Facebook has been the go-to platform for institutions to connect with prospective students. Let's not kid ourselves, though; HigherEd is full of control freaks. And Facebook is out of our control. Via a coordinated content strategy across Facebook and other social platforms, there is room for a college-owned, private social network within your digital strategy. With the ability to more closely control the experience, you can better align with institutional brand, more directly tie to programmatic, business unit goals and more intimately understand your users' personal interests. But a private social network should not stand on its own. This presentation will showcase the success of past private social networks and focus on the challenges and opportunities seen within a private social network for applicants created at Babson College. As result, you will walk away with the motivation to coordinate a digital marketing strategy across multiple social platforms with intentional, distinct goals and purpose for each platform.

1. It's Not All About Facebook:
Define Your Own Private Community
#notyourFacebook
Gene Begin
Digital Marketing Director
@gbegin
Vanessa Theoharis
Digital Marketing & Community Manager
@VanessaTSmiles

2.  #notyourFacebook
 University Private Social Networks
 Case Study:
Babson College Define You
 Outcomes and Learnings
 Questions
TIMELINE

3. 1.15 Billion Users
699 Million Daily Active Users
Average 20 minutes spent per visit
$5.09 Billion in 2012 Revenue
THE ALMIGHTY FACEBOOK
94% of Teens
Use Facebook
(Pew, 2012)
As of July 2013

4. Facebook is still the most important social
network for teens…
33% of 5,200 teens surveyed in Spring 2013
BUT…
Down 9% since Fall 2012
In Facebook’s Words…
“We believe that some of our users,
particularly our younger users, are
aware of and actively engaging with
other products and services similar to, or
as a substitute for, Facebook.”
(Facebook 10-K, February 2013)
YET NOT SO ALMIGHTY…
2013 E-Expectations Report
While 67% of the surveyed students had
visited a school Facebook page in 2012,
the proportion fell down to 35% in 2013.

5. Teens beginning to value
and prefer smaller, more
intimate, more targeted,
and more purposeful
social websites.
THE SELFIE GENERATION

6. You may think it’s yours.
But it’s not.
 Limited to no control
 Pay to play
 Advertising
 News feed visibility (15-20% of fans)
 80% of fans are current customers
 Advocacy and community-building
 Enrollment marketing content therefore
not a focus
 80-96% of fans don’t go back to a
brand’s Facebook page after initial
engagement
IT’S NOT YOUR FACEBOOK

7. PROS
 Control
 Design
 Data integration
 Personalized content
CONS
 Yet another profile
 Yet another network
 Marketing communications plan
absolutely necessary
PRIVATE SOCIAL NETWORK?
75% of prospective college students think schools should provide a
private community for incoming students. (2013 E-Expectations)

8. INSTITUTIONAL BRAND CAMPAIGN
Case Study: Babson College

9.  Small, private business college 14 miles west of Boston
 #1 in entrepreneurship for 20 and 16 consecutive years (graduate and undergraduate)
 Approximately 2000 undergraduate and 1300 graduate students, representing more than 74 countries
 Undergraduate program (top 25 in business)
 Graduate program - MBA and MS degrees (top 40 in business)
 Executive education program (top 10 U.S. and top 15 in the world for custom programs)
 Babson Global, which works with corporate, university, government, and foundation partners to advance
entrepreneurship education and Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® worldwide
BABSON COLLEGE

10. BABSON CONSTITUENCY JOURNEY

11. INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGY = CONTENT STRATEGY

12. In doing so:
 Augment pride and
engage our community.
 Expand Babson’s
application base, in turn
expanding and enhancing
our student / alumni base.
 Generate more corporate
relationships.
 Create greater attention
with academic institutions,
foundations and grants
organizations, and the
policy community.
Increase brand awareness, engagement, and adoption for Babson, as the educator
for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™.
BRAND CAMPAIGN GOAL & OBJECTIVES

13.  Context video
 Definition submission
 Data capture (name, email, country, zip,
occupation)
 Interactive search elements
 Liking
 Sharing
ENGAGEMENT HUB / define.babson.edu

14. EXTEND TO OTHER INSTITUTIONAL GOALS / definesocial.babson.edu

15. ADMISSION ENROLLMENT CYCLE
Integrated Digital Content Strategy

16. 1) Build connections, networks, and relationships
between applicants.
2) Increase yield of applicant to deposit.
3) Protect against summer melt.
ADMISSION OBJECTIVES

17. PRINT VERSION ONLINE VERSION
FROM CONSIDER TO BUY

18. www
DIGITAL MARKETING PLATFORMS
90% of seniors
and juniors
have visited a
college website
within the past
30 days.

