Lyon CollegeTaking Control of its Social Media Ecosystem

Lyon College is an independent, residential, coeducational, four-year undergraduate liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest independent college in Arkansas operating under its original charter. Situated on 136 acres in the scenic foothills of the Ozark Mountains, the college is located in Batesville, Arkansas. Batesville is approximately 90 miles northeast of Little Rock (the state capitol) and about 110 miles northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. Nestled in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and along the White River, the Batesville community of around 10,000 offers outdoor enthusiasts abundant opportunities for activities such as hiking, canoeing, camping, caving, rock climbing, waterskiing, scenic photography, fishing, and hunting.

Conferring the bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees, Lyon College offers majors in accounting, art, biology, business administration, chemistry, early childhood, economics, English, history, mathematics, music, political science, psychology, religion and philosophy, Spanish, and theater. In the fall of 2010, the college enrolled 651 students from 28 states and eight countries. The middle 50 percent of entering freshmen scored between 23 and 28 on the ACT, and 53.5 percent ranked in the top quartile of their high school graduating class.

Lyon is ranked regularly among the nations best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, the Washington Monthly, and Forbes.com. Faculty members at the college are talented teachers and scholars. Over 90 percent of the full-time faculty holds a Ph.D. or other terminal degree appropriate to their field. The quality of the colleges faculty is reflected in that fact that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has selected 14 Lyon faculty members in 22 years as Arkansas Professors of the Year. The U.S. Professors of the Year program salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the countrythose who excel as teachers and influence the lives and careers of their students. It is recognized as one of the most prestigious awards honoring professors. Lyons record of 14 Professor of the Year Awards is unmatched by any other liberal arts college in the country.

In late 2010, the college began an extensive planning initiative focused upon student recruitment and retention, alumni relations, and fundraising. Two specific student recruitment and retention objectives were identified: recruit at least 200 new freshman students annually and retain 80 percent of students annually. A profile of the student market segments (potential and current students) revealed that the markets were comprised of millennials and their parents who were likely to be baby boomers or gen Xers. A dominant characteristic that applies across the board to this student age group and their parent population is the use of technology. That is, these groups are generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. A 2008 marketing research study prepared for the college reported the following about current/potential college students and technology:

Their use of text messaging was up, while their e-mail usage was down.

69 percent had cell phones that were used largely to receive and deliver content, watch videos, play games, and surf the internet.

93 percent of youth and 94 percent of parents were active online.

35 percent of all teen females blogged, while 20 percent of teen males blogged.

In sum, the marketing research firm suggested that todays college student is technologically savvy, with technology as familiar as a knife and fork to this college-age market segment.

Additionally, psychographic findings from the market research study suggested the following about todays college-age students:

They are increasingly cynical, fickle, and flighty.

They rely heavily on first impressions (e.g., very unlikely to go to a school their friends do not see as cool).

They are the most visually sophisticated of any generation.

They are scanners, not readers.

Given the psychographic profile of the college-age population, in conjunction with the expectations regarding technological expertise, Lyon College recognized that it had to tell the Lyon College story in the social media ecosystem in which their current and future students exist. In an ecosystem comprised of social networks, blogs, wikis, event tools, photo and video sites, and chat rooms, the college needed an integrated marketing communication program that blended both digital and traditional media in an optimal mix. A truly optimal mix of digital and traditional media would enable the college to continually build and refine the relationship overtimefrom prospect to matriculate to alumni to donor.

SOURCE: Lyon College, http:/www.lyon.edu.

Discussion Assignment

1. What do social media platforms you think are most critical for Lyon College to engage?

2. Pick one social media platform and explain how it might be used from prospect to matriculate to alumni to donor.