Social Media: Extreme Makeover Edition for Small Colleges
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•264 views
Remake your university’s social media program with strategy and centralized efforts for increased outreach and results. Using a case study of small, private, four-year university that transformed a decentralized social media program into a vibrant centralized program with greater results and increased engagement. Learn how to utilize a small marketing staff for increased results; how to train non-communicators who have little knowledge and little time to do social media with impact; and to create a useful and usable university-wide social media policy.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
Similar to Social Media: Extreme Makeover Edition for Small Colleges
Similar to Social Media: Extreme Makeover Edition for Small Colleges (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (14)
Social Media: Extreme Makeover Edition for Small Colleges
- 1. Amanda Lucas Spalding University Director, Social Media & Digital Recruiting
- 2. Beginning of Presentation Practice
- 3. 10 Minutes into the Presentation
- 4. Overview Background information Social Media Policy Social Media Toolkit Getting Everyone Involved Social Media Ambassadors Snapchat and Instagram Takeovers Social Media Street Team Spreading the Word
- 5. Background Information • Spalding University • Admissions Counselor 2008-2015 • Voluntarily managed SM 2012-2015 • Hired as Director, SM in 2015 • Implementation has taken 3 years
- 6. First Things First • Conducted a social media audit • Discovered over 150 Spalding accounts • Created 2 lists: Active and inactive • Campus-wide email to locate managers • Reached out via personal email/social
- 7. Social Media Policy • Originally created by HR in 2014, updated by Marketing in 2018 • Social media strategy and best practices • Instructions for launching an official account • Consequences for not following the policy • Legal issues such as copyright and confidentiality Link to Social Media Policy
- 9. Policy and Expectations • Met with all known page managers individually • Went over the policy and expectations • “Folded” in all accounts that couldn’t meet policy/expectations • Provided those accounts the graphic below
- 10. Facebook Passwords • Created a dummy Facebook account, Catherine Spalding • Acts as an administrator on all pages, others are editors • Why this is important • Administrators can shut down pages/remove other admins • Dummy account allows access to all pages with one login • Facebook Business Manager
- 11. Twitter and IG Passwords • Collected all known passwords for Twitter and Instagram • Worked with IT to reset Twitter and IG passwords • Once passwords were reset, closed inactive accounts
- 12. Social Media Roundtable • Page managers asked for: • SM section on SU portal • Closed SM FB group • Trainings (large group/individual)
- 14. Social Media Event Promotion
- 15. Social Media Response Procedure
- 16. Social Media Response Procedure
- 18. Best Practices
- 21. Social Media Survey • Sent survey to everyone on campus and posted on social sites • Asked about preferred platforms, content, time of day, etc. 67 83 59 69 67 76 71 88 74 78 69 86 75 55 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
- 22. Intern • Created a social media internship position • Conducted additional research beyond SM survey • Interviewed current students, faculty and staff about SM • Surveyed graduate students about SU marketing efforts • Analyzed data (SM surveys, SM ads, TV spots) • Compensation: $100 gift card
- 23. Pinterest • Created SU Pinterest account • Provided campus-wide Pinterest training • Only platform that allows you to plan for future
- 24. Snapchat • Snapchat account: promote events/activities • Added all current students by cell phone # • Provided trusted users login information • Individuals can check out our Spectacles • Conduct interviews with faculty/staff
- 26. Snapchat Event Geofilters • Avg. cost: $5-$15 (Determined by geofenced area) • Avg. views: 3,000 (Varies based on event size) • Students friends who view filter: target audience
- 27. Social Media Ambassador Program
- 28. SMA: 2016 and 2017 • Worked with SDCL to identify 5 students • SMA’s covered specific beats • Biggest issue: 1 person logged in at a time • Compensation: Gear and $50 gift cards
- 29. SMA: 2018 • Opened up positions to all students • Conducted formal interviews • Each SMA is assigned a day of the week • Must post a minimum of 3 times per day • Storyboard snaps for signature events • Compensation: Gear and $100 gift card
- 33. Instagram and Snapchat Takeovers • Individuals, clubs, organizations, teams • Offer access for a few days or a week • Analytics significantly increase
- 34. Social Media Street Team • Made up of students, alums, faculty and staff • Appointed 10 members to get buy-in • FB algorithm is limiting organic content from businesses • Elevate awareness of SU through personal SM accounts • In crisis situations, street team may act as a voice representing SU
- 37. Final Thoughts • Research shows SM directly impacts recruitment and retention • It’s not a matter of if you do it, but if you do it well • Get others involved as much as possible, especially students • Be patient. Developing a SM strategy takes time • Celebrate the wins
- 38. Thank You For Listening! Questions? socialmedia@spalding.edu #eduweb18 Twitter: @ajlucas25
Editor's Notes
- -Thank you to eduWeb for having me. Welcome to SM: Extreme Makeover Edition for Small Colleges. -QUESTION: Who is from a small school? Big school? Hopefully everyone (big schools/small schools) can benefit from something in this presentation. Content is geared towards smaller schools: fewer resources, wear multiple hats, & have multiple job titles.
- -Before coming to San Diego, I wanted to practice in front of a live audience. -Meet, Jax, also known as Mr. J. -Cat videos
- -Here is Jax, 10 minutes into the presentation. -Hopefully that doesn't happen today, but if so, there's plenty of room on the floor, so make yourself comfortable!
- -Research shows the overview slide is the most important slide...only goes down from here. -Tons of ways to do things. My favorite thing about eduWeb is learning from one another. Please feel free to share. -A lot to go over. Get though as much as I can. Can continue conversation after presentation at the conference or through email or on social.
- -Small, private, liberal arts college in downtown Louisville. 2,200 students. -Biggest challenge-faculty going rogue, lack of understanding of marketing/branding/consistency. -Students asked about SM at a college fair. Our FB/Twitter autoposted web content, which is not a best practice. SM should we interactive. -Implementation has taken 3 years.
- -During the SM audit, found 150 accounts, created from faculty/staff/students who were no longer with the university, or couldn't remember login info. -Sent campus wide email to locate page owners, reached out to people via personal email, social media, and phone numbers on file.
- -HR created a basic SM policy to try and stop individuals from creating accounts. Marketing revised policy in the spring. -Meet with programs/depts to discuss goals, and how to setup an official account. -Official accounts: liked by main pages,listed on our SM directory, and access to trainings and continuing education opportunities.
- -Policy includes a social media disclaimer that is listed on SU FB pages. -Basically, it says: We encourage users to interact, but reserve the right to delete comments or ban users if they use language that is racist, violent, or obscene. -We have an abbreviated version on some IG accounts that discuss controversial topics.
- -After sending out policy via email and uploading to our portal, I met with all known page managers to go over the policy. -If page managers couldn't meet the policy/expectations, we folded them in to the main page. Meaning, we provided them this graphic to share on their account, announcing that they were moving, and then posted content about their program or department on the main page.
- -Most of the pages were FB pages that were created with personal email addresses. (Which is now listed as something you can't do in the policy) -I created this dummy account, who serves as an admin on every page. All others who have access to the account are only editors. -Give example of when I was at the doctor -Facebook Business Manager.
- -When I met page managers, I collected all known Twitter/IG passwords. -I worked with IT Dept to reset passwords for inactive accounts that were created with a Spalding email address. -Once passwords were reset, I was able to shutdown inactive accounts.
- -After distributing policy and collecting passwords, setup a SM roundtable with all page managers. -The goal was to determine what we could provide them to make managing social easier. -The group asked for a SM section on our portal, a closed FB group to share ideas, and trainings. I provide quarterly large group trainings and individual trainings as well.
- -I also wanted to provide our page managers with some resources, so I created a SM toolkit. -I know the screenshots of the toolkit are small, but I wanted to include it so you will have it if you download the presentation.
- -Standards for events: Sometimes people on campus (faculty) think their bake sale needs a press release, a hashtag and a FB live video. This document lays out the different levels of promotion. Signature events: Annual, External, Campus Wide. Campus events: One-time, Internal, Specific Dept.
- Another element is a social media response procedure, which was adapted from the Air Force Public Affairs Agency – Emerging Technology Division. Our biggest recruitment tool is word of mouth advertising, so if someone posts something positive on a Spalding page, it's important that we engage with it, whether a like, comment, or share.
- -Because word of mouth is our biggest recruitment tool, responding to negative posts is even more important. -In addition to responding, it's important to respond quickly, otherwise there is a domino effect.
- -SM Monitoring is extremely important, and is honestly one of our weaknesses. -When I login to the Catherine Spalding account and can see all pages, some have 99+ notifications, and FB messages that haven't responded to. -I plan to have a training in the fall that is strictly based on how to properly monitor social channels.
- You can look through these items if you download the presentation, but it discusses best practices for Facebook, Twitter, and IG.
- -We run quite a few SM ads for programs and departments, and some programs, we spend a lot on ads, but don't see an increase in enrollment. -In the fall, we will provide programs with advertising metrics, such as reach, impressions, people taking action, and cost per result. -We will ask them to report back how many people attended their info session or event based on SM ads to see if there's a return on investment.
- -At most small schools, SM "departments" are a team of 1 or 2. -This is why it's so important to get others involved. -Also...With everything in life, people are going to be more invested if they feel included.
- 1 of the things I did to get input from the campus community is send a social media survey to everyone on campus and posted it on our SM. We asked questions about the platforms they used, the time of day they are most likely to check social, & what type of content they liked the most. Faculty members have pushed us to post more enrollment info on social, but it scored the 2nd lowest as far as content people wanted to see.
- -I also created an internship position to have someone help me with research/analytics. -Data is always important, especially in higher ed. -Our intern conducted additional research about our SM efforts and surveyed current graduate students about our marketing efforts to create a grad communication plan. -She analyzed data from our surveys/ads/tv spots
- -Created a Pinterest account and offered a training. Only platform that allows you to plan for future. -Any program/department on campus has access to create a board, For Ex: Financial Aid, Scholarships. Res Life, our Psychology Dept. -Pinterest was a good option for those who wanted to be involved, but didn't want the responsibilities of monitoring and posting regularly.
- -SDCL wanted to promote events, other than email. -Created Snapchat account. Worked with IT to add all of our current students by cell phone number. -In the beginning, I gave a few trusted users the login info. ESP for events. Check out spectacles. -To get others involved, we conduct interviews with faculty & staff about their program or dept, such as the counseling center during finals week.
- We created several Snapchat Geofilters for students to use while on campus to show their school pride.
- -We also purchase event filters for things like homecoming, new student orientation, and rat race. -Depending on the event and geofenced area, I usually spend $5-$15 per event. -Snapchat will send a report and let you know how many times someone swiped and saw your filter, how many times they used it, and then how many people saw the filter that was used. We avg. 3,000 views. People who are seeing it are target audience.
- -After creating the Snapchat account, I realized that I couldn't cover a lot of the events and activities that were taking place, because they were happening at night or on the weekends, when I wasn't on campus. -So, I created a Social Media Ambassador program.
- -Reached out to SDCL to identify a few students who could represent Spalding on SM. -First 2 years, SMA's covered specific beats like: sports, campus events, etc. Post 3 times per day. -The biggest problem with Snapchat, is only 1 person can be logged in at a time, (unlike IG and Twitter) so they didn't post enough. -We compensated gear and $50 gift cards
- -2018, we opened up SMA positions to all students -We conducted formal interviews, & hired 8 SMAs -Instead of beats, SMA's were assigned a day of the week. Students post 3 times per day. -For bigger events, we storyboard snaps and assign students 30 minute slots. -This year,compensated, $150 in gear/$100 gift card
- -At New Student Orientation, Marketing interviews students. -We ask about the application process, campus visit, marketing materials, and why they chose SU. -Some mention our small class sizes and our location in downtown Louisville, but 3 out of 44 said social media was the deciding factor. -Here are quotes from those students.
- Michael Blanford: Seeing current Spalding students on the Snapchat account lets me see things that I wouldn’t get from a campus tour.
- Ethan Thornton: Who is now an SMA said, every school I looked at had my major and a soccer program. Spalding separated itself by having students on Snapchat. It helped me see what campus life was really like. After his response at orientation, I told him about our SMA program. -He is now one of our SMA's
- -We also offer IG/Snapchat Takeovers for individuals, clubs, organizations and teams. -We offer access to the accounts for a few days or a week. -Anytime we do Takeovers, especially on IG, the analytics significantly increase.
- -Newest initiative is our SM Street Team. Made up of students, alums, faculty and staff. To get started, I appointed 10 members for buy in -FB algorithm is limiting organic content. Elevates awareness of SU through personal accounts. -In a crisis situation, these individuals can act as another voice unofficially representing SU. -Not compensated, but can earn swag.
- We recently launched a SM section on our website to promote how others can get involved. The Ambassador program, Street Team, and our SM Takeovers.
- The website also includes a social media directory with links to all of our official SU accounts.
- SM directly impacts recruitment and retention. It's now the cost of doing business, and it's not a matter of if you do it, but if you do it well. -Students compare apples to apples, don't understand difference between budgets/staffing -It’s a lot to keep up with and it’s constantly changing, so it’s important to get others involved as much as possible. Remember to be patient and celebrate the wins. (Hunger games reference)
- Thank you for listening! I am happy to take questions, chat during the conference, through email, or on social. I hope everyone has a great conference!