Highlights
170% increase in engagement
Managing 16 colleges across the university
Using Rival IQ to communicate success internally
Overview
The University of Kentucky, located in Lexington, Kentucky, is the largest university in the state, with over 30,000 students. Founded in 1865, the university boasts 16 colleges and is recognized as one of the top state universities in the nation. Using Rival IQ, the University of Kentucky Marketing and PR team has improved the quality of social content, resulting in notable improvement in social engagement across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Challenge
After a restructuring, the Marketing and PR professionals at the university faced a challenge in managing the ever-changing needs of social channels.
Instead of a single individual being responsible for all social media, Kentucky spreads responsibility across the team. This approach requires everyone to ensure that content resonates and that they collaborate on the social strategy.
Additionally, content is sourced from the 16 different colleges within the university. With an overwhelming amount of potential content and varied stakeholders, the team needed a way to evaluate content on an ongoing basis.
Solution
Kentucky relies on Rival IQ, using it daily to review engagement rates and set benchmarks against other universities.
The benchmarks are categorized in two ways: aspirational, comparing against schools they view as the best with social, and their fellow SEC institutions. Rival IQ also provides the insight necessary to determine the best performing content.
“Rival IQ is critical in determining the quality content that helps the University of Kentucky engage our audience.” says Katy Bennett, assistant marketing director.
Within six months of using Rival IQ, Bennett and team increased engagement by 100%. Since then the team has continued to refine their approach and have now seen a 170% increase in engagement.
Results
With insight from Rival IQ, Kentucky has created a 4-step process to identify the best content for social.
The team asks these 4 questions:
1: Does it make us proud?
2: Does it entertain?
3: Is it on brand?
4: Is it part of our strategic plan?
Combined with the critical insight gained from Rival IQ on content type, day and time posting and more, Kentucky nails down the content that works.
This blend of content evaluation and social insight is working. Within six months of using Rival IQ, Bennett and team increased engagement by 100%. Since then the team has continued to refine their approach and have now seen a 170% increase in engagement since adding Rival IQ.
The consistent success driven by Rival IQ is thrilling, but it’s the break out moments that are most especially energizing. “The Rival IQ breakout post alerts are delightful. Sometimes we get bogged down in the day to day, that alert tells a story and helps energize the team.” said Bennett. “A breakout alert turns any day into a great one.”
Social success can have many factors, from content, time or post type. With Rival IQ, the University of Kentucky can dive deeper into the reasons behind successful content, track results, and paint a complete picture of what’s driving social success.
