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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 6TH DECEMBER, 2015
ENERGY
UWI GRADUATION CEREMONIES 2015
Graduation, undoubtedly,
is the largest annual event
that takes place at The UWI St. Augustine Campus. Large,
not just for the number of persons both involved in the
ceremonies, but also in terms of its reach. The reach of our
graduation ceremonies spans not only the graduating class,
but also includes their friends, family, alumni and other well-
wishers. GivenThe UWI’s place as a regional institution, it’s
safe to say the average person is somehow connected to at
least one person in each graduating class.
Social media has expanded the reach even further
with networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. For a time
like graduation, they are the places for sharing stories and
special moments for the graduating class and for their loved
ones through photos, videos and extending congratulatory
notes through special posts; for alumni, they take to
social networking sites to share their fond memories and
reestablish connections with the graduating class by sharing
their own photo memories of their graduating ceremony.
The St. Augustine Campus took a very targeted
approach to leveraging social media for the 2015 ceremonies.
We looked at emerging trends in social media in higher
education, particularly when it comes to graduation, looking
at best practices set by universities across the US and the UK
and combining some of these strategies with our own. One
strategy included using data in our storytelling – outlining
the facts and figures associated with the graduating class and
connecting this data to dynamic photos of our graduates
at the ceremonies. The result of our targeted effort was the
highest recorded levels of engagement on our main social
pages – Facebook and Twitter, in terms of the traction for the
content that we shared over the three days. High engagement
said we were doing something right.
At the time of writing, the organic reach of our posts
on Facebook during the 2015 Graduation period (from
October 22 to 24) reached a high of 64,435 Facebook users.
Post reach quantifies the number of people who have seen a
post from our page in their Facebook Newsfeed. Facebook
engagement rate is measured in interactions. On a Facebook
Page that translates into likes, comments and shares of your
posts. Similarly on Twitter, over the 3-day period, our Tweets
earned 50.9K impressions. Twitter impressions are described
as the delivery of a post or Tweet to a Twitter user’s stream
and twitter engagement is measured when a user Retweets,
favorites, expands, clicks on, replies to, or follows you from
a posted Tweet from your account.
You can never tell just how your following will
interact with content. Online, people are bolder and more
impassioned with their opinions. It was interesting for us
to see how our following identified with photos, videos and
stories over the three days. Their comments and overall
interactions were a huge part of making some of these
moments stand out – particularly for our Graduation
Ceremonies, which have followed the same format for most
of the 55 years of our existence as a campus, it was really
important for us to capture those memorable moments for
our online following.
Top 5 Trending Moments
B Y C H R I S T I N E N A N T O N
The PhD husband and wife duo
Fun Fact: Many of our fans/ followers
shared this tweet using the hashtag
#RelationshipGoals
1,131 Facebook
Likes, Comments and Shares
2,414 Twitter
Engagements
20.9% Twitter
Engagement Rate
Singing Valedictorian for the
Faculty of Medical Sciences
982 Facebook
Likes, Comments and Shares
3,874 Facebook
Video Views
95 Twitter
Engagements
12.9% Twitter
Engagement Rate
National athlete,
Jehue Gordon, graduates
3,969 Facebook
Video Views
135 Facebook
Likes, Comments and Shares
564 Twitter
Engagements
8.4% Twitter
Engagement Rate
David Rudder
receives Honorary Degree
fromThe UWI St. Augustine
124 Facebook
Likes, Comments and Shares
564 Twitter
Engagements
8.4% Twitter
Engagement Rate
A. Norman Sabga
receives Honorary Degree
fromThe UWI St. Augustine
1,427 Facebook
Video Views
8 Facebook
Likes, Comments and Shares
183 Twitter
Engagements
5.4% Twitter
Engagement Rate
22K
People Reached
21K
People Reached
13K
People Reached
4K
People Reached
6K
People Reached
12K
Impressions
734
Impressions
6K
Impressions
7K
Impressions
3K
Impressions
FOR FULL STATISTICS, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT:
