Abu Dhabi University: from new pages to the #1 UAE university on Facebook
Abu Dhabi University asked us to build its social media pages from scratch and compete with the region's leading universities. Through competitions, campus updates and a genuine student voice, ADU became the #1 UAE university on Facebook, reached a 3M total audience and took a 60% share of UAE university engagement.
The challenge
Abu Dhabi University needed social media pages built from the ground up, with no existing community to lean on. At the same time, those pages had to compete for attention with the region's top universities, which already had established audiences and steady content. The task was not simply to open accounts and post, but to earn a place in students' feeds against well-known names and give prospective and current students a reason to follow, engage and come back.
The objective
The objective was to position ADU as the university of choice by building a vibrant online student community. Success meant more than follower numbers: the pages had to feel lively, relevant and social, so that students saw them as a natural place to connect, and so that the university's brand grew stronger with every interaction.
Our strategy
Our strategy combined three content pillars: competitions, campus updates and a genuine student voice. Competitions give followers a direct reason to take part, comment and share, which helps new pages grow beyond their starting audience. Campus updates keep the feed useful and timely, so students check in to find out what is happening. Together, these pillars turned ADU's channels into something people chose to visit rather than content they scrolled past.
The student voice was the thread that tied everything together. Rather than speaking only as an institution, the pages reflected how students actually talk and what they care about. That authenticity is what made ADU's pages the go-to hub for socialising online, with engagement building week on week and the university standing out among its peers on Facebook and Twitter.
What you can apply
- Give followers a reason to participate, not just watch: competitions accelerate early growth.
- Mix useful updates with personality so your feed becomes a destination, not a noticeboard.
- Let your real community speak; an authentic voice outperforms polished institutional messaging.
Questions, answered.
How do you build university social media pages from scratch?
We start by defining who the pages are for and what they should feel like, then plan a regular mix of content pillars such as participation-driven posts, timely campus news and student-led stories. Consistent publishing and active community management turn early followers into an engaged base that keeps growing.
Why do competitions work so well on social media?
Competitions give people a clear, low-effort reason to interact, whether by commenting, sharing or tagging friends. That interaction signals relevance to platform algorithms and introduces the page to new audiences. Used alongside genuinely useful content, they speed up growth without making the feed feel purely promotional.
How is social media engagement measured for education brands?
Beyond follower counts, we look at reach, engagement rate, comments, shares and how a page performs against comparable institutions. Benchmarking against peers shows whether content is truly winning attention. Weekly reach on each platform also helps track whether a community is active rather than simply large.
Want results like these?
Tell us your goal. We reply within one working day with a few questions and a suggested next step.