The Virtue of Affiliating with Major TV Networks
Barbara Donehue is assistant director, marketing communications at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. As part of her interview with VisionPoint Marketing, Donehue shows 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.
How the Tepper School Teamed with @CNBC
One big social media breakthrough this year was being followed by @CNBCwho has 61,000 followers. This resulted when CNBC launched an MBA challenge and the Tepper School, as a top tier program, was invited to compete. The CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge puts students from eight of the US's top MBA programs against one another to test how well they trade and manage a $1 million stock and currency portfolio using “CNBC Bucks.”
Not only, did CNBC link to the Tepper School Twitter and Facebook account, in October the TV network broadcasted from Posner Hall, the Tepper School building. This footage could then be liberally repurposed through social media, thereby increasing the school brand and status to prospective students and alumni. And look at what resulted:
- @CNBC started following @teppercmu on September 9, 2011. @CNBC retweeted a @teppercmu tweet to 515,886 followers on September 22, 2011.
- @teppercmu Twitter followers increased 31% during the time frame of the competition. (early September, 2011 - November 28, 2011)
- The increase in followers over the same time period last year has nearly doubled - (133 new followers September-November 2010 versus 253 new followers September-November 2011).
While it’s difficult for every higher ed institution to partner with a major network, there are still ways to leverage local media for content and exposure.
Here are our three quick fire tips:
- Reach out to local media, particular the media covering higher education and encourage them to create content on news connected with your program. Feel confident that what might not be newsy to you could be to others. Case competitions are excellent examples along with quirky student projects and start-ups or other student-led ventures.
- Liberally broadcast the coverage through your social media networks.
- Go back to the media outlet(s) and have them share your tweet, Facebook or LinkedIn postings. Don’t give up until someone does this on your behalf.
"Partner with TV networks when and if you can," Donehue recommends. “We certainly have new followers due to other sources, but participating in the competition and collaborating with CNBC's social networking channels gave us exposure that led to most of the new followers.”