EKU Makes the Elite 8! ...#6 in social currency

The 'Social Currency' Final Four

This from the Huffington Post:

...As originally described in The Fortune 500 Social Currency Index, 'Social Currency' represents the value associated with a variety of subtle social touchpoints such as Follows, Favorites, Retweets and Lists that entities can 'hand out' to target individuals. In turn, this free form of currency can reap tremendous benefits from increasing perception, loyalty and ultimately impacting your bottom line.
Most recently, I led a study on behalf of Insightpool reviewing the Universities selected to participate in the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and their usage of Social Currency.

After collecting all of the associated publicly available data, we whittled the original field of 68 participants down to the Social Currency Final Four:

• The University of Cincinnati
• San Diego State University
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• The University of Wisconsin

Fittingly, Wisconsin made it to the official Final Four as well -- as the popular basketball idiom goes, they must be firing on all cylinders.

In general, The Final Four Social Currency Index was intended to deliver a deeper analysis on how Universities are leveraging Twitter and the wide array of touchpoints the platform facilitates.

Follows, Favorites, Retweets, and Lists provide great opportunities for entities to engage with their top targets. In the University community, these targets could include prospective students, athletic recruits, existing students, alumni and more.

As Wendy Clark, SVP at Coca Cola, puts it, "Be share-worthy in everything you do." 'Social Currency' is an easy and inexpensive way to make somebody's day -- just look at some of the reactions that we included in this infographic:

...[It remains to be seen] if Wisconsin can translate their social media supremacy to the hardwood. Moving forward, it is my hope that every university (and any entity for that matter) fully embraces the notion of 'Social Currency,' and builds it into their social media strategy. It can only help.