Best of CASE District V Award
 

Institution: Miami University

Title of entry: How Social Media Transformed Miami’s National Engagement

About this entry: University Marketing and Communications social media team at Miami University has undergone a fundamental transformation. What began as a small, ambitious team has evolved into a nationally recognized digital operation.

Our team consists of four full-time digital and social media professionals and five student interns specializing in digital marketing and social media. Despite size, we operate with the mindset of an enterprise team.

In 2022, Miami University’s social media ranked among the top 85 most engaged universities. Today, we are ranked No. 3 nationally for most engaged universities and No. 2 on Instagram and TikTok by Quid, a trusted higher education benchmark. These results are meaningful because Instagram and TikTok are primary platforms where students discover content and form perceptions. This growth did not come from chasing trends. It came from rebuilding the foundation of how social operates across a decentralized campus and re-establishing shared ownership.
One of our earliest challenges was fragmentation. High-value channels existed across departments and campuses, but were operating independently. We saw an opportunity to unify efforts into a single ecosystem.

Our team invested time meeting with campus partners listening to goals and audience needs. Through change management, we built excitement around what’s possible when content, data, and strategy align. Just over a year, we brought key partners into one social media enterprise.
Collaboration created shared data governance and performance. Instead of siloed reporting, we now tell a unified story. This shift empowers teams to make smarter content decisions while reinforcing the value of social media.