A Day in the Life of a Digital Strategist 2016 Presentation Slides

Welcome!
A Day in the Life of
a Digital Strategist
#DigStrat

Neal Doyle, Harvard i-lab, Assistant Director
#DigStrat

Welcome to A Day in
the Life of a Digital
Strategist
Ben Sharbaugh

Harvard Digital Strategy Goals
Communicate and amplify Harvard’s mission
of excellence in teaching, learning, and
research while making the University and its
contributions relatable and relevant in an
always-on world
Enable communications and engagement
approaches to live digitally, and often digital-
first to enrich our constituents’ experience of
Harvard

Harvard Digital Strategy Goals

What does your day look like?
●Social content creation
●Analytics
●Web development
●Multimedia production
●Email list management
●Writing for your website
●Collaborating with your team
●Generating reports
●Uploading videos
●Media monitoring on Twitter and Facebook

Today
Please Tweet using the hashtag #DigStrat
Fill out your daily schedule and share it
Follow the speakers on Twitter (@’s in your
program)
Get to know somebody new
Get on the Digital Roundup email

Keynote Presentation:
Vala Afshar, Digital Evangelist, Salesforce
#DigStrat

Break 10:30 - 10:45am
#DigStrat
Up Next: Social Listening

Social Listening: Christy Stine, HBS
#DigStrat

Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College
Social Media Listening at HBS
Christy Stine
Assistant Director, Digital Engagement
@christystine

What is social media listening?
It’s not social media analytics.
15

What is social media listening?
It’s a way of understanding what people are saying about us.
16

Where are conversations happening?
17

Where are conversations happening?
20

What can we do with this information?
21
Find influencers, share trending content, and participate in high exposure conversations

22
Create new content based on our audience’s interests

23
Understand what students are saying on Twitter

24
Competitive Analysis

Using Social Listening across HBS
25

Case Study - Gender Initiative
26
17,024 social media posts
May - August 2015

27
Many authors
drove the early
conversation;
HBS, Goldie
Hawn, Center
for American
Progress were
influential
Volume
increased with
NY Daily News,
CBS, and Fox
Quartz editorial
and a feminist
Tumblr account
initiated the
peak
Many authors
continue the
conversation;
Inc, Business
Insider, WPXI
were influential
How did the story unfold on social media?

What social media channels were used?
• Twitter was the most heavily used throughout the campaign
• Tumblr users began writing about and sharing press mid-campaign
28

29
BusinessInsider
Who were the most influential authors on Twitter?

30
Who shared the story?

31
Did men and women share different content?
Written by Men
• More emphasis on HBS
• More mentions of husbands and partners

32
Did men and women share different content?
Written by women
• Equal emphasis on HBS and the study
• Less mentions of husbands and partners

More Social Media Listening Tools
33
Free
• Use search streams in your
social media management
tool (Hootsuite, Spredfast)
• Social Mention
• Mention
• Topsy
• Klout
Paid
• Crimson Hexagon
• Brandwatch
• Simply Measured (they have
some free reports too)

thank you!
34
Christy Stine
cstine@hbs.edu
@christystine

The Long and Short of Writing for the Web:
Nilagia McCoy, Shorenstein Center
#DigStrat

The long and short
of writing for the Web
Nilagia McCoy | Communications Manager
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

37
How to:
• Structure task-oriented pages (short)
• Structure long, dense content (long)
• Improve the writing on your website

38
Task-oriented pages
• Types of pages:
• Events
• Information about a program
• Applications
• Signing up for a service
• Goals:
• Help visitors find what they need easily
• Help visitors understand what you offer/their options

39Image credit:XKCD http://xkcd.com/773/

40
Before you start writing…
• Step into your users’ shoes
• Who is the audience for this page?
• Why are they visiting?
• What information do they need?
• What questions are they likely to have?
• What tasks do they need to accomplish?
• How familiar are they with your organization?
• Make an outline, then fill in information
• What should be on the page to answer the user’s questions?
• Break content into chunks based on topic/group related
content

41
Use the inverted pyramid
Crucial information your visitor must have
for message to be successful.
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
Additional important details,
supporting information
Other general info,
nice to have

43
Make processes clear and use calls
to action

46
Longform content
• Types of pages:
• Research
• Reports and papers
• News articles
Goals:
• Promote the work of your organization
• Keep people engaged

