9 month research on Social Web Callouts in Higher Education. Research of 1,387 university and college websites.

1. Helping Colleges and Universities use the web to meet
their marketing and recruitment goals.
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2. BlueFuego Social Web Callout Research
9-Month Review
3/1-12/1
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3. About the Research
BlueFuego has compiled data from 1,387 four-year institutions
in the United States, noting which institutions are using social web callouts on their
sites.
We have focused on 3 pages:
Homepage (school.edu)
Admissions Homepage
Alumni Homepage
63.2% of schools (877) now have a SWC on one of these three pages. This is up
from 40.5% of schools (562) in August and 20.5% (285) in March.
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4. Executive Summary
Social Web Callouts (SWC) are on a majority of .edu websites for the first time
since our initial research in March 2009.
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 nine
months on .edu sites. Facebook Fan Boxes have begun to make an appearance.
The presence of SWC’s has largely been fueled by standard template headers and
footers across .edu sites. This typically means the entire site is linking to one
presence.
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5. Social Web Callouts
March August December
1 or More Page 20.5% 40.5% 63.2%
20.5% of schools (285) had a SWC on one or more of the three pages researched in March.
40.5% of schools (562) had a SWC on one or more of the three pages researched in August.
63.2% of schools (562) had a SWC on one or more of the three pages researched in December.
Increase = 98% from March to August
Increase = 56% from August to December
Increase = 208% from March to December
n = 1,387
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6. Social Web Callouts
March August December
1 or More Page 15.7% 25% 32%
15.7% of schools (219) had a SWC on one of the three pages researched in March.
25.0% of schools (347) had a SWC on one of the three pages researched in August.
32.0% of schools (444) had a SWC on one of three pages researched in December.
Increase = 59% from March to August
Increase = 28% from August to December
Increase = 104% from March to December
n = 1,387
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7. Social Web Callouts
March August December
1 or More Page 4% 11.6% 18.7%
4.03% of schools (56) had a SWC on two of the three pages researched in March.
11.6% of schools (161) had a SWC on two of the three pages researched in August.
18.7% of schools (260) had a SWC on two of three pages researched in December.
Increase = 188% from March to August
Increase = 61.2% from August to December
Increase = 364% from March to December
n = 1,387
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8. Social Web Callouts
March August December
1 or More Page 3.9% 12.5%
.07% of schools (10) had a SWC on all three pages we researched in March.
3.9% of schools (54) had a SWC on all three pages we researched in August.
12.5% of schools (173) had a SWC on all three pages we researched in December.
Increase = 5,471% from March to August
Increase = 221% from August to December
Increase = 17,757% from March to December
n = 1,387
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9. Where are the Callouts?
.edu Homepage
Admissions Homepage
Alumni Homepage
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10. Where are the Callouts?
.edu Admissions Alumni .edu Admissions Alumni .edu Admissions Alumni
30% 32% 33%
37% 37% 34%
32% 31% 33%
March August December
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11. .edu Homepage Callouts
Callout No Callout Callout No Callout Callout No Callout
7.6% 17.8%
36.7%
63.3%
82.2%
92.4%
March August December
% Growth = 134% % Growth = 106%
n = 1,387 Total Growth = 383%
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12. Admissions Homepage Callouts
Callout No Callout Callout No Callout Callout No Callout
8.2% 16.9%
35.3%
64.7%
83.1%
91.8%
March August December
% Growth = 106% % Growth = 109%
n = 1,387 Total Growth = 330%
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13. Alumni Homepage Callouts
Callout No Callout Callout No Callout Callout No Callout
9.4% 20.3%
34.8%
65.2%
79.7%
90.6%
March August December
% Growth = 116% % Growth = 71%
n = 1,387 Total Growth = 270%
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14. What are they linking to?
.edu Homepage
Admissions Homepage
Alumni Homepage
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15. .edu Homepage Links
March August December
60.4%
Facebook 78.1%
87.8%
24.5%
Twitter 64.4%
76.1%
34.9%
YouTube 44.5%
59.5%
0% 23% 45% 68% 90%
n = 106 (March), 247 (August), and 509 (December)
Read as: “Of the 32.6% of schools who had SWC’s on their .edu homepage in December,
87.8% were linking to Facebook and 76.1% were linking to Twitter.”
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16. .edu Homepage Links
March August December
17.0%
Flickr 21.0%
23.1%
2.8%
LinkedIn 9.3%
14.5%
17.0%
MySpace 12.3%
9.9%
12.3%
YouTube Embed 6.1%
4.9%
0% 8% 15% 23%
n = 106 (March), 247 (August), and 509 (December)
Read as: “Of the 32.6% of schools who had SWC’s on their .edu homepage in December,
23.1% were linking to Flickr and 4.9% had a YouTube Embed.”
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17. .edu Homepage
Social Web Callouts (SWC) on the .edu homepage have risen by 106% in the last 3
months and 383% since March.
Of the 509 schools who now include SWC’s directly on their homepage, Facebook
and Twitter are linked to the most.
