EURAXESS Conference in Dubrovnik, April 2013: Workshop Marketing Strategies and Social Media

1. Case study:
EURAXESS—Research in Estonia
Anna Mossolova

2. What do we have now?

3. Insight statistics: the fans’ profile

4. How has it started?
2009, … — a FB group created
2009, autumn — a page has been launched
2010, autumn — first 100 fans!
2011, summer — 200 fans
2012, winter — FB strategy compiled
2012, … — campaigns: photo-contests
2013, spring — 382 fans

5. What was helpful?
1. Survey amongst active foreign researchers: a poll on FB
“What news would you like to see on EURAXESS FB page?”
and questionnaire “What social media do you use?
2. Feedback from the Advisory Board (researchers)
3. Facebook campaigns! Some of them:
— Photo contest “Researchers’ Winter in Estonia”
— Photo contest “Easter Egg Competition”
— Photo contest “My Research in Estonia”
Plus various online and offline promotion “Join us on Facebook!”

6. The winners of “Winter in Estonia” campaign

7. The winners of “Winter in Estonia” campaign

8. Cover photo of our profile:

9. What do we usually post?
◦ News on grants and scholarships
◦ Local (and international) academic events
◦ Articles about research conducted by local scientists
◦ Useful courses and programmes (i.e. online language
course, summer university, etc)
◦ Interesting facts and news about Estonian realities (incl.
holidays, traditions, upcoming cultural events, etc)
◦ Important updates on legislation (deadline for submission
of the last year’s tax returns, etc)
◦ Updates from EURAXESS network (incl.
questionnaires, invitations to the social events, etc)

10. What rules do we stick to?
1. Post in a short, catchy and engaging way, if
possible! 
2. Post permanently!
3. Accompany all micro-blogs with pictures/visuals!
4. Answer all private messages and comments, even if
they are negative!

11. How to deal with critical comments?
1. Never immediately respond to the negative comments
— calmed down first and then return to it. 
2. Never delete comments on Facebook! Deleting
negative comments will make people even more angry.
3. Admit your mistakes (if any), and thank ones who bring
them to your attention.
4. Don’t ignore negativity, but rather try to turn critical fan
into a supportive one.

12. Don’t worry, there are more positive feedback than
negative in total! 

13. Looking forward to hearing
about FB pages soon! 