On the cusp of reaching its bicentennial, Indiana University has a lot to brag about.
Boasting over 79,000 students between its two core campuses, it hosts sixteen highly-ranked colleges and schools. Between respected research faculty, students, and alumni and nearly 200 team championships it’s no surprise the Hoosiers have much to be proud of.
Show Worth
Like any university, it’s always a good day on campus when you’re beating your rivals. For Indiana University, having the ability to report on how they stack up to the competition on social media isn’t just about bragging rights. “Our engagement metrics speak for themselves,” says Kristofer Karol, director social media strategy, “with Rival IQ we can show our worth.” In the last few years the marketing team has grown, and with growth is the necessity to prove value. In a competitive industry such as higher education, showing the strength of Indiana’s social channels is compelling.
But Indiana recognizes they can’t always be on top – so it’s important to identify not only what they do well, but also where opportunities reside and how to tackle them.
Improve Content
“Rival IQ gives us the data to determine what resonates and where to invest our limited resources,” said Karol. With a growing team of three full-time social media marketers and student interns who work alongside the communications, creative, and web teams, organizing and prioritizing the best content from multiple sources is a challenge. Many of the university’s schools and colleges have their own marketing and communication teams which mean Karol’s team must balance their content with the content from other departments. It’s the hardest decision for Karol and his staff, but one that is made easier with Rival IQ.
Indiana University has been able to combine their research with the data from Rival IQ to hone in on the most successful social media content. The data backs up their strategy of live-tweeting events and, using video and infographic-style images to increase their likelihood of being shared. This information helps them report back to leadership and balance the needs of multiple campuses and his department. Identifying successful content has enabled the team to focus more on how to do more with what they have – creating content that resonates across channels and maximizing its value.
Save Time
Before using Rival IQ, Karol’s team tracked their own metrics manually. However, he knew that to get a better handle on the competition, they were either going to need more bandwidth or find a solution that did the work of a market researcher. Without the ability at the time to grow his team, he needed a tool that could gain insight, and easily report on social activity. This is where Rival IQ stepped in. “The interface is straightforward,” says Karol “it’s easy to pull data and make sense of it.” Karol was confident that his team would be able to use Rival IQ and understand the data.
“Our engagement metrics speak for themselves,” says Kristofer Karol, director social media strategy, “with Rival IQ we can show our worth.”
Indiana University refuses to fall into the social media traps that plague many campus marketing teams. As they strive to engage their diverse audience, the social media team focuses on leaving behind the typical ‘travel brochure’ style of so many university social channels. As they continue to beat out other universities in their region, they rely on Rival IQ to help shout their successes and build an effective strategy for continuous improvements.
Learn More
Discover how your school is doing on social media in our latest Industry Benchmark Report. You can download your free copy here.
See how you're doing on social with benchmarks that matter.
Download the full report
