Social Media for Educational Institutions

Presentation by: Elise Jones@elise_m_jones

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Websites and applications that

enable users to create and share content or

to participate in social networking.

eBizMBA Rank

900M

310M

255M

250M

120M

110M

42M

42M

80M

100M

Top 10 social networking sites with estimated unique monthly viewers

As of September 2014:• 71% of online adults

use Facebook• 60% of online adults

use YouTube• 28% use Pinterest• 28% use LinkedIn• 26% use Instagram• 23% use Twitter• 22% use Google+

CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE

YouTube is the #2 search

engine in the world.

74% of online adults use

social networking

sites

80% of your online visitors will

watch a video, while only 20%

will actually read content in its

entirety.

52% use multiple

social media sites a day

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA MATTERS?

• Expand brand awareness• Engender loyalty• Build community/audience• Amplify vision and strategy• Engage with stakeholders future,

past and present• Learn from/monitor others

Virtual Communities

On a mission

Looking for

expertiseWant to engage

PRIMARY SOCIAL MEDIA FUNCTIONS

WHAT THE EDUCATION SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE LOOKS LIKE AT THIS MOMENT…

“Social media should no longer be viewed as an addition to the long list of responsibilities but a way to accomplish goals and drive active participation from faculty, students, administrators, alumni, and recruiters. Social media is more than a medium for pushing news about campus events; but a method to create communities around your institution. Storytelling and sharing visual content through social media can be used to enhance an institution’s website, engage constituents, drive website traffic, strengthen donor relations, strengthen constituent loyalty, and recruit faculty and students.”

Social Media Marketing Forum for Educational Institutions, November 19, 2014

WHAT NEXT?• Create social

media plan/ content strategy

• Understand audience & experience.

• Brand yourself.• Begin NOW!

YOUR TURN… ANSWER THESE 6 QUESTIONS:

• Can you answer the question “only we…”?

• Can you nurture and sustain a social media presence?

• Can you be a conversational brand?• Where are our customers and

competition?• What is our source of rich content?• What does success look like?

SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN/STRATEGY

• First dedicate staff and time to your communications and marketing initiatives.

• Next, figure out your content strategy, audience, branding, experiences & voice.

• Evaluate platforms and types of media.

• Give it a shot and evaluate.• Manage content.Source: Content Strategy for Professionals 2015

WHAT IS MAGNETIC CONTENT?

Source: Fleishman-Hillard

CONTENT STRATEGYContent Strategy uses credible, trustworthy, transparent media to communicate stories and information to enhance an organization’s strategic goals.– Unless organizations can reach people with content

that matters to them —where, when and how they want it —those individuals won’t give their time and attention to engage with the content that is critical to an organization’s success.

– Organizations must provide engaging, credible, trustworthy and transparent content that enhances their target audiences’ ability to make important decisions in their work and personal lives.

Source: Content Strategy for Professionals 2015

AUDIENCES

• People will take more of what they need to know from organizations that give them what they want to know.

• Your audience can only attend to a certain number of topics deeply at a time and they will only pay attention to your topics when motivated to do so.

• You must deeply understand how your audience spends their time.– What are they doing at different times during the day

and how can you best meet their needs?

• Personas are archetypes of individuals at the center of your organization’s target market.

Source: Content Strategy for Professionals 2015

BRANDING

• Marketing is about understanding people and designing products and services to meet their needs and wants, and then communicating this to them.

• A brand is not just the name, a logo or look of a product or service. It is based on your understanding of the target audience. It is your idea or concept of what would be the best idea of the product or service to them.

• You need to be able to articulate the concept of your brand very clearly.

• Over time in every organization, you will produce many different pieces of content, most likely across different media platforms. The key is that all of them should be tied to the experiences that your content strategy calls for.

Source: Content Strategy for Professionals 2015

BRANDING

How to Write a Brand Positioning Statement:

To (target) _____________________________who (characteristic) ______________________, this brand (what is like) ____________________that (different from) ______________________.

Source: Content Strategy for Professionals 2015

EXPERIENCES & VOICE

• Experiences are how people feel, think and act when they consume your content or use your service.

• The collective set of experiences that a person has with content creates their overall engagement with the brand.

• Experiences matter for three reasons:– First, all content creates user experiences.– Second, experiences are linked to usage.– Third, you, the creator of the content, can shape

those experiences.

Source: Content Strategy for Professionals 2015

EXPERIENCES & VOICE

• To hold the attention & interest of an audience, the writer needs to speak in a voice the audience will recognize as someone like them.

• Tone is the mood of the writer’s voice. It gives a writing voice nuance, depth and color.

• Your audience uses many information devices during the day. You need to understand their media-consuming habits to truly engage your audience with your important stories and content.

Source: Content Strategy for Professionals 2015

SOCIAL/MOBILE MEDIA

Infographics from Go-Gulf

SOCIAL MEDIA TO DO’S

• Reserve your username across all social platforms. (knowem.com)

• Create custom URL’s on each platform.• Put social media buttons on your website and

newsletters.• Add Find me at… on all school employees’ email

signatures.• Update social profiles with headers, profile photos

and fill out about & contact sections completely.• Create a social media editorial calendar.• Connect with digital influencers.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

• Platform insights:– Facebook– Twitter– LinkedIn– Instagram

• It’s important to tell a story that fits the device both narratively and from a design perspective.

Do not double post!

OPTIMAL TIMES FOR SOCIAL POSTING

Infographic from My Clever Agency

MANAGING CONTENT

• How will your content be managed?• Create a governance plan for who is

responsible for the material approvals.• Create a style guide.• Have a plan for when things go wrong.• Ensure your content is key word

searchable.• Make sure your content properly

attributed!

RESOURCES

• Google alerts• Mashable• Social Media Examiner• Coursera• Social Mention• Alltop• Wefollow• Hootsuite• EdTech• Canva

YOUR TURN! START A PLAN

• Create your content strategy plan.–What are your top business goals (3 – 5)– Analyze current social platforms– Study audiences; create personas– Decide on topics/platform/tone & voice– Assign responsibility & timeline– Determine what is success– Redo every 3 months