(Photo courtesy of fromthebarn.org)
By Kelsey Thomas, Staff Writer thomask15@up.edu
What does 12,000 followers, 5,085 comments, 53,330 likes and 5,543,857 post views get you? Third place for audience engagement, if you are the University of Portland Facebook page.
In the study by Varsity Outreach, UP was ranked against 127 other University Facebook pages with between 10,000 and 19,999 followers. Varsity Outreach used a formula that gives engagement scores to posts based on comments received.
UP also ranked 16 out of all 627 university pages regardless of size.
Marketing Director Joe Kuffner said the informality and fun nature of the page help increase interaction.
"People are on social media for the most part to take a break," Kuffner said. "I definitely try to keep it light and fun and not take things too seriously. I mean it's Facebook."
One of the more popular posts on the Facebook page is "Freshman Welcome," where alumni, parents and friends from around the world post signs welcoming new freshman to UP. "Proud to Be a Pilot," a photo album of students showing off their pilot pride, received more than 200,000 views and more than 3,000 likes this year, Kuffner said.
Junior Katie Ralston said seeing posts by UP reminds her how great her school is.
"It definitely promotes a lot of Pilot pride," Ralston said.