% Change by Site:
March to August August to December March to December
Facebook 29.3% Facebook 12.4% Facebook 45.4%
YouTube 27.5% YouTube 33.7% YouTube 70.5%
Twitter 162.8% Twitter 18.2% Twitter 210.6%
Flickr 23.5% Flickr 10.0% Flickr 35.9%
MySpace -28.2% MySpace -19.5% MySpace -41.8%
YouTube Embed -50.4% YouTube Embed -19.7% YouTube Embed -60.2%
LinkedIn 228.6% LinkedIn 55.9% LinkedIn 417.9%
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18. .Admissions Homepage Links
March August December
64.6%
Facebook 80.9%
83.4%
24.8%
YouTube 29.8%
37.6%
14.2%
Twitter 45.6%
50.7%
0% 23% 45% 68% 90%
n = 113 (March), 235 (August) and 489 (December)
Read as: “Of the 35.3% of schools who had SWC’s on their Admissions homepage in
August, 83.4% were linking to Facebook.”
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19. Admissions Homepage Links
March August December
8.0%
Flickr 12.3%
14.9%
18.6%
YouTube Embed 9.9%
8.6%
11.5%
MySpace 10.2%
7.2%
0.0%
LinkedIn 3.4%
6.8%
Facebook Box
3.1%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
n = 113 (March), 235 (August) and 489 (December)
Read as: “Of the 35.3% of schools who had SWC’s on their Admissions homepage in
August, 14.9% were linking to Flickr.”
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20. Admissions Homepage
Social Web Callouts (SWC) on the Admissions homepage have risen by 109% in the
last 3 months and 330% since March.
A Facebook callout is visible on 8.7 of 10 Admission Homepages, and 3.1% of pages
include a Facebook Box.
LinkedIn callouts are becoming more prominent due to shared navigation templates.
% Change by Site:
March to August August to December March to December
Facebook 25.2% Facebook 3.1% Facebook 29.1%
YouTube 20.1% YouTube 26.2% YouTube 51.6%
Twitter 221% Twitter 11.2% Twitter 257.0%
Flickr 53.7% Flickr 21.1% Flickr 86.3%
MySpace -11.3% MySpace -29.4% MySpace -37.4%
YouTube Embed -4.6% YouTube Embed -13.1% YouTube Embed -53.8%
LinkedIn 0.0% LinkedIn 100% LinkedIn 0% to 6.8%
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21. Alumni Homepage Links
March August December
82.3%
Facebook 87.2%
86.5%
11.5%
Twitter 40.8%
49.2%
40.0%
LinkedIn 42.2%
45%
0% 23% 45% 68% 90%
n = 130 (March), 282 (August) and 482 (December)
Read as: “Of the 34.8% of schools who had SWC’s on their Alumni homepage in August,
86.5% were linking to Facebook.”
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22. Alumni Homepage Links
March August December
10.0%
YouTube 18.4%
26.1%
4.6%
Flickr 12.1%
13.9%
10.7%
MySpace 11.7%
9.5%
4.6%
YouTube Embed 5.3%
4.9%
Facebook Box
4.5%
0% 8% 15% 23% 30%
n = 130 (March), 282 (August) and 482 (December)
Read as: “Of the 34.8% of schools who had SWC’s on their Alumni homepage in August,
4.5% had a Facebook Box embed.”
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23. Alumni Homepage
Social Web Callouts (SWC) on the Alumni homepage have risen by 71% since August
and 270% since March.
Facebook callouts decreased slightly, but 4.6% of pages now include a Facebook Box.
% Change by Site:
March to August August to December March to December
Facebook 5.9% Facebook -0.08% Facebook 5.1%
YouTube 8.4% YouTube 41.8% YouTube 161%
Twitter 253.3% Twitter 20.6% Twitter 327.8%
Flickr 162.1% Flickr 14.9% Flickr 202.2%
MySpace 9.2% MySpace -18.8% MySpace -11.2%
YouTube Embed 15.2% YouTube Embed -7.5% YouTube Embed 6.5%
LinkedIn 5.5% LinkedIn 6.6% LinkedIn 12.5%
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24. Summary
YouTube and LinkedIn are the fastest growing Social Web Callouts from the .edu
homepage, Admissions and Alumni.
For the 63.2% of schools who are placing SWC’s on their website:
Facebook appears 85.96% of the time.
Twitter appears 58.97% of the time.
YouTube appears 41.43% of the time.
LinkedIn appears 21.86% of the time.
Flickr appears 17.41% of the time.
MySpace appears 8.91% of the time.
YouTube Embeds appear 6.14% of the time.
Facebook Fan Boxes appear 2.63% of the time.
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25. This data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No
Derivative Works 3.0 US License
You are free to share, copy distribute and transmit this work under the following
conditions:
Attribution - Attribute the work to BlueFuego, Inc. and link to http://
www.bluefuego.com
Noncommercial - You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform or build upon this work.
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