Best Social Media Idea of the Month: #Simmtober

I had the pleasure to feature A LOT of tremendous ideas this month (seriously, take a quick scroll through them - so much awesome stuff!) and as a result this blog had a banner month, setting all sorts of new records for unique viewers (more than 4,000 - absolutely crazy!) and page views. So many colleges are producing so much quality content and coming up with so many fantastic ideas... truly, it's an embarrassment of riches for your lackadaisical blog author.

But despite all the terrific things I highlighted, Simmons College's #Simmtober promotion was the first thing I wrote about last month and even then I knew I would be writing this post. The whole thing was just so well-planned and so well-executed... it really makes you see how powerful and successful a social media initiative can be with a good plan and the right people working on it.

I won't go into too much detail with why I think it's such a great idea here - read my original post for that - and really there's not much more I can add to these Storify and victory cigar video recaps of #Simmtober. It generated a huge amount of photos, tweets, Instagrams, and Facebook interaction, while also doing some tremendous participation-based fundraising.

Just searching Twitter on that hashtag is a jaw-dropping experience of tweet after tweet of alumni writing about how they are proud to have given to their alma mater and encouraging their friends to do the same. We all know that the recommendation of a trusted peer is the most powerful thing that exists in marketing, and #Simmtober provides a master class on tapping into that to promote giving efforts. 

Enough to bring a tear to the eye of any annual giving officer.

 The final totals of the fundraising campaign are still being tallied (they set a goal of reaching 1899 donors, which they were close to hitting a few days before the end of the month), but no matter what it was tremendously successful, and a very worthwhile promotion for all of us working in higher ed social media to study and learn from.

I can't even imagine how much work went into planning this initiative, from setting up the website to planning events to coming up with ideas for fresh social media content (a month is a loooooong time to keep up a campaign). Everyone working on #Simmtober deserves a gigantic amount of praise, a raise, and a week off. (Now you see why I have a staff of zero and not a cent of budget under my control!)

Hooray Simmons!!!