Social media is no longer the new kid on the block. But if you're still wondering what success looks like when using Facebook, Twitter or YouTube in a campaign, a new book edited by Michael Stoner will help answer your questions.

Social Works: How #Highered Uses #SocialMedia to Raise Money, Build Awareness, Recruit Students, and Get Results takes an in-depth look at how 25 colleges, universities and alumni associations effectively used social media to conduct a variety of campaigns. Stoner defines these as "larger, focused initiatives" that range from promoting events to raising awareness of research to highlighting a new homepage on an institutional website.

"These case studies can offer important lessons for other institutions that need to launch a campaign of some kind," writes Stoner in the opening pages of the book. "And though they are all different, [the case studies] show there are some basic approaches that form a strong foundation for every campaign."

Stoner's book expands on the work presented in Social Media and Advancement: Insights from Three Years of Data, a white paper that looked at findings of the third survey of social media in advancement, conducted by Slover Linett Strategies and mStoner in partnership with CASE in early 2012. Results of the survey were examined with particular attention to those institutions that "consider their social media activities to be ‘very successful'"—and looked at what those institutions do with social media to deliver that success.

After discussing what "successful use of social media" means, based on the survey results, Stoner turns his attention to how the use of social media actually played out in 25 cases, including efforts by:

• American University,
• Loyola University Chicago,
• University of Wisconsin—Madison,
• Missouri University of Science and Technology,
• Tufts University and
• University of Nottingham.

Social media has grown past its awkward years, and the channels are now mature enough to be used in many types of campaigns to build brand awareness, recruit students, engage alumni and more. Be inspired by some of the best examples of the use of social media by colleges and universities, and draw upon them to show your leadership that social media is an essential component in achieving your institution's goals.

This article is from the March 2013 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.