Social Media Consolidation Initiative

The project began with a performance audit of existing channels. Results led to consolidating 72 accounts into 12, with channels renamed based on student focus group feedback. Previously, accounts matched department names; the focus group revealed students preferred names reflecting content and their interests.

After six months, we analyzed behavioral metrics and audience engagement data. A concurrent content analysis of our weekly e-newsletter provided insights about student priorities, impactful visuals, and effective tone and writing style.

Finally, we benchmarked peer institutions and other Ohio University student-facing channels, identifying best practices and content gaps.

The analysis revealed important insights about the student audience.

OHIO students responded most to content that encouraged campus pride and involvement — campus beauty, student features, humor and university pride. Video content and photo-heavy feeds with minimal graphics generated the highest engagement, though benchmarking analysis with peer institutions showed that individual campus culture significantly influenced content preferences.

We learned that the Student Life channels existed among many similar campus Instagram channels, and we needed to carve out a clear niche. We saw an opportunity for greater emphasis on involvement opportunities, well-being resources, events, and human interest stories. The analysis also revealed that clustering events with a single call-to-action drove greater engagement than posts for individual events.

These insights informed a clear creative strategy and style guides for OHIO Student Life and Bobcat Well-Being Instagram channels.

The streamlining of accounts addressed two significant issues — an overwhelmed audience and under resourced staff. Not only was it asking a lot for students to follow so many accounts, but it was impossible for the staff to maintain content creation at that volume.

Management of the remaining channels was distributed across the Division, but our team retained responsibility for four accounts:

OHIO Student Life
Platforms: Instagram and Twitter
Instagram Followers: 3,059 (as of Dec. 2021)
Twitter Followers: 6,172 (as of Dec. 2021)
Content: All about what life on campus has to offer
Audience: Current students

Bobcat Well-Being
Platforms: Instagram
Followers: 1,217 (as of Dec. 2021)
Content: Basic needs resources, physical health, mental health, inspiration and encouragement
Audience: Current students

Parent & Family Programs
Platforms: Facebook
Followers: 4,906 (as of Dec. 2021)
Content: Engagement opportunities, updates and helpful resources
Audience: Parents and families of current students

Among the lessons learned in the research phase, as well as the audience research project examining the student journey, we recognized the importance of developing unique content that addresses the student hierarchy of needs — evolving from basic needs to self-discovery to personal growth and finally community engagement. This evolution throughout the student journey guided the development of content for our newsletter and social media channels.

Each week the newsletter captures university news, important student updates, and original content that supports student development and opportunities for involvement and on-campus engagement. From there, the original content is repurposed and distributed through Instagram stories and posts, as well as Twitter.