Over the years, one of the most frequent questions we receive from universities is “How much posting is too much?”. The cornerstone of any program is a consistent content calendar. If you have users sign up and not get into the groove of receiving emails and sharing, you might lose them as consistent superfans. As such, during the times that you are recruiting into your program, we suggest 1 – 2 posts a week for a healthy program. Let’s dive into more specifics and caveats below.
Ongoing Posting
To determine if you need to post 1 time a week, 2 times a week, or less, we need to examine your overall goals. If you would like to receive a large number of impressions or shares, you will need to be posting 2 times a week. That also means that you need to have more people in your program, so do not forget to recruit! If you are seeking to have a smaller group of very engaged university advocates, you should not feel required to post as often. Based on our current client base, 2 times a month is as low as you can go without starting to lose the attention of your superfans.
Email vs "Share More" Library
We have tried to make it so that the superfan portal is fun and engaging but don’t forget, email is the easiest way for people to share. Don’t just put your posts in a share more library, send them out as emails as well. People share from the content library exponentially less than they do from email. For example – a program with 160 superfans puts one post in a content library and gets 5 shares, they get 30 shares if they send it out via email as well.
Summer
When much of the academic community is taking a break, it can be frustrating to be told to post content 4-8 times a month. Luckily, we have found that the university fan base is on the same page and does not require as much “maintenance” during the summer. If you can find a few pieces of content before the summer starts that is of interest to your fanbase (YouTube videos on the university, a feature on a program or school, etc.), you are able to schedule one post a month to remind your superfans that you are still active. With one post a month, we find that share rates and open rates stay consistent and only fluctuate by a few percentage points.
Giving Days
Universities often use SocialToaster to promote a giving day. And we agree, it is the perfect opportunity. We have watched Universities try many different strategies for a giving day content calendar, and we have a few takeaways.
University superfans are unique, in that they do not fatigue as quickly as other types of SocialToaster superfans. They want to help, so long as you are not bombarding them constantly, and they are willing to share several times about your giving day. That line is a fine one, and you will need to use your judgment a bit based on your previous posts.
Some universities have tried posting several times during the 24-hour giving day period and there has been varying success. Posting 1-2 times in a day does not see any drop in sharing or opening of emails, provided it is only for your giving day with a specific ask. By the time you post 3 times in a day, you can expect to see an average of a 10% drop in open/share rate. You may be able to recover those users who fatigued but it can be difficult.
We did observe several programs who experienced either an increase or no change in share/open rates. These universities all used a similar formula:
- 2 weeks prior – Announce the Giving Day is coming
- 1 week prior – Content re: Giving Day
- 1 day prior – “Giving Day is almost here!” content
- Day of – 1-2 posts about giving day.
- Day after – “Thank You!” content – tell your users what they have accomplished – this is often the most shared post.
A final word about content, as a university, you are uniquely positioned to send your superfans content that they love to share. Universally, the posts that do the best are posts that allow your superfans to do a little bragging. They are proud of their school and are happy to show it off.
And, as always, don’t forget your Account Management Team is always available to help. Reach out to us at support@socialtoaster.com and we can give email support, or schedule a quick call to brainstorm ideas that will work specifically for you.