community-wide vs. compartmentalizing: building relationships through facebook

Gene BeginMarketing Director

Undergraduate SchoolBabson College

COMMUNITY-WIDE VS.

COMPARTMENTALIZING:

Building Relationships

Through Facebook

MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION:

Who Is Your Audience?

OR

Who Are Your Audiences?

…for each specific Facebook platform objective

COMMUNITY-WIDE

VS.

COMPARTMENTALIZING

COMMUNITY-WIDE

&

COMPARTMENTALIZING

COMMUNITY-WIDEthroughout a community

Facebook Example: Pages

Facebook Benefit: Broadcast messaging

COMPARTMENTALIZINGto separate into distinct parts or categories

Facebook Example: Groups

Facebook Benefit: Member-to-member collaboration

P.S. – Pages can still be used for compartmentalizing

COMMUNITY-WIDE

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts…

sometimes.

OUR ORIGINALFACEBOOK PAGE STRATEGY

RESULTS & FINDINGSSUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF FACEBOOK PAGES

• In driving traffic to our website, Facebook has been the 7th, 5th and 8th most popular referrer in past 3 years

• Most popular posts in terms of interactions (likes and comments)o U.S. News & World Report Rankingso Bloomberg BusinessWeek Rankingso Rankings Celebration Video

• Males 25 – 34 are largest audienceo 34% of fans/likes are 18 - 24 years of ageo 5% of fans/likes are 13 – 17 years of age

• Eliminated Admission and Registrar Pages due to lack of interactiono Combined resources with main Babson College pageo Compartmentalized those activities

COMPARTMENTALIZING

Different audiences need targeted influence

RESULTS & FINDINGSSUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF FACEBOOK GROUPS

• Incoming Class Dean’s Groups membership have grown o 20% of incoming class in ’07o 25% in ‘08o 31% in ‘09o 34% in ’10o Group video contests – successful one year, not the nexto If you don’t create it, others will beat you to it!

• Successful compartmentalized groups/pageso Babson Athleticso Babson Commencemento Babson Career Developmento Babson Parentso Different than just departments

GROUPS!

• Determine the audience, but be flexible if new

• Clearly define goals and objectives for EACH Facebook activity

• Test and track

• 50/50 rule for community-wide platforms

• Targeted influence for compartmentalizing platforms; think of life transition points

KEY TAKEAWAYS