Sustainable Social Media | University of Vermont
CASE DI Platinum Award, Best Practices in Digital Communication, 2020
The 2010s brought everyone and their grandma to social media, with hundreds of “official” accounts associated with the University of Vermont popping up online.
In 2018, we took a bold step toward a more sustainable social media future: we shut down our admissions office-owned Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, in favor of integrating those messages into our flagship accounts.
Reimagining Instagram as the Front Door to UVM
According to our Admitted Student Survey, more than half of students who used social media in their college search turned to Instagram. While more students are using Instagram, fewer students are using Twitter and Facebook each year.
So, we focused our efforts on Instagram as a singular go-to source for information about life at UVM.
We not only incorporated key enrollment messages into our main accounts, we developed new approaches and tactics. We united our most powerful, articulate advocates (our student tour guides) with our most powerful, visible channels.
One example: We launched a series of Live Q&As on our Instagram stories, where hundreds of prospective students submit questions, answered live and candidly by our AdvoCat tour guides.
THE results
The chief goal of this consolidated, coordinated social media approach was to help recruit and retain a high-quality class.
So, how did we do?
We enrolled our most academically talented class ever.
More students accepted their offer of admission to UVM, generating the highest yield rate for an incoming first year class since 2015.
By not siloing off our audiences, we achieved an engagement rate on Instagram of 12.73%, soaring above industry averages, a 57.97% increase in engagement compared to the same period the previous year.
Comments, likes, and saves were up by double-digits.
We saw 32% follower growth on Instagram from June 2018-August 2019 (an acceleration from 25% growth in the 2018 calendar year). Over the course of 2018, we saw a 9.4% increase in followers across all platforms. Since starting at UVM four years ago, the flagship Instagram account has seen a 150% increase in followers.
ACCLAIM
We were ranked the No. 1 most engaging Instagram account in 2018 among fellow DI schools.
For our bold step toward a more sustainable social media strategy, UVM earned the Best Practices in Digital Communication award for 2020 from CASE, the leading association of education institutions.