social media: what's working now

Social Media: What’s Working NowPresented by: Kelly Kolton, Allie Rios & Alex Vasiliades

OVERVIEW 2013 2012  Visits 37,013 30,137 +22.816

%Unique Visitors (number of unduplicated visitors to the website) 

25,688 21,434 +19.847%

Page Views 

96,665 78,326 +23.414%

Pages per visit 

2.61 2.6 +0.385%

Average Visit Duration 

2:06 2:27 -21 seconds

New Visits 

66.26% 67.57%  

Quick Overview

 HOW ARE THEY VISITING? 2013 2012  Desktop 

26,888 25,377 +5.954%

Mobile 

6,973 3,075 +55.901%

Tablet 

3,152 1,685 +87.062

 REFERRERS TO WWW.ALUMNI.LEWISU.EDU 2013 2012  Lewisu.edu 15,656 14,569 +7.461%Facebook 2,247 462 +386.364%Mobile Facebook 1,804 152 +1086.84%Lewis Flyers (Athletics) 695 312 +122.756%LinkedIn 234 (not in top 10) n/a

If you build it, they will come.We know social media is bringing them to the site. How do we continue to build this trend?

Look at:

• What types of posts fans respond to.

• What types of interactions posts bring.

*Sometimes, social media is just there to build good will – we know some posts won’t generate ROI, like photos from commencement – but, they will build a happy association to your brand.

Most of our traffic comes from referrals – lewisu.edu, social media, or our Athletics site.

Analytics tell us that visitors from social media:• Spend more time on the website than users coming

strictly from the website.• Visit more pages than users strictly from the website.• Have lower bounce rates (Bounce Rate is the

percentage of single-page sessions, or sessions in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page)

How do we capitalize on this type of interaction?

Analytics also tell us when our fans are online. We utilized this information to spread out posts and begin posting in the evenings to increase views.

Make the Most of The ToolsUse the tools they provide to make the most of your posts.

• Schedule posts in advance.

• Use the analytics or insights to see what fans are responding to.

Use other resources to bring new fans to the site. • Sending out an e-mail? Include a link back to your social

media page.• Hosting an event? Hand out business card sized cards

that let people know their photos will be online.

• Use analytics

• Change it up. Post photos, link, links without previews, reshares, etc.

• Don’t be afraid to try something new.

Determine what kind of content works

Campus photos

Puzzles!

Historical photos

Twitter: Interact with followers

YouTube

• For URLs going anywhere other than our own website, we use goo.gl

• Allows us to see how many clicks

• Downside: Facebook’s Algorithm shows the post fewer times

URL Shortening

What works today, doesn’t always work tomorrow.

Monitor your posts and determine which posts do well. Use that knowledge to create better posts.

When you know what fans like, you can readjust your information into a format that will appeal to the viewers.

We look at which posts generate interest, and use those to develop future posts.

Here we see fans have a definite draw to special occasions like Commencement, and those posts garnered many views and likes-comments-shares. How do we capitalize on that during the next commencement? • Link them to the

alumni benefits page

It’s not always about the “reach”. It’s about the interaction and engagement.

Some posts will garner a wider reach, but others draw more clicks, likes, comments and shares – and those are an opportunity to not only generate interest but push fans to the website for more information.

Fans weren’t responding to posts about giving. How do we continue sharing the knowledge of giving options without making that the actual topic?

What about what YOU want them to see?

Find the content they DO want to see. For example:

We see a good response to posts about nursing, especially regarding construction. So, we link to a webpage that shares the information the fans are interested in and, as a peripheral piece, we include an “Invest in Nursing” call to action. This is easily visible and serves as a subtle way of sharing the giving information without that being the main message.

• LinkedIn – manage a University Page and a private Group for Alumni & Friends

• Pinterest – manage a few boards, and make occasional pins

• Pinterest has a high rate of driving web traffic, so be sure to pin from your own website in addition to everything else.

• Twitter – our account syncs with our Facebook. We interact with followers who @ mention us.

• YouTube – started getting serious about videos and have had some great stats

Where else do we have a social media presence?

Leveraging Social Media:Reaching a Younger Generation

• Social Media ≠ Giving

• The Future of Facebook

• Where are they Headed?

• Twitter: 140 Powerful Characters

• Snapchats, Instagrams & Vines

• #Hashtag

• Who Does it Best?

• What Have You Been Doing?

Social Media ≠ Gifts

Why do we use social media?• To feel connected• To share & document our lives• To find information• To stay up on current events • To express opinions• To relax • To be entertained

The Future of Facebook

Facebook is still the leading social media network, with 1.28 billion active users worldwide

The number of Facebook users in the U.S. stands at 180 million (up 23% since 2010)

The average user age is increasing:• Since 2010 the number of 13-17 year old

users has dropped 25%

• The number of 18-24 year old users has dropped 7.5%

What does this mean for the future of our Facebook pages?

Where are they Headed?

Simple & Visual

Twitter: 140 Powerful Characters

• 500 millions Tweets are sent per day

• 78% of Twitter’s active users are on mobile devices

• 44% of users have never sent a tweet

• 46% of Twitter users tweet at least once a day

Snapchats & Instagrams & Vines, Oh My!

• 20 Billion+ photos have been shared on Instagram

• 23% of teens consider Instagram as their favorite social network

• 400 millions snaps occur each day

• 12% of Snapchat snaps are shared with multiple recipients

• Weekends are the most popular time for Vine sharing

• 5 vines are tweeted every second

#Hashtag: Press # For More Options

• The first hashtag was used on Twitter in 2007

• Hashtags became popular in 2009 and have continued to grow on multiple social media platforms

• “The hashtag is the “smiley” that Twitter doesn’t have”

• Hashtags show us what’s “trending”

• Don’t forget to use our Advancement Conference hashtag: #LAC2014

Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake on the Tonight Show

YouTube

• YouTube is the 2nd leading social network in terms of Monthly Active Users (MAUs)

• 1 billion+ total users

• 6 billions hours of video is watched on YouTube per month

• 40% of YouTube traffic is mobile

Who Does It Best?

Top 100 Social Media Colleges

What Have You Been Doing?

References• http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/teens-leaving-facebook/story?

id=20739310

• http://www.business2community.com/infographics/social-media-2014-statistics-interactive-infographic-youve-waiting-0904588#!WtoQv

• https://about.twitter.com/company

• http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/

• http://socialmediatoday.com/mordecai-holtz/2065966/6-ways-non-profits-can-use-snapchat

• http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/20/tech/social-media/universities-social-media/

• http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-largest-social-networks-2013-12

• http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/hashtag-where-did-this-phenomenon-begin-and-why-love-but-only-twitter.html

• http://investorplace.com/2014/02/facebook-users-demographics/#.U5UeP5RdWGQ