Helping Colleges and Universities use the web to meet
their marketing and recruitment goals.

BlueFuego Social Web Callout
Research
6 Month Review
3/1-8/1

About the Research
BlueFuego has looked at 1,387 four year institutions in the
United States to see who is using visual social web callouts on
their site. This is a summary of our research.
We have focused on 3 pages:
Homepage (school.edu)
Admissions Homepage
Alumni Homepage
40.5% of schools (562) now have a SWC on one of these
three pages, up from 20.5% (285) in March.

Executive Summary
Social Web Callouts (SWC) have become even more prevalent
on .edu websites since our initial research in March 2009. The %
of growth for callouts has doubled across every category.
Twitter continues to grow quickly in both usage and promotion
in Higher Education, while Facebook is still the most linked to
social network.
MySpace Callouts and YouTube embeds have seen negative
growth for the past six months on .edu homepages and
Admission pages, but positive placement on Alumni pages.

Social Web Callouts
March August
1 or More Page 20.5% 40.5%
20.5% of schools (285) had a SWC on one or more of the
three pages we researched in March.
40.5% of schools (562) had a SWC on one or more of the
three pages we researched in August.
Increase = 97.56%
n = 1,387

Social Web Callouts
March August
1 Page 15.7% 25%
15.7% of schools (219) had a SWC on one of the
three pages we researched in March.
25.0% of schools (347) had a SWC on one of the
three pages we researched in August.
Increase = 58.44%
n = 1,387

Social Web Callouts
March August
2 Pages 4.03% 11.6%
4.03% of schools (56) had a SWC on two of the
three pages we researched in March.
11.6% of schools (161) had a SWC on two of the
three pages we researched in August.
Increase = 187.84%
n = 1,387

Social Web Callouts
March August
3 Pages .07% 3.9%
.07% of schools (10) had a SWC on all three pages (.edu,
Admissions, Alumni) we researched in March.
3.9% of schools (54) had a SWC on all three pages (.edu,
Admissions, Alumni) we researched in August.
Increase = 440%
n = 1,387

Where are the Callouts?
.edu Homepage
Admissions Homepage
Alumni Homepage

Where are the Callouts?
.edu Admissions Alumni .edu Admissions Alumni
30% 32%
37% 37%
32% 31%
March August

.edu Homepage Callouts
Callout No Callout Callout No Callout
7.6% 17.8%
92.4% 82.2%
March August
n = 1,387 % Growth = 134%

Admissions Homepage Callouts
Callout No Callout Callout No Callout
8.2% 16.9%
91.8% 83.1%
March August
n = 1,387 % Growth = 106%

Alumni Homepage Callouts
Callout No Callout Callout No Callout
9.4%
20.3%
79.7%
90.6%
March August
n = 1,387 % Growth = 116%

What are they linking to?
.edu Homepage
Admissions Homepage
Alumni Homepage

.edu Homepage Links
March August
60.4%
Facebook
78.1%
34.9%
YouTube
44.5%
24.5%
Twitter
64.4%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
n = 106 (March) and 247 (August)
Read as: “Of the 17.8% of schools who had SWC’s on
their .edu homepage in August, 78.1% were linking to Facebook.”

.edu Homepage Links
March August
17.0%
Flickr
21.0%
17.0%
MySpace
12.3%
12.3%
YouTube Embed
6.1%
2.8%
LinkedIn
9.3%
0% 8% 15% 23%
n = 106 (March) and 247 (August)
Read as: “Of the 17.8% of schools who had SWC’s on
their .edu homepage in August, 21% were linking to Flickr.”

.edu Homepage
Social Web Callouts (SWC) on the .edu homepage have risen
by 134% in the last 6 months.
Of the 247 schools who now include SWC’s directly on their
homepage, Facebook and Twitter are included the most.
% Change by Site:
Facebook 29.3%
YouTube 27.5%
Twitter 162.8%
Flickr 23.5%
MySpace -28.2%
YouTube (Embed) -50.4%
LinkedIn 228.6%

.Admissions Homepage Links
March August
64.6%
Facebook
80.9%
24.8%
YouTube
29.8%
14.2%
Twitter
45.6%
0% 23% 45% 68% 90%
n = 113 (March) and 235 (August)
Read as: “Of the 16.9% of schools who had SWC’s on
their .edu homepage in August, 80.9% were linking to Facebook.”

Admissions Homepage Links
March August
8.0%
Flickr
12.3%
11.5%
MySpace
10.2%
18.6%
YouTube Embed
9.9%
0.0%
LinkedIn
3.4%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
n = 113 (March) and 235 (August)
Read as: “Of the 16.9% of schools who had SWC’s on their
Admissions homepage in August, 12.3% were linking to Flickr.”

Admissions Homepage
Social Web Callouts (SWC) on the Admissions homepage have
risen by 106% in the last 6 months.
235 schools now include SWC’s directly on their homepage.
A Facebook callout is visible on 8 of 10 Admission Homepages.
% Change by Site:
Facebook 25.2%
YouTube 20.1%
Twitter 221%
Flickr 53.7%
MySpace -11.3%
YouTube (Embed) -4.6%
LinkedIn (0% to 3.4%)

Alumni Homepage Links
March August
82.3%
Facebook
87.2%
10.0%
YouTube
18.4%
11.5%
Twitter
40.8%
0% 23% 45% 68% 90%
n = 130 (March) and 282 (August)
Read as: “Of the 20.3% of schools who had SWC’s on their
Alumni homepage in August, 87.2% were linking to Facebook.”

Alumni Homepage Links
March August
4.6%
Flickr
12.1%
10.7%
MySpace
11.7%
4.6%
YouTube Embed
5.3%
40.0%
LinkedIn
42.2%
0% 13% 25% 38% 50%
n = 130 (March) and 282 (August)
Read as: “Of the 20.3% of schools who had SWC’s on their
Admissions homepage in August, 12.1% were linking to Flickr.”

Alumni Homepage
Social Web Callouts (SWC) on the Alumni homepage have
risen by 116% in the last 6 months.
Of the 282 schools who now include SWC’s directly on their
homepage, Facebook and LinkedIn are included the most.
% Change by Site:
Facebook 5.9%
YouTube 8.4%
Twitter 253.3%
Flickr 162.1%
MySpace 9.2%
YouTube (Embed) 15.2%
LinkedIn 5.5%

Summary
Twitter is clearly the fastest growing site in terms of Social Web
Callouts from the .edu homepage, Admissions and Alumni.
For the schools who are placing SWC’s on their website:
Facebook appears 82.33% of the time.
Twitter appears 49.89% of the time.
YouTube appears 30.3% of the time.
LinkedIn appears 19.6% of the time.
Flickr appears 15.0% of the time.
MySpace appears 11.43% of the time.
YouTube Embeds appear 7.0% of the time.

Are you ready to Ignite the Fuego at your institution?
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