Five Social Media Tips for Higher Education

Five Social Media Tips for Higher Education Marketers

The Faceless Voice You’re Listening To Jeff Berg Social Media Strategist jeff.berg@cunet.com

Agenda • What is Social Media (And Why Should You Care?) • Five Social Media Tips – One - Have a Good Plan – Two – Keep Things in Perspective – Three – Be a Boy Scout – Four – Shut Up and Listen – Five – Have Fun • CUnet Offerings • Q&A

Agenda Summary • How not to do this: • CUnet Offerings • Q&A 4

What Is Social Media?

The Common Definition Users are finding a human connection in online social networking communities. Communities may be general or focus on a specific interest or a particular demographic segment (e.g., boomers). “Social software,” leverages the idea of social networking toward a more specific end (e.g., social mapping).

Social Media Includes Thousands of Websites • Wikipedia • Online niche communities • Consumer opinions and reviews • Social biographies • Internet mash-ups • Social news • Blogs • Livecasting • Message boards • Audio sharing • Online gaming • Virtual worlds • Photo sharing websites • Information aggregators • Interactive fiction • Collaboration tools • Instant messaging • Event organization tools • Social bookmarking

Why is this Important? 9

The Answer

It Hits The Spot Pepsi chose investing in social media instead of Super Bowl advertisements

What is Social Media? • Social media has changed how human beings communicate, organize, and spend time online: – 75% of all adult internet users. – More than 20% of all time spent online. • Comparisons of most well-known social media: – If Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest in the world with 400MM residents. – If Twitter were a book it would be equivalent to 862 complete works of Shakespeare each day. – If YouTube were a movie it would take over 400 years to watch. • And social media has big implications for business – 91% say consumer reviews are their #1 aid in purchase decisions. – 87% trust their friends recommendations over critics. – Three times as likely to trust peer recommendations over advertising when considering a product

Social Media for Educational Institutions • Aid Student Enrollment – Provide a feel for school life through an online community. • 3 to 5 times more successful than standard marketing targeting • Peers are more influential in college choice than advertising. • Increase Retention Rates – Reinforce academic and social interaction on and off campus: • More connections with friends • Deeper engagement in student organizations • Higher satisfaction with their social life • Greater connection with institutions • Alumni/Student Relationship Management – The best advocates for any institution are students and alumni • Facebook fans are almost 70 percent as likely to recommend a product. Twitter followers are even higher. – Create active job boards and recruitment channels. – Leverage social networks to drive alumni fundraising.

Why Aren’t More Schools Doing It? • Overwhelmed by all the choices • Measuring success seems difficult • It requires dedicated staff • Confusion of ownership

Climb Onboard! • Now is an excellent time to get involved • Standing on the shoulders of giants, both inside and outside the education industry 15

Tip One: Have a Good Plan

Have a Good Plan Winning in social media is like winning in sports. • Establish rules • Devise game plan • Assign teammates • Play the game • Adapt when in motion • Do post-game review

Have a Good Plan • Situation – Indiana University East wanted to appeal to students not connected with legacy communication mediums • Solution – Intensive social media push including frequently updated LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook deployments – Total budget of $1,400 (for print advertisements in local papers only) • Results – Acknowledgement of campaign as part of overall enrollment growth – 30 percent increase in enrollment for the semester following the campaign – For the last four semesters, IUE has experienced the highest enrollment growth out of any IU Campus

Have a Good Plan • Get everyone on the same page. • Create a playbook – Branding guidelines – Communication policies – Style guides – Editorial calendars – Responses – The kitchen sink • And be ready to throw it out when needed. 19

Tip Two: Keep Things in Perspective

The Friends Game • In 2006, one of the most commonly asked questions from reporters to celebs on MySpace was “How many friends do you have?” • Today, “friends” has evolved to fans, followers, subscribers, users, visitors. • It’s no longer about how many friends you can amass. We’re living Dane Cook in a gift economy. 2.6MM friends Tila Tequila 3.8MM friends 21

Look at the Evolution 22

Keep Things In Perspective How do we measure human conversations in a gift economy? Think hard about what you’re trying to achieve before deciding your metrics.

Social Media Tracking and Metrics • Beyond basic measurements – Fans/Followers – Comments • Independent tracking – Text analytics – Sentiment analysis – Geographic and online locales – Influencers (hybrid reach and volume) • Specific ROI measurements – Assess baseline rates – Monitor rates after social campaign start – Compare rates before and after the campaign – Correlate engagement measurements to measureable results

Tip Three: Be a Boy Scout

Be a Boy Scout • Relationships are created through trust. • That goes for institutions, too. • Consumers are smart–and we hate liars.