19. Awareness Inquire Apply Enroll
Facebook (Main College Acct)
WWW
Babson Blogs
Admission Facebook, Twitter &
Instagram Accounts
Define You Student Magazine
Babson Portal
Facebook Class of 2017
PRIVATE SOCIAL NETWORK
ENROLLMENT MARKETING DECISION JOURNEY

20. DEFINE YOU APPLICANT SITE
PRIVATE SOCIAL NETWORK FOR UNDERGRADUATE APPLICANTS

21. DEFINE YOU APPLICANT SITE

22. FEATURES

23. WHAT DID WE LEARN
Results, Outcomes, Learnings

24. OUTCOMES / SITE TRAFFIC
 1,032 people visited this site (17% of applicants)
 78% Returning Visitors
 12 minute average visit duration
 7 pages per visit
 January 30, 2013 – Most Popular Day
 Email communication to applicants »
Data is from September 1, 2012 – July 1, 2013

25. OUTCOMES / INDIVIDUALS
Define You: 148 Profiles Created
 15% of site visitors
 46% female (47% of the incoming class is female)
 67 Admitted (45% of profiles – overall yield is 28%)
 31 Deposits (2 from waitlist)
 49% Deposit rate (overall deposit rate is 30%)
 50 Denied
 31 Waitlisted
Data is from September 1, 2012 – July 1, 2013
Inigral School App Yield & Retention Data

26. OUTCOMES / USER PATHS & INTERESTS
1. Navigating through page results (pages 2 and 3)
2. Hellos (viewing their profile comments)
3. Profiles by Regions:
 North America Region
 Asian Region
4. About Babson (within define.babson.edu)
5. Define Entrepreneurship
6. Define Social
7. www.babson.edu
8. Profiles from China
COMMON WORDS USED
Business
Years
School
Friends /Family
World
MOST POPULAR INTERESTS
Activities and Interests
Entrepreneurship
Athletics and Recreation
Social Impact
Education Abroad

27.  Focus group with 18 admitted students
 Private social network would have been more widely used if integrated
into existing platforms
 Portal project with IT
 Online viewbook site &
student magazine was
considered part of WWW
 Integrate subsite with WWW
 Did not use Facebook
Class of 2017 page until
accepted / deposited
 Loved seeing photos
on Facebook
OUTCOMES / QUALITATIVE

29. Awareness Inquire Apply Enroll
Facebook (Main College Acct)
WWW
Babson Blogs
Admission Facebook, Twitter &
Instagram Accounts
Define You Student Magazine
Babson Portal
Facebook Class of 2017
Define You Applicant Site
ENROLLMENT MARKETING DECISION JOURNEY

30. Awareness Inquire Apply Enroll
Facebook (Main College Acct)
WWW
Babson Blogs
Admission Twitter & Instagram
Babson Portal
Facebook Class of 2018
ENROLLMENT MARKETING DECISION JOURNEY
 Integrate Online Viewbook / Student Magazine content into WWW Admission
 Integrate Applicant Site social networking functionality into existing IT Portal
 Remove Facebook Admission Page

31.  Facebook is necessary; can’t be everything
 Social strategy should include your owned platforms
 Align social strategy with audience behavior and expectations along
the enrollment cycle
 Speak to institutional brand strategy to maintain life cycle messaging
TAKEAWAYS
Gene Begin
Digital Marketing Director
@gbegin
Vanessa Theoharis
Digital Marketing & Community Manager
@VanessaTSmiles