USC's social media campaign for graduation from April 1 to May 31, 2014, achieved the highest engagement rates among peers, notably with a 58% engagement above the competitive average, primarily driven by Instagram. By analyzing data from multiple sources and using content strategies, USC expanded the emotional reach of the graduation narrative, resulting in increased impact and engagement. The campaign effectively utilized a mix of pre-event and user-generated content, showcasing USC's comprehensive understanding of their social media landscape.

1. Report Period: April 1 - May 31, 2014
A Higher Education
Social Media Case Study
How USC used social media analysis
to generate superior performance in
their largest campaign of the year.
Photo: USC

2. Executive Summary
Graduation Campaign Highlights
❖ Highest engagement rate of all
graduation campaigns: 58% above
competitive average
❖ Single highest engagement rate of
any social media account:
Instagram
❖ Early content scheduling ramp-up:
12% increase in engagement
College graduation is a big deal. The culmination of years
of work, with considerable time and money invested. It’s
the most emotionally powerful part of the school year.
USC set out to develop a campaign to capture the spirit of
graduation. The series of posts would promote and enrich
the graduation ceremony in a way that would resonate
deeply with key target audience segments -- students,
parents and faculty.
The messages would not only have the potential to impact
the target segments, but also the friends, family, and
associates of all who participate.
Details
Peer Institutions: 9 major US universities
Networks Analyzed: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Report Period: April 1 - May 31, 2014

3. Generating engaging communication in any environment is
anything but easy. The ever-shifting nature of social media
platforms only adds to that challenge.
To tackle that, USC explores and analyzes content from
numerous data points. Content calendars and schedules,
top posting themes, media type performance.
Beyond their own content, they analyze their peer
institutions’ performance and practices, giving them
exposure and familiarity to a broad range of content types
and their performance record.
“We utilize Zuum to track the content of several of USC’s peer institutions
to see points of communication emphasis, post activity and frequency, social
campaigns, content type usage, etc.”
-- Rod Yabut, Interactive Marketing Manager
Understanding trends around what content themes perform
best, optimal times to post, and how different media types are
used across an entire industry provides a comprehensive
foundation to build campaigns upon.
Objective: Maximize social impact for year’s largest event

4. Solution: Expanding the emotional and calendar footprint
With the significance of graduation, USC realized an
opportunity to extend the narrative of the story by creating
content prior to and after the graduation ceremony. This
increased the campaign’s overall impact considerably.
USC also moved a higher percentage of their posting to
Instagram the day of graduation. This savvy alignment of a
photo-driven event with a youth-oriented photo platform
propelled engagement levels higher.
A vital piece of the strategy was to create a content “bank”
by securing graduation-related photo assets from various
events prior to the ceremony, and republishing user
generated content via the hashtag #USCgrad. This allowed
USC to predetermine the voice and the narrative of the 2014
Commencement campaign.
“The data visualization provided by Zuum also enhances the analysis we do
when researching how our channels are performing vs. our peer
institutions.” -- Rod Yabut, Interactive Marketing Manager
Left: USC’s top post, also
the most engaging post
from any of the
graduation campaigns.
Right: USC’s posting
schedule leading up
to graduation,
compared to a peer
institution.

5. Results: A campaign that ranked at the top of the class
The data presents a strong case for the impact of the USC
graduation campaign. When viewed collectively or as distinct
messages, performance ranks high among USC’s peer
institutions.
The campaign delivered high engagement, and stretched
across numerous tactical fronts: Message development,
content calendars, and network emphasis. That range
demonstrates USC’s thorough understanding of their social
media landscape.
Highlights
❖ Campaign engagement to fan ratio 58% above industry average
❖ USC Instagram most engaging social media account
❖ USC Post had single highest engagement rate
❖ Expanded impact: 12% of campaign engagements were in April
“USC utilizes Zuum’s influencer tracking feature to monitor “influencers”
by time period, to see who is talking about USC in the social web.
-- Rod Yabut, Interactive Marketing Manager
Above: USC’s engagement rate, overall and by network.
Below: Peer institution engagement rates, overall and by network.

6. Addendum: USC Campaign Data

7. #USCGrad: Content Overview
1: Strong
campaign
engagement rate
of 1.47%.
2: Instagram posts
have the single
highest
engagement rate
of any network for
any of the
campaigns.
3: Strong lead-in
to graduation
compared to other
schools.
4: Instagram’s
portion of
engagements
dominated on
graduation day.

8. Top Campaign Posts
1: Highest single engagement/ fan
ratio of any graduation campaign
post
2: Video post demonstrates the
potential for rich content based on
the emotional graduation theme.

9. A Higher Education
Social Media Case Study
Photo by USC
ZuumSocial.com