Drake University

The social media campaign for Drake University was part of a comprehensive communications strategy to support a $200 million fundraising initiative. Stamats’ creative concept, “Can a love story really change the world,” was the centerpiece of the campaign, as it was for a suite of multi-purpose online and offline publications.

Our team was confident that a robust social media plan would be another dynamo pulling those associated with Drake together to share and interact with the distinctlyDrake program. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter were the platforms selected to enhance the sense of a cohesive community between internal and external stakeholders, and provide Drake with the opportunity to develop deeper, more personal connections with its supporters from current students to alumni and prospective donors.

Drake’s official Facebook page was revamped considerably to unite with the University’s brand. A tab for distinctlyDrake was created, which took the user to the microsite. Facebook was the platform that redirected audiences to the distinctlyDrake website, which was the repository of all the content around the Love Story creative concept. Twitter was used to drive traffic through links to blogs, media coverage, Facebook pages, websites, and microsites. Drake’s YouTube channel was the host for all videos related to the microsite, including love story videos. As the second most popular search engine after Google, a YouTube community is important, though it requires more time, dedication and thought to create and sustain.

Besides developing the plan, our team trained the Drake staff to maintain the program’s social web presence. Our use of best practices in social web planning and engagement resulted in increased activity across all platforms: fans and followers; sharing of Love Stories, photos, videos, comments, posts; increased mentions elsewhere; more traffic driven to the microsite; higher levels of alumni and student engagement; and higher and better search results.