Howard University

Before Meltwater, Howard’s communications teams relied upon disparate social and media monitoring platforms to disseminate content and measure impact. This hindered their ability to holistically communicate impact and outcomes with key stakeholders. Having previously used three separate tools to accomplish their tasks, the Office of Communications implemented the Meltwater Suite to not only consolidate their workflows, but also quantify their results. 

“It’s helpful to have one platform that you can use for all of your measurements across the board,” says Lydia Sermons, Howard’s VP of Communications & Chief Communications Officer. “Whether it's media reach or social media impact, Meltwater really helps in terms of telling the story of the work and impact of my team.” With Meltwater’s media intelligence, media relations, social listening, and social media management solutions, Howard University has the technology it needs to stay ahead of the conversation.

The Meltwater Suite

The Meltwater Suite is an integral part of how Howard’s communications teams operate, enabling them to monitor social media, curate and distribute daily newsletters, measure media reach and impact, and push out press releases with precision. Whether gauging the school’s digital presence against its peers or measuring the ROI of team investments, Meltwater helps them stay organized and data-driven with a single source of social and media intelligence truth. 

Now, when the team posts new social media content or lands media coverage, it measures the results with the ability to show month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter, and year-over-year evolutions in growth. That data are must-haves for board and leadership presentations and other crucial junctures where the Office of Communications is called on to show its impact. “It's kind of like the tree that falls in the forest. If no one heard it, did it really fall?” says Sermons. “If you're not measuring your impacts through a reliable source, then you really can't tell that story well to other people so that it resonates with them.”

Thanks to Meltwater, the communications teams can share their news and showcase their wins with ease. This is true internally through its daily newsletter informing the campus community and reporting informing stakeholders, as well as externally through press releases, announcements, social content, and media coverage. No matter the activity, Howard relies on Meltwater to translate outputs into metrics.

Results and Benefits

One of the most successful moments early on in Howard University’s partnership with Meltwater was its celebration of the 100th anniversary of its 1924 inaugural homecoming game. The Office of Communications, which had recently added more staff, used it as an opportunity to show off its increased capacity and impact. The social media team increased its content output, using Meltwater to measure performance in concrete terms including reach, impressions, and engagement actions. One social post created by a new staff member hit their target KPIs out of the park with a video that was replayed 2.5 million times. Post-campaign reporting generated with Meltwater clearly showed the favorable ROI of the University’s increased investment in the team. “It was a success for me when one trustee said, ‘I see the results of you staffing up your team through the metrics that you're showing,’” says Sermons. 

On the traditional media side, Meltwater saves the University valuable time when it is asked to respond to current events and breaking news. “In those big moments where we really need to push out a big statement, we can go right into the platform and curate the media list that we want to be able to push out those messages to,” says Sermons. And when messaging and pitches land, Howard University uses Meltwater to quantify the impact of media segments, appearances, and coverage. 

This capability was crucial for measuring the performance of a Today Show segment featuring its famed alumnae Tarji P. Henson and Felicia Rashad, as well as an extended FOX News interview with Howard University President Ben Vinson III. For some teams, landing media coverage is where their work ends, but Howard’s communications teams use Meltwater to quantify the impact of coverage, analyzing how many people it reached, how it resonated, and how it contributed to the university’s brand.

“For us to not only be able to say, we created this content or we pitched this media story, but to also have the numbers behind it for us is success,” says Sermons. That data ensures that her team is always armed with metrics that can speak to its contributions to the University’s overall institutional goals. “When you can pull data and analytics that show how you elevate the brand so that those who are revenue drivers can leverage that information, that's very important, and that's what Meltwater allows us to do.”

By consolidating workflows and providing crucial data, Meltwater enables Howard University’s Office of Communications to showcase its value as a strategic arm of the institution. As it continues to elevate the brand and drive measurable impact for Howard’s brand, both on and off campus, the University has a reliable data partner in Meltwater.