48
Tips for making hard facts easy reading
• Focus on the impact up front – why is this important? Why
should I read it?
• Translate jargon for the reader.
• Avoid blocks of numbers, and place numbers into context.
• Use charts or graphs to convey numerical information.
• Slow down the pace of information – avoid overstuffed
sentences.
• Use shorter words, shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs at
the points of greatest complexity.
• Make the strange familiar – use metaphors or analogies.
• Keep the dull parts short – is the level of detail needed right
here, right now? Especially for research, can it be an
endnote/footnote?
Adapted from http://www.poynter.org/2016/10-tips-for-making-hard-facts-easy-reading

56
Use short paragraphs, subheadings, bullets
Founded in 1969, the Department of Rocket Science offers
students the opportunity to chart new territory in outer-
space exploration. Our faculty are pioneers in their fields,
and include renowned astronauts and quantum physicists.
Concentrations prepare students for careers through a
blend of traditional classes and real-world experiences.
Graduate Degrees
• Deep space exploration
• Aerospace engineering
• Space simulation studies
Internships
Learning outside of the classroom is a key component of
the rocket science program. Students intern at NASA and
SpaceX, and take field trips to the International Space
Station.
Application Process
Admission is highly competitive, and is limited to a class of
20 students each semester. The typical applicant has a B.S.
in engineering, applied mathematics, or physics. Learn
more about application requirements.
Information Sessions
We invite you to stop by, meet the faculty, and learn more
about our offerings. View the monthly open house
schedule.
Founded in 1969, the Department of Rocket
Science offers students the opportunity to chart
new territory in outer-space exploration. Our
faculty are pioneers in their fields, and include
renowned astronauts and quantum physicists.
Each concentration prepares students for careers
through a blend of traditional classes and real-
world experiences. The Department of Rocket
Science offers graduate degrees in deep space
exploration, aerospace engineering, and space
simulation studies. Learning outside of the
classroom is a also a key component of the rocket
science program. Students intern at NASA and
SpaceX, and take field trips to the International
Space Station.
Application to the program is highly competitive,
and is limited to a class of 20 students each
semester. The typical applicant has a B.S. in
engineering, applied mathematics, or physics.
Learn more about application requirements. Every
month, we hold a department information session.
We invite you to stop by, meet the faculty, and
learn more about our offerings. View the open
house schedule.

57
http://blog.editage.com/index.php?q=node/345/print
Use parallel construction

58
Instead of: Use:
due to the fact that because
in the event of if
prior to before
utilize use
has a requirement of needs, requires
Use simple, direct language
http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/wordsuggestions/simplewords.cfm .
• Avoid jargon and spell out acronyms on first instance
• Can a simpler word take the place of a longer word or phrase?

59
Passive Active
A statement was released by the Dean. The Dean released a statement.
In the event that it snows, the
weather emergency hotline should
be called prior to coming to campus.
If it snows, call the weather emergency
hotline before coming to campus.
Use active voice

61
Before After
The Department of Rocket Science offers
students very small class sizes and a unique
approach to learning. Vague
Classes at the The Department of Rocket
Science have 12 or fewer students. They are
discussion-based, and include labs that allow
students to explore their individual interests.
Use details, not vague adjectives

62
Can your audience easily understand your
content?
• Measure the readability of your website: Microsoft Word or
http://www.read-able.com/
• Metrics gauge long sentences, passive sentence structure,
complicated words, pegged to U.S. grade levels
• 6th-9th grade: Ideal for any audience
• Up to 12th grade: Assumes audience has high school
education, appropriate for more specialized pages, research
• Over 12th grade: Revisit – may be too difficult to easily
understand, likely has clarity/sentence structure issues.

64
Resources
• Harvard style guidelines & best practices: writing for the web
• Poynter.org > tips & training
• How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times, Roy Peter
Clark

Nilagia McCoy | Communications Manager
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
nilagia_mccoy@hks.harvard.edu
Thank you

The Daily Grind of Email: Gretchen Weber and Dan
Jones, Berkman Center
#DigStrat

The Daily Grind of Email
The How & Why of Building Email Into Your Outreach
Gretchen Weber, Communications Manager
Daniel Jones, Digital Media Producer
Berkman Center for Internet & Society

About the Berkman Center
Dozens
projects launched to study and
influence the development of the
Internet, including Creative
Commons and Global Voices
100+
events, reports, tools, videos,
podcasts every year
Founded in 1997
“to explore cyberspace, share in its
study, and help pioneer its
development”
We build, study,
educate, and
connect.

The Berkman Center: