College Admissions Embrace Social Media

As promised, here is the latest study Eric and I have completed which shows the dramatic use of social media by college and universities. We are working on a longer piece with more details, but for now, here's the executive summary (http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studies/blogstudy3.cfm) Enjoy!

The Game Has Changed: College Admissions Outpace Corporations in Embracing Social Media
By Nora Barnes, Ph.D. (nbarnes@umassd.edu) and Eric Mattson (eric@ericmattson.com)

Introduction
Universities are a mixture of powerful and often contradictory forces. The unlimited potential of young people, ever-increasing budget pressures, academia’s love of new ideas, and strong traditions combine to create a culture that is simultaneously incredibly innovative and slow to change. How then, are colleges and universities responding to the new wave of social media?

This study seeks to answer that question in a definitive manner by following up on our previous research into social media adoption. Recently, we revealed how fast-growing companies of Inc. 500 were embracing social media. Using a similar methodology, this research reached out to the "marketing teams" (i.e., the admission departments) of over 2,000 accredited four-year colleges and universities nationwide to learn how they were using these exciting new technologies. Their answers are fascinating and prove (in a statistically significant way) that the use of social media in the "ivory tower" is outpacing even the business world.

The analysis that follows is based on detailed interviews with 453 admissions departments. The responding institutions are diverse in student size (from under 50 students to over 50,000), annual tuition (from less than $1,000 to over $40,000), funding (69% private, 31% public) and location (49 states are represented). The sample includes well-known private schools like Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Vassar and Wesleyan as well as many large public universities from states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

In order to enable a valid comparison this study followed a similar pattern to our corporate social media research (http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studies/blogstudy2.cfm) and asked detailed questions about the organizations’ familiarity with, usage of, monitoring of and attitude towards six common forms of social media (blogs, wikis, podcasts, online video, message boards and social networking). Given the frequently uncertain definitions of these media, common understanding was sought by providing definitions from Wikipedia at the time of the survey.

The results are very interesting and in some ways more surprising than the previous Inc. 500 adoption data. The new data indicates that college admissions’ social media usage is racing far ahead of predictions and even ahead of corporate usage. The research results that follow are statistically valid at +/- 4%.

Familiarity
To begin, respondents were asked to rank their familiarity with each technology from “very familiar” to “very unfamiliar”. The social media that was most familiar to college admissions departments is social networking with 55% of respondents claiming to be “very familiar with it”. However, as the graph below shows, a significant percentage of admissions departments are “very familiar” with all the technologies. In addition, for almost every technology the admissions departments are equally or significantly more familiar with the technologies than the corporations of the Inc. 500. This is the highest familiarity rate documented for a group with respect to blogging. (See Figure 1)

Figure 1


Usage
From familiarity the survey moved into examining actual usage of social media by the admissions departments. Sixty-one percent of the respondents use at least one form of social media. Blogging is the most common form with 33% of admissions departments using it. Notably, this usage rate is 14% higher than that of the Inc. 500 respondents. Four of the other six social media also have strong adoption rates that are similar to those of corporations. The only exception is the adoption of wikis which are used by only 3% of admissions departments compared with 17% of responding businesses in the Inc. 500. (See Figure 2)


Figure 2


Importance
The adoption of social media by admissions departments is being driven by familiarity and their recognition of the increasing role of social media in today’s world. Interestingly, admissions departments feel that social media is “very important” to their future strategy in almost a 2:1 ratio to Inc. 500 businesses that feel the same way (51% compared to 26%). (See Figure 3)

Figure 3

Student Research
These results only begin to scratch the surface of the data gathered. And while we’re saving some additional detailed and exciting results for several academic articles (see below) later this year, there is one point that must be shared right now because of its ground-breaking nature. A significant proportion of schools are beginning to research students via search engines (26%) and social networks (21%). While certainly the traditional factors will still play dominant roles in admissions decisions, no longer can students place damaging material online without potential consequences. (See Figure 4)

Figure 4


The results are conclusive. Social media has arrived in college admissions. The ivory tower is innovating even faster than the elite Inc. 500. And the game has changed forever.

A more thorough write-up of our research into social media adoption by university and college admissions departments will be published in several journals in the second half of 2007. To be added to our email distribution list so that you can stay abreast of our research and writings, please email us at eric@ericmattson.com or nbarnes@umassd.edu.

Bios & Acknowledgments

Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph. D.
Nora Ganim Barnes earned a Ph.D. in Consumer Behavior from the University of Connecticut and is a Chancellor Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Nora has worked as a consultant for many national and international firms including the National Pharmaceutical Council, the National Court Reporters Association, and the Board of Inquiry of the British Parliament, Scotts Lawn Care Co, Distilled Spirits Council of the US and others. Working closely with businesses in the Northeast US, Nora and her students have provided marketing research assistance to over 200 small businesses.

