This document discusses measuring the social success of social media in tertiary education. It recommends establishing a measurement framework that includes identifying institutional goals, aligning social media programs with those goals, establishing relevant metrics, identifying data sources, and determining how success affects metrics. Common tertiary education goals include increasing student numbers, researchers, and retention. Metrics should demonstrate impact on goals, like prospective student inquiries or engaged current students. Data sources include analytics platforms from social networks and the institution.

1. Measuring
social success
Social Media in
Tertiary Education
Mal Chia
@malchia

3. Playtime is over.

4. 94% of marketers expect their digital
marketing activity to be more
measurable
Econsultancy ‘State of Digital Marketing in Australia’ 2013

5. 42% of marketers already incorporate
return on marketing investment into
their metrics
Econsultancy ‘State of Digital Marketing in Australia’ 2013

6. But what about social?

7. Don’t let social
become a silo
Tie social media
efforts to your
institutions
objectives

8. Stop talking about ROI,
Start with what you know
Company goals -> Social media program -> Success
Now what are your institutions goals and how can
you achieve these through social media?

9. Most common objectives for .edu
• More students
• More researchers
• Improve retention
• Anything else?

10. “Ford doesn’t have a
standalone social media
strategy; we have a business
strategy supported by social
media”
Scott Monty
Global digital
communications, Ford

11. Social media is a component
• Create a program based on the unique needs of
your organisation
• Build it from the ground up
• Customise it

12. Stop thinking ROI,
start thinking value

13. Start with a Measurement Framework
1. Identify business objectives
2. Align social media program with objectives
3. Establish relevant metrics
4. Identify the data source
5. And the affect success has on this metric

14. Objective Metric Data Source Affect on Metric
Drive student
growth
Prospective student
enquiries
Google Analytics Increase
Improve retention
Number of engaged
current students on
Facebook
Facebook Insights Increase
Improve student
satisfaction
Student centre
complaints
Call centre Decrease

15. 1. Identify business goals
• Make it SMART
• Can be financial and non-financial

16. 2. Align social media program with
objectives
• Tools are not your program
• Use platforms that help you reach your goals

17. 3. Establish relevant metrics
• Followers
• Retweets
• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Views
• Check-ins
What do they
mean?
Are they even
important?

18. Advanced Metrics
• Share-of-voice
• Sentiment ratios
• Compatriot language analysis
• Influencer analysis

19. Share of Voice

20. Sentiment analysis

21. Sentiment analysis (cont.)

22. Language analysis

23. Influencer analysis

24. Better still….
• Website visits
• Downloads
• Enquiries
• Enrolments
• Donations
• Registrations
• Backlinks
• Ratings / reviews

25. 4. Identify the data source
• Facebook Insights
• Statigram
• Radian6
• Simply Measured
• Twiangulate
• Google Analytics

26. Become BFFs with Google Analytics
• What impact does social media have on your
primary marketing platform?
• What platforms do we know about and should we
know about?
• What is happening outside our properties and
why?

27. Look at where traffic is coming from

28. Create custom segments

29. Identify trends and analyse

30. 5. Affect on metric

31. Recap
1. Identify business objectives
2. Align social media program with objectives
3. Establish relevant metrics
4. Identify the data source
5. And the affect success has on this metric

33. Thanks!
Mal Chia
Digital Account Director
mal@communikate.net.au