social community: Kellstadt Link.