C A S E   S T U D Y

Hamilton College

Hamilton College faced several complex issues resulting in campus-wide online activism by current students and alumni—challenging the college’s reputation and straining relationships with these audiences. The campus communications and marketing team wanted to understand the extent of these negative conversations so they could make data-informed adjustments to their strategy. 

Two higher ed professionals fixing an emergency on a pipe standing next to someone from Campus Sonar with a toolbox between them

Overview

Type: Four-year private college
Size: Approximately 2,000
Athletics: Division III
Location: Clinton, New York
Services: Crisis & Event Monitoring, Targeted Analysis
Project Timeline: 12 weeks

Hamilton College is a small, private, liberal arts college in New York state. Ranked ninth among national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report in 2021, Hamilton is a selective institution with an open curriculum and small class sizes. The college prides itself on preparing students for purposeful futures; Hamilton’s accomplished alumni find CEOs, authors, civil rights leaders, politicians, and entrepreneurs among their ranks. 

 

Challenge & Goals

A confluence of complex issues emerged at Hamilton College, spurring online activism by students, prospects, and alumni. To move forward in a positive and constructive way, the Hamilton team wanted to:  

  • Understand the extent of the conversation and evaluate reputational damage.
  • Monitor ongoing conversation around these issues.
  • Benchmark their audience response against that of several peers in the same timeframe.
  • Re-engage with audiences in ways that supported their mission.
  • Develop a new strategic content approach that was unique for each social platform.

Strategy & Approach

We developed a Targeted Analysis project that analyzed four months of online conversation during this critical period in conjunction with ongoing monitoring and reporting about their conversation. Combined, these provided the quantitative and qualitative data the team needed to understand how the complex conversation about them impacted the overall reputation of the college.

To help them develop an understanding of their conversation, we:

  • Set up automated alerts to monitor critical topics, giving the team in-the-moment awareness and insight into their conversation.
  • Performed an analysis for four months spanning the acute time period. This report allowed the team to take a step back and see the full shape of the conversation—including  volume, authors, sentiment, channels, and more.  
  • Analyzed the conversation and response of three competitor campuses experiencing similar challenges and evaluated Hamilton’s response and corresponding audience reaction against that of their peers.

That the college shares a name with a wildly popular musical, as well as several geographic locations, added complexity to the project. We developed a highly customized research approach to ensure the data we uncovered was accurate and relevant to the analysis. 

Results

Hamilton was able to focus their attention on how to respond to improve the situation by:

• Having us focus on listening to their conversation and provide them insights into what initiated this situation.

• Evaluating real-time insights as to how their campus communities were responding and the implications on their reputation.

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Having the data to support their decisions helped Hamilton take the guesswork out of a complex time.

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By comparing Hamilton to their peers in similarly challenging positions, we were able to surface new ideas for the team so they could use the competitive insight to identify opportunities for their own situation.

"What we learned significantly reframed our understanding of how Instagram can be used for social activism. We’re thinking harder about when and how to share 'news' on Instagram. On there and other social platforms, we ask if it can spur constructive dialogue instead of appearing like the institution is just talking to our audiences and not with them.”

Tim OKeeffe

Tim O’Keeffe Senior Director of Marketing & Analytics, Hamilton College

Conclusion

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Informed by our research and reporting, the Hamilton team better understood the scope, drivers, and context of this challenging situation. They used the findings to refine their social media strategy, addressing previously existing gaps and developing a new strategy around Instagram use.

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