This report shows the status and growth of our social media presence in the year 2023 at Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine in January 2024.
In alignment with the college’s goal to maintain or increase U.S. News and World Report Rankings, our goals on social media are brand awareness and engagement.
Cross-Network Audience Growth
Brand awareness means increasing the number of people who are familiar with The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine and is measured in the number of followers or audience members. Increasing awareness and growing our audience looks different on each platform so we have platform-specific goals.
- CVM Facebook: Gain at least 70 new followers each month (840/year)
- We exceeded this goal by gaining 3,093 new followers in 2023, a 268% increase.
- VMC Facebook: Gain at least 135 new followers each month (1,620/year)
- We exceeded this goal by gaining 1,761 new followers in 2023, a 9% increase.
- Twitter: Gain at least 20 new followers each month (240/ year)
- We exceeded this goal by gaining 277 Twitter followers in 2023, a 15% increase.
- Instagram: Gain at least 100 new followers each month (1,200/year)
- We exceeded this goal by gaining 2,305 Instagram followers in 2023, a 92% increase.
- LinkedIn: Gain at least 41 new followers each month (492/ year)
- We exceeded this goal by gaining 1,484 LinkedIn followers in 2023, a 202% increase.
We met all of our audience growth goals for 2023 which is commendable. It’s a flattering compliment and a sign of trust when someone chooses to follow OSU CVM on social media. In 2024, I would recommend increasing our goals, based on 2023 data.
Cross-Network Engagement
Engagement is measured in the number of times users engage with our content, through likes, reactions, comments, shares, post link clicks and saves. Engagement looks different on each platform so we have platform-specific goals.
Engagement rate (per impression) is the number of times users engaged with our content as a percentage of impressions. This indicates how engaged people are with our brand.
- CVM Facebook: At least a 14% engagement rate (per impression)
- In 2023, we did not meet this goal because we only saw a 9.5% engagement rate (per impression)
- VMC Facebook: At least a 10% engagement rate (per impression)
- In 2023, we did not meet this goal because we only saw a 4.6% engagement rate (per impression)
- Twitter: At least a 3% engagement rate (per impression)
- In 2023, we almost meet this goal because we saw a 2.9% engagement rate (per impression)
- Instagram: At least a 10% engagement rate (per impression)
- In 2023, we did not meet this goal because we only saw a 7.2% engagement rate (per impression)
- LinkedIn: At least a 10% engagement rate (per impression)
- In 2023, we did not meet this goal because we only saw a 7.7% engagement rate (per impression)
We did not meet any of our engagement goals in 2023. I’d recommend revising our goals for 2024, basing the goals off the 2023 data as well as experimenting on social media with new, creative ways to create engaging content for our audience.
Cross-Network Publishing
Quality over quantity is the name of the game for social media. I don’t set publishing goals for this reason. However, it is worth noting how much content we publish on social media. This data can influence future posting frequency strategies.
- CVM Facebook: 313 published posts (11.8% increase)
- VMC Facebook: 222 published posts (6.7% increase)
- Twitter: 306 published posts (1.3% increase)
- Instagram: 461 published posts (19.4% increase) That’s about 1.3 posts a day in 2023.
- LinkedIn: 193 published posts (an increase of 13.5%)
Note that we published more in 2023 on every platform than we did in 2022. When relating these metrics back to the engagement rates, it shows that publishing more posts does not equal engagement. I’d be curious in 2024 to try decreasing our post frequency in order to focus on quality and increasing engagement rates.
Debbie Wakefield 