Case Study: Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business establishes a virtual brand and boosts social engagement with Salesforce for Nonprofits

Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business Establishes Virtual Brand Using Marketing Cloud

Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business, a top-10% business school, discovered in 2010 that it lacked a virtual brand or social media presence after a routine website refresh request expanded into a broader marketing challenge. The college responded by creating PRISM (Pamplin Reinventing Social Media), a student-run organization charged with building a consistent online voice and expanding Pamplin’s reach to students, faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders.

PRISM centered its campaign on Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Radian6) to listen, analyze trends, identify influencers, and apply sentiment analysis to monitor and respond to conversations. The effort produced measurable gains—a 57% increase in Twitter followers, a 9% rise in Facebook followers, and a 98% positive sentiment ranking—while giving students valuable real-world marketing experience.

Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business

Donna Wertalik

Associate Professor of Practice, Founder and Faculty Advisor for PRISM