A small case study

From the “This is really unscientific” department, I got some good analytics from our Web content editor about our online version of the alumni magazine:

The Summer 2010 has vastly outpaced previous issues in visits during the initial launch. Totals for the three most recent issues are:

• Summer ’09: 2700 visits in first four weeks
• Fall ’09: 1200 visits in first four weeks
• Summer ’10: 3000 visits in first two weeks

The increase seems to be due primarily to Facebook, which accounted for 1200 visits

These are still modest numbers, as you’d expect from a small college. But look at the dramatic improvement. Part of this is likely because we have more facebook fans than for the last issue (we’ve added nearly 1,000 since I started in February.), but that just emphasizes my larger point that engaging people in the community where they want to be engaged means gains for whatever you’re trying to promote.