Syracuse University has recently outranked Georgetown, Duke and Princeton universities, ranking as the fifth “Best and Most Collaborative” school in the country based on its social media presence.

The list was created by The Huffington Post. SU ranked first among medium-sized schools.

Vala Afshar, the Huffington Post writer, took the top 100 colleges from U.S. News & World Report’s annual report and ranked them based on a combination of their Klout and Kred scores, which measure social media engagement.

SU has official accounts on nine platforms, maintaining more than 200 accounts for various schools, programs and departments in the university, according to SU’s social media directory.

William Ward, a professor of practice of social media in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said he attributes SU’s social media success partially to the school’s integrated strategy, in which different kinds of content go out to different platforms.

“If you look at their Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Foursquare, they have content on all those different platforms,” Ward said.  “They have strategies for using the different ones to their advantage.”

Klout, Ward said, is a web app that assigns points by analyzing an account’s connections and level of engagement.

Kred, a similar analytical tool, compiles a social influence score based on Facebook and Twitter interactions, according to the application’s website.

“They look at how influential your connections are,” Ward said.  “And then they look at your activity levels on those social networks.”

SU’s social media directory lists official SU accounts on nine different platforms, including a Twitter account with nearly 25,000 followers and a Facebook page with more than 120,000 likes.  The directory also includes more than 200 accounts specific to different colleges, programs and offices within the university.

Another important aspect of Syracuse’s strategy is catering to a variety of audiences, Ward explained.  Alumni, current students, prospective students and other members of the Syracuse community all need to be considered when creating content, he said.

Jill Ouikahilo, director of communications for the Division of Student Affairs, credits SU for its creative content and for keeping students involved from the beginning as part of the school’s social media team.

“They’ve been creative and innovative, and they’ve kept a human voice,” Ouikahilo said.

In addition to the accounts specific to 21 departments within the Division of Student Affairs, the division has its own social media presence under the Living SU brand.

Living SU’s mission is to “inspire and engage” students on the SU campus using multimedia platforms — such as social media outlets for photography, video and blogging, Ouikahilo said.

The Living SU team is currently working on a website slated for a January release that will bring together the social media channels of both offices within the Division of Student Affairs and student organizations signed up with Org Sync, she said.

Michael Choi, co-creative director of Living SU, puts Syracuse’s success on social media down to the culture of the student body itself.

“I think people in this school realize that their opinion matters,” said Choi, a senior film major who is also a contributing videographer for The Daily Orange.  “One student’s opinion can really affect the community.  People aren’t scared to express themselves.”

Published on September 23, 2013 at 1:18 am

Contact Linda: lggorman@syr.edu