The Client

Lincoln Group of Schools has been helping students transform their lives through professional technical training for more than 60 years. Originally inspired by the desire to help returning World War II veterans quickly qualify for skilled careers, Lincoln has gone on to expand its mission and now embraces students from all walks of life.

The Challenge

With over 43 campuses in 17 states—under several brands—Lincoln Group of Schools was looking for a way to scale its large demographic. And with its target audience already actively involved in social networks, Lincoln knew they needed to use social networking sites to unite the brand, increasing exposure and actively engaging with their audience.

As a national educational institution with a vast target audience and many brands, Lincoln faced a unique set of obstacles. And that's why they came to Oneupweb.

The Tactics

Oneupweb immediately sprang into action, creating a professional Facebook Business Page and a custom MySpace profile. And we didn't stop there. As a result of working with Oneupweb to establish a Facebook presence, Lincoln now has a central place to communicate with 3,000 students on a daily basis–friends Oneupweb helped Lincoln identify and connect with. By designing custom tabs, Oneupweb was able to use Facebook to effectively highlight Lincoln's career training programs and showcase the Linc to Success blog. Through important consultation and monthly recommendations, MySpace is now a hub for Lincoln—a place where students actively go to discover Lincoln's educational philosophy and learn about specific schools and events taking place on campus.

The Results

• Lincoln Group of School's Facebook Page amassed nearly 3,000 fans in one year, providing the educational institute with a robust infrastructure for sharing school-related information across the Facebook network.
• In one year they had a 26% increase in MySpace friend interactions, garnering more exposure for Lincoln within the social network and helping them communicate with the 25+ Lincoln student groups on MySpace.
• As a result of its social media marketing efforts, Lincoln is now able to easily engage in two-way conversations with a large group of existing and potential students. These conversations are automatically echoed across each fan's individual network of friends, which enables Lincoln Group of Schools to reach an even larger group of people through its own social network presence.
• The Facebook Page paid off. In one year, 6.5% of visitors from the Facebook Page went on to Lincoln's website to request more information about their educational programs.

The Takeaway

Social networks allow your business to be where your customers are. Lincoln Group of Schools has been successful because they have a strong presence amongst their target audience. Lincoln has helped make their students a part of its marketing force by connecting with them and sharing information together on a regular basis. More and more educational institutions are finding social media to be a means of solving communication and scaling difficulties.

Today, your target audience is using social networks to talk about the products and services your brand offers. By actively engaging on these social networks you have the unique opportunity to be welcomed into the conversation. And when you can actively communicate with your target audience, good things happen. For Lincoln, the students they connected with on MySpace and Facebook became part of their marketing force, sharing information about the brand on a regular basis. It became a way to unite the group of schools, connecting with students and increasing exposure for the Lincoln Group of Schools brand. And it can do the same for your company, too.