PIZZA POWER: University of Iowa engaged alumni by posting a simple question to its alumni Facebook page: "Where was your favorite place to get pizza as a student?"

Credit: University of Iowa

In early 2021, Nicole Knoll and Katie Linder, digital marketing strategists at the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, saw that National Pizza Day was coming up. On that day (Feb. 9), they posted a simple question to the alumni Facebook page: “Where was your favorite place to get pizza as a student?”

The unpaid post generated nearly 400 comments, with alumni connecting over forgotten pizza spots, engaging in friendly banter over the best slice, and sharing nostalgic memories of their college days in Iowa City.

“It shocked us—the response,” says Knoll, Senior Digital Marketing Strategist at the U.S. institution. “I just remember being surprised by the sheer volume—people were as passionate about pizza places as they were about sports teams.”

The pair then came up with the idea to repurpose the comments into a user-generated content story published online in Iowa Magazine to allow other alumni to see the stories emerging.

Engagement ticked up again when Iowa shared the article via email and social media. It became the seventh most visited article in 2021, received more than 2,500 clicks in Iowa’s e-newsletter and more than 5,000 engagements on Facebook, and 30 alumni emailed sharing personal pizza stories.

“The pizza element worked because the memories were there with it—alumni may not remember that it was the most delicious pizza, but they remember the people they went with and the conversations they had,” says Knoll. “It’s one of those attainable foods that everybody can have an opinion on—and even if they don’t eat pizza, they have a favorite place.”

The pizza experiment inspired the digital engagement team to use more Facebook prompts as continual content generators, posting one to two a month and creating a story from the responses to share on the website, in the e-newsletter, and on social channels. These articles are consistently within the top ten pages viewed on the Iowa Magazine site, and social posts about them generate more than twice as much engagement as other content. Some of those stories include the best places to visit in Iowa City, fan favorite Iowa basketball players, and the best burger places in Iowa City.

“This process is really helping to inspire giving and engagement, and that started because we were listening and understood that we had something with the pizza story,” says Knoll.

The engagement bonanza generated from the pizza piece led to a 2022 bronze Circle of Excellence Award for Targeted Constituency Engagement.