She has published over 125 articles in academic and professional journals and proceedings, has contributed chapters to books, and has been awarded numerous research grants. Her areas of expertise include Consumer Behavior (both online and offline) and Marketing Research. She has been named a Senior Research Fellow by the Society for New Communications Research. Nora can be reached at nbarnes@umassd.edu.

Eric Mattson
Eric Mattson is a leading marketing consultant and social media scholar. He helps high-potential companies strategically build competitive advantage and increase market share. To learn more about his consulting practice, please visit www.ericmattson.com.

Eric’s research into social media has been featured in BusinessWeek, Inc.com, The Journal of New Communications Research and numerous blogs. His popular podcast interview series (www.jenerous.com) with leading social media thinkers, entrepreneurs and marketers has been downloaded over 100,000 times.

Prior to joining the social media revolution, Eric ran direct marketing, market research and marketing analytics for SanMar, one of the largest generic clothing wholesalers in the United States. Eric is a proud graduate of the University of Washington where he earned dual degrees in business administration and mathematics as a Washington Scholar. He can be reached at eric@ericmattson.com.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank those that made this report possible. The 453 universities and colleges who responded to this survey were candid and generous with their comments. They represent all the qualities that make the study of new communications channels for organizations so exciting. Special thanks are also owed to Ava Lescault, Senior Research Associate and the staff and students from the University of MA Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research for their endless enthusiasm and dedication to this project.

Guest Blogger on Gilbane Blog

Frank Gilbane has been gracious enough to support my research both by being a participant in my studies and by inviting me to speak at his tech conference held in Boston last November. After release of the latest study, the Inc. 500 their use of social media, he invited me to be a guest blogger on his site. This is the post I wrote for the Gilbane blog:

In June of 06 I took my first step towards understanding business blogging. As a professor at the University of MA in Dartmouth, and Director of the Center for Marketing Research, I felt I needed to be able to answer the frequent question from businesses, "should we have a blog?" My first study sought advice from experienced business bloggers (and others) and I was clearly cautioned by them: Blogs take time, commitment, planning and respect for the values of the blogosphere.

Eric Mattson (a podcaster I met through the first study) and I released a new study this month on the Inc.500 and their use of social media announced in a post by Frank Gilbane. Much has since been written about the major finding: The Inc. 500 is blogging at more than twice the rate of the Fortune 500. Given that the Inc. 500 are selected based of their rate of growth in one year, it says something about moving quickly and the use of social media.

What we thought was even more interesting is that the Inc. 500 were monitoring social media regardless of if they were using any. Eric and I have submitted a paper on this monitoring behavior to the Journal for New Communications Research and will make that link available as soon as it comes out. Basically, we found that some companies may not be directly engaging customers yet, but have figured out the value of listening and watching. When Business Week in June of 05 wrote about " The Power of Us". I think this is exactly what they were referring to…voices being heard. It looks like it is actually happening!

I am still very interested in which businesses or organizations choose to engage their constituents, which choose to listen, and which watch all this from the other side of a search engine. Blogs, podcasts, videoblogging, message boards and all the rest allow organizations to relate to consumers in a more meaningful way. It is definitely not business as usual, but it is definitely business as it should be.

Eric and I are planning a new study on higher education and its use of social media to explore another arena. We will make the findings of that study available here in the spring. I have never enjoyed research so much…..

The Hype is Real: The Inc.500 Invade Social Media

The Hype is Real


Social Media Invades the Inc. 500

The hype is real.
The social media revolution is coming to the business world. Already there have been signs; from the Google acquisition of video juggernaut YouTube for $1.65 Billion to MySpace's 120 million users to the 63 million blogs that Technorati tracks. But, the question has been, when, and even if, business will start to embrace the powerful technologies of social media?
Today, that question will be put to rest once and for all. These pages share the results of a ground-breaking study into the adoption of social media by the Inc. 500, an elite group of the fastest-growing companies within the United States. As one of, if not the, first studies of social media adoption with statistical significance, this research proves conclusively that social media is coming to the business world and sooner than many anticipated.

This is my newest research on business blogging and use of social media. With my co-author Eric Mattson, I have been able to once again look behind the scenes and see what top companies are doing. I hope you enjoy it and that it contributes in some meaningful way to what we are trying to understand about online communications.

Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere: Advice from Experienced Bloggers

Grand Opening!

I am now the veteran of two blogger studies and decided it was time for me to join those I've learned so much about. It is with great respect and admiration for those who have created successful blogs, that I create this blog. This will help me to better communicate my research to those most interested and allow me to join in the ongoing conversation regarding blogs.
I will post my studies here as they become available. Let me know what you think!

Nora