Be A Boy Scout – All I Want For Christmas… • Campaign: All I Want For Christmas Is A PSP • Culprit: Zipatoni on behalf of Sony Computer Entertainment American • What It Was: – Alleged blog of teen who wanted to acquire a PSP for his friend – Utilized urban slang – Discovered after users noticed phrases like “viral marketing” and “advertising” were filtered from comments

“ Be a Boy Scout ” “If your word of mouth isn’t positive, forget about brand awareness and consideration. If word of mouth is bad, there is no consideration.” – Zena Weist, director of social media, H&R Block • Always be – Trustworthy – Loyal – Helpful – Courteous – Brave – Clean

And When In Doubt, Remember Bogie: “ ” You’ll regret it. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow. But soon, and for the rest of your life.

Tip Four: Shut Up and Listen

Shut Up and Listen “Marketers don't understand channels where you have to talk and listen at the same time. […]This is what drives customers nuts. - Josh Bernoff • Consumer technology is evolving towards mobility and away from annoyances. • The marketing narrative has to evolve beyond monologues. • We’re dealing with empowered consumers here.

Make Your Message Valuable

Remember That Twits Are People Too

Remember That Twits Are People Too • Domino’s could have ignored this. • But instead: – Video Apology (Now embedded about 90,000 times) – Pizza provided for 350 Chicago Social Media Club members

Remember That Twits Are People Too • In addition: – Dozens of online videos – Social sharing for pizza orders • Specials – Photo-op posters that • Guest pizza makers encourage customers to take a picture and post it online • Even going so far as to obtain MC Hammer’s autograph as a – Online images of Domino’s- thank-you gift for a blogger catered campus events • His tools: • Two web-enabled mobile • Spare batteries phones • Tweetdeck • Digital camera • Monitter • Flip video camera • Viddler

For Education

Shut Up and Listen “With every single delivery or order, we are part of someone’s life. No matter how redundant the process is, the end result is not the same.” - Ramon De Leon • Commoditizing can lead to dehumanizing. Don’t let it. • Listen to what your students are saying with an open mind. • You’ll be rewarded for championing your students.

Tip Five: Have Fun

Have Fun • One of the most common questions we get is, “That all looks fun, but what if we’re a serious company?”

Have Fun No matter who you are, this will always happen: (Names have been hidden to protect the innocent)

Have Fun How the school responded: (Names have been hidden to protect the innocent)

Have Fun–In Education Why not produce content that is Fun Helpful Informative Regulatin’ Genes UT Libraries’ USC iTunes Library Facebook App 42

Have Fun • Have a sense of humor. • Make whatever you say valuable – In gift economies, there is a contract between publishers and readers. – “Let us into your personal space and we’ll make our presence valuable.” • Appeal to students’ curiosity, their sense of humor, or their core needs. 43

Summary

Summary Have a Good Plan Keep Things In Perspective Be a Boy Scout Shut Up and Listen Have Fun

CUnet Offerings

CUnet Social Media Methodology • Monitoring ongoing discussions and surveying the existing social media landscape, including competitive analyses, influencer identification and sentiment monitoring. Listen • Creates a bedrock for targeted social media deployments. • Developing cohesive strategies and outlets for client interaction across multiple social media spaces with an eye to aiding acquisition, increasing retention and creating sustainable relationship management opportunities. Touch • Lays the foundation for relevant, transparent interactions. • Management of social presences across multiple platforms and stewarding meaningful, personal interactions with prospective students, students and Converse alumni.

CUnet Offerings Full-service social media support Identity Corporate Comprehensive development policy guidance social analysis and creation Campaign Sentiment management Staff training monitoring and tracking

Ongoing Engagements Tier III – Tier I – Tier II – Engagement Monitoring Creation and and and Deployment Listen Response Listen Reporting • Monthly Reporting • Biweekly Report Listen • Annual Social Media • Social Media Audit Audit • Quarterly State of • Monthly Reporting • Quarterly Webinar Social Media Webinar • Quarterly Webinar Touch Touch • Social Media Profile • College Community Creation Creation Touch • Monthly Social Media • Quarterly Social Media • Monthly Strategy Strategy Discussion Workshops Discussion • Biannual Social Media • Social Media Strategy Workshop and Consulting Converse Converse • Reputation Management • Reputation Monitoring and Monitoring • Social Bookmarking • Blog/Profile Management • Social Bookmarking

Questions & Answers

Q&A After this, who wouldn’t have questions?

Contact: Jeffrey Leopold Director, Corporate Marketing E-Mail: jeffrey.leopold@cunet.com Phone: 201.477.7681 CUnet’s Blog: http://blog.cunet.com

http://blog.cunet.com	80
http://socialmediahabits.com	38
http://static.slidesharecdn.com	1

Five Social Media Tips for Higher Education

by CUnet on Jun 24, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

3 Embeds 119

Statistics

Five Social Media Tips for Higher Education — Presentation Transcript