Indiana University Case Study

Indiana University boasts over 79,000 students between its two major campuses, hosting sixteen highly-ranked colleges and schools. Along with their rich history dating back to their founding in 1820, the respected research faculty, students, and alumni, and nearly 200 team championships, it’s no surprise the Hoosiers have much to brag about. Using Rival IQ, the social media team at Indiana University has leveraged their social success to prove their value and grow their team.

Before using Rival IQ, Kristofer Karol, director social media strategy, and his 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.

Karol looked to Rival IQ for help. “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.

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 Karol, “with Rival IQ we can show our worth.”

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.

“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 communication, 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 groups which means Karol’s team must balance their own content with the contributions 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 own research with the data from Rival IQ to hone in on successful social media content. The data backs up their strategy of live tweeting events, 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 on doing more with what they have: creating content that resonates across channels and maximizing its value.

As they strive to engage their diverse audience, Indiana University’s 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.