As part of Canada Month here at WebFuel, every Monday we will be examining a Canadian Company that has effectively and successfully used Social Media to engage fans and improve their brand.
This week we will be looking at Bishop’s University. As most of you know, I recently graduated from Bishop’s. I have watched their Social Media presence grow over the past four years, and was an integral part in that process this past year. As a small school, Bishop’s decided that it wanted to make a big push through Social Media to stay in contact with their alumni, to engage their current students and to attract new students. They are mainly present of Facebook, although they do have active accounts on Twitter and YouTube as well.
On Facebook they have two fan pages:
Despite having less than 2000 full-time students, Bishop’s has been able to obtain over 3800 fans. Academica Group Inc. recognized that stat earlier this year, and went on to call Bishop’s the best Canadian University in terms of student-fan ratio and noted that BU had the highest fan interaction among universities in the country.
2) Bishop’s University Incoming Class
This page was designed to help incoming/prospective students during their transition from high school or CEGEP to University. The page acts as a open forum, where conversation is encouraged. The engagement on this page is off the charts as hopeful students post questions/concerns which are often promptly answered by “Bishop’s University Incoming Class” which are in fact REAL students. Making the transition into university can be very scary – this Page goes a long way in alleviating some of those concerns, and making people feel more comfortable with their decision to attend Bishop’s.
Why are they successful?
Engagement
Their posts are interesting, relevant and useful! They let their fans know what is going on, but also listen to them!
Content
Bishop’s has done much more than posted news items. They have created many interesting videos that excite incoming students, and bring back old memories for alumni. They often post amazing photos of campus, students, events, etc. They also host many amazing events and have a team of student bloggers that write about everything from classes to skiing to the Lion Pub. No matter the day, there is always something interesting being posted on the BU Page.
Customized
They have made their Fan Page their own by branding it with “Bishop’s” and “Purple”. Their logo is very strong and is very prominent on the Page. They have also effectively used the FMBL application which allows you to create your own customized tab – in their case it was used to create the “Future Students” tab. This is well done with great info, fonts, colors, links, etc. The FBML application has also been used on their “Incoming Students” Page. They have with the lyrics to their beloved school song, “Raise A Toast!”. This song can be heard all over Lennoxville throughout the school year at sporting events, parties and events.
So there it is folks, Bishop’s University! A great example of a small school making a big impact using Social Media. They have more fans than Queen’s, McGill and UBC – schools that are over ten times their size. Congrats BU, you get an ‘A’ on WebFuel’s Social Media Report Card!
July is Canada Month here at WebFuel. All month we will be sharing Canadian stats, stories, trends and much more! Feel free to share with us anything Canadian related to Social Media and Search!