ADI: Women At Head Of The Class For Online Back-To-School Conversation

As school bells start ringing, new analysis by Adobe Digital Insights also shows shifts in purchasing and a generally positive outlook about the new academic year.

As school bells start ringing, new analysis by Adobe Digital Insights (ADI) shows that women are driving online education-related conversations.

ADI’s first “U.S. Education Benchmark Report” examined 2.5 billion visits from 110-plus U.S. education companies and institutions from January 2013 through June 2016. Segments reported on include K-12, primary and secondary fee-based college preparatory schools, and post-secondary schools, such as career, community, baccalaureate, and post-graduate institutions.

“We’re seeing that women are more engaged than men when it comes to back-to-school, or they’re talking about back-to-school in terms of purchasing for their kids,” said Becky Tasker, managing analyst at ADI.

In fact, 64% of back-to-school social commentary originated from women, according to ADI.

“Since women are often the ones purchasing back-to-school items for their children, it makes sense that our analysis saw their spending shif in August from clothes for themselves to items for their kids,” Tasker said. “Compared with July, spending on children’s clothing in August is expected to be up 29%, while women’s will decrease by about 8%.”

States in the West and South were the most talkative about back-to-school, according to ADI, with Washington, D.C., far outpacing the remainder. People appeared generally positive about having to go back to school, with an average 2.3 net sentiment (on a scale from -5 to 5).

Interestingly, master’s degrees were the hot topic of conversations in social media, according to ADI. The number of people receiving a master’s has increased 34% from 2004 to 2014, with most awarded in business. In addition, 58% of students enrolled in graduate programs are women, according to data from NCES. ADI found that “masters” and “school” were the most frequently used terms in social media.

ADI also found that while the back-to-school season (August through September) had the most visits to education-related websites and the highest education-related social buzz, marketers would be wise to target students during the traditionally off-peak months.

“Online and part-time options have turned post-secondary education into a year-round activity that gives marketers added opportunities to reach students,” Tasker said. “It’s no longer justan August back-to-school event. Marketers shouldn’t neglect that.”

When looking at the schools that are getting the most social buzz, ADI found that, of the top 10 business schools, Stanford University averaged the highest monthly social mentions (10,000-plus). The University of California and Harvard University rounded out the top three.

Conversely, Yale, the University of Chicago, and Dartmouth, all received less than 500 monthly social mentions, according to more than 12 million Twitter mentions analyzed from May 2015 through July 2016.

View the full report below, or click here to see it on SlideShare.