Lessons in Social Media from the Tepper School of Business
Barbara Donehue is assistant director, marketing communications at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, consistently ranked in the world’s top 20 business schools. Her job includes directing the Tepper School's social media campaign. In an interview with VisionPoint Marketing, Donehue discusses reaching prospective students (their target audience) through social media and how joining an MBA challenge hosted by a massive TV network expanded their Twitter and Facebook followers by over 30 percent. This is a two-part blog series.
What and how they post
- Donehue knows their target audience loves social media and therefore takes this very seriously. One way they use social media is by putting events on their editorial calendar through Facebook and Twitter. They also post faculty triumphs such as published research and awards.
- So when Dr. Gérard Cornuéjols, IBM University Professor of Operations Research at the Tepper School won a major award in his industry, this might not have warranted pitching national media, but was absolutely worth sharing on Facebook. "Any victory of our professors generates a loyal Facebook following. This announcement received 35 likes, which is great for Facebook," Donehue says.
- The best strategy is posting something newsy (an event, faculty news) and daily. Donehue loves using HootSuite and in order to attract prospective students to the website, roughly 80% of the posts link back to the website. Also, because their professors publish research so frequently, postings often link back to a video interview of a professor.
Some challenges
- One challenge in using social media is establishing a voice consistent with the MBA program branding, key messaging and website. All stakeholders agree social media postings must speak with confidence, intimacy and warmth to best connect with the Tepper School’s small, tight-knit community, but also be technical to remain connected with Carnegie Mellon University. “It’s tricky,” she admits.
- Donehue also feels challenged by the forever changing social media environment and all the choices that come with that. For instance, is Google+ the right forum for putting content and building a presence?
- Donehue also wants to be mindful she is engaging in conversation with followers, not just feeding information.
It's so important we get this right, make good choices and engage with our current and prospective students intelligently through social media," Donehue says. “Much thought must be put into every decision.”
Our next blog highlights the Tepper School’s big social media breakthrough: Affiliating with a major cable TV network.