Posted by Brad and Joe, BlueFuego, Inc.
When we released our initial research on Social Web Callouts six months ago, we had a hunch that the numbers were going to quickly grow. Now that we’ve compiled and crunched the numbers again, we’re excited to share some of our findings with you. Please feel free to pass this along to your co-workers and colleagues, especially if you are trying to make the case for your institution!
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Of the 1,387 four year schools researched on August 1, 2009:
562 schools (40.5%) had one or more Social Web Callouts (SWC’s) within the criteria.
54 schools (3.9%) had SWC’s on all three criteria (Main, Admission, Alumni).
161 schools (11.6%) had SWC’s on 2 of the 3 criteria.
Of the 1,387 schools, 247 (17.8%) had SWC’s or links on the main .edu homepage. Of these 247 schools:
78.1% linked to Facebook
64.4% linked to Twitter
44.5% linked to YouTube
21.0% linked to Flickr
12.2% linked to MySpace
9.3% linked to LinkedIn
6.1% linked to YouTube (Embed)
Of the 1,387 schools, 235 (16.9%) had SWC’s or links on the main Admissions site. Of these 235 schools:
80.9% linked to Facebook
45.6% linked to Twitter
29.8% linked to YouTube
12.3% linked to Flickr
10.2% linked to MySpace
9.9% linked to YouTube (Embed)
3.4% linked to LinkedIn
Of the 1,387 schools, 282 (20.3%) had SMC’s or links from main Alumni site. Of these 282 schools:
87.23% linked to Facebook
42.20% linked to LinkedIn
40.78% linked to Twitter
18.44% linked to YouTube
12.06% linked to Flickr
11.77% linked to MySpace
5.32% linked to YouTube (Embed)
Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
Shortly after EduWeb, BlueFuego met up with the Plaid team as a part of the PlaidNation tour. We were honored to be included as a stop among other great companies such as Ford Motors, Threadless, Sprint, FedEx and many other businesses.
But we were even more excited at the announcement that we would be included in the Plaidtastic Ten! What is the Plaidtastic Ten?
“A rolling list of people, companies or brands we know will inspire you. The Plaidtastic Ten have a keen understanding of how to incorporate new tools or ideas into their businesses. They’ve embraced change, creativity and innovation, and for that, we celebrate their awesomeness.”
A huge thanks to Plaid for the honor of being on this list, and thanks to all of our great clients who also embrace change, creativity and innovation with us!!
Watch the Video Interview Now!
Posted by Brad and Joe, BlueFuego, Inc.
We are excited to release some top-level numbers from our comprehensive research of 1,035 Facebook Fan Pages in Higher Education. We have looked at university and college fan pages for 90 days and have tracked endless amounts of data. Use the data from these slides as a benchmark for your Facebook Fan Page to see how you compare with your peer schools. Check out the BlueFuego Formula® to see what type of engagement you are getting on your page.
The webinar series on this data has been announced, register here!
*UPDATE*
It appears that our data has started a friendly rivalry between LSU and Texas A&M, with LSU being the first to comment. Excited to see where this goes next. 
*UPDATE*
The Chronicle and Mashable have also picked up on the rivalry! As we mentioned yesterday on our Facebook page, we’ll be announcing some news on Monday to step up the challenge. And don’t discount the University of Oklahoma, who has recently moved into the #3 spot after having nearly 35,000 fans transferred from a rogue page into their official university fan page! This will get interesting
Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
The amount of space you get to catch the eye of a student or alum is decreasing by the minute. Maybe they used to look at the whole viewbook, or watch that promotional DVD. And remember when you weren’t just another email in the inbox? Now, think about this… what impression can you make with your 40 pixel x 40 pixel avatar?
We were recently asked if there was a best practice in avatars for Twitter. Here’s one simple suggestion: stand out.
We’ll talk about this and a lot more in Wednesday’s Twitter for Higher Ed webinar. It’s only $99, and you’ll get valuable information on how these schools and more are using Twitter. We’re tracking nearly 700 twitter accounts from Admissions, Alumni, Athletics, PR/News, colleges and departments, and more. There’s something for everyone.
Register today for only $99!
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Are you ready to Ignite the Fuego? Contact us today.
Welcome to new and returning clients: Abilene Christian University & University of Massachusetts – Amherst!
Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
Facebook Pages have really taken a new life after the recent Facebook upgrade. It’s never been easier to connect with fans and engage in conversation on Facebook than before.
We’re in the middle of compiling what is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and in-depth research on University and College Fan Pages. (Similar to when we researched 400 university/college Twitter accounts for the Twitter for Higher Education webinar. If you missed the first webinar, it’s back by popular demand! Register at http://twitter-higher-ed.eventbrite.com)
Here are a few tidbits to tie you over until the full research is ready! If you follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/bluefuego) you might have seen these already today! Special thanks to Joe for his great work on this research. He’s a research machine!
When looking at the top 30 Fan pages, determined by # of fans, we’ve noted the following from our data:
- Only 3 of the top 30 are private institutions.
- 25 are public universities with more than 20,000 undergraduates.
- Texas A&M avgs 39.75% more ‘Likes’ per post than any other school in the Top 30.
- 25% of the top 30 open to Wall, 75% open to another tab (Info, About, custom FBML, etc.) Those who open to the wall = averaged a 95% growth in April. Those who opened to another tab averaged 16% growth. Do the math.
- Texas A&M gets more ‘Likes’ per post than any other school, yet is still only reaching 1/2 of 1% of their fan base.
- Ohio State currently has more ‘likes’, more comments, and more fan posts than any school on FB. They also experienced 72% fan growth in April.
- The top 25 fan pages average 18,000 fans. 10 of these 25 pages have not posted any updates since at least April 1st.
Can’t wait to share more!
Brad
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Become a fan of BlueFuego on Facebook today!
Ready to take your Facebook presence to the next level? Contact us.
