The Transatlantic University Divide

I was really pleased to see this report today, which compares top US and UK Universities in their use of social media. Called The Transatlantic University Divide, it reports that UK Universities score less than half as well as their US counterparts. This is bad news. The good news is that only two UK Universities made it into the Top Ten, Oxford and Sheffield!

We are described in it as "using social media to punch well above our weight".

Our highest score is for "receptiveness", where we came top of the UK Universities, which measures the extent to which we are seen to be listening to comments or conversations.
Our next highest scores are for popularity and interaction where we're third.

Well done everyone who's involved in our social media presence.

One of the reasons suggested for the UK poor performance in general was that US Universities tend to have committed management support and dedicated resources to promoting and using social media, not just a couple of people doing it in their spare time. That's definitely something we've tried to work on recently, and it could be paying off.

The report makes some suggestions about how UK Universities might improve:

Get the basics right- signpost your social media presence clearly
Develop a clear, formal social media strategy with clearly defined objectives, senior management support and a consistent approach
Choose the right channels, what's right for one University may not work for you
Focus on the right things- concentrate on activities that contribute to achieving strategic objectives or giving you a competitive edge
Benchmark and measure, but measure the right things!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad