Top 4 findings on the State of Social Media in #highered

Everybody wants to know how social media is doing in higher education lately (unless it is how higher ed is doing social media ;-)

Slover Linett Strategies Inc., mStoner and CASE have just released the high-level results of their Second Comprehensive Study of Social Media Use by Schools, Colleges and Universities (you can find more info about the first study on Michael Stoner’s blog).

This study was conducted via an online survey. In March 2011 a random sample of 18,000 CASE members was invited via email to complete this survey about social media strategies and practices. A total of 951 responded resulting in a 5.3% response rate for this survey. It should be noted that CASE membership base is mainly composed of advancement and alumni professionals – which explains the large representation (40%) of units in charge of alum relations among the survey population of respondents

I was given the chance to review the summary of the findings of this CASE Social Media survey 10 days ago. The high-level results were presented last week at the Social Media CASE Conference but were embargoed until today for the press.

As you can imagine, there are hundreds of data points in this report, but the following few definitely piqued my interest:

Social media is all about engagement – and branding – in higher ed

Engaging alums (84%), current students (53%) and prospective students (45%) are identified “quite a bit” to “extensively” as social media goals in many of the cases. For 74% of the respondents, creating sustaining and improving the institutional brand image has also been identified as a strategic goal for social media.

Social media has become a tool of the trade for Alum Relations

92% of respondents (but only 66% fo current students and 56% for prospective students according to this survey results? This can be explained by the focus on alums of the survey population) use social media as part of their communication mix with alumni. For 84% engaging alums is one of the top social media goals for their respective units.

Everybody loves… Facebook — including higher ed institutions

96% use it, 91% use it the most and 87% think it is the most successful social media channel in their tool box.
In comparison, while 75% of respondents use Twitter, 43% use it the most and only 27% see it as the most successful social media platform.

Social Media ROI is difficult, but social media outcomes do get measured

Yes! It looks like the message about social measurement has finally started to get through in higher education. While 68% of respondents recognize that measuring the return on investment of their social media initiatives is tough, 47% plan to do more quantitative type of measurement activities. Even though the vast majority focuses on measuring the simpliest form of engagement activity (89% the number of followers, likes, etc. and 79% the volume of participation), 75% track click-through rate from the social media outposts to the website – somehow measuring a micro-conversion in the engagement funnel. Moreover, 67% track event participation while about a third use donations and admissions applications as metrics to measure social media ROI.

I bet Stephane Hamel, professor of Web Analytics at UBC and the University of Laval, will have a very interested and engaged audience in June for his master class about social media analytics in higher education.

UPDATE: Michael Stoner just uploaded the slides of the presentation he made last week at the CASE conference. Check it out!

BTW, if you want to help the community learn more about social media practices in higher ed, you can also take Kyle’s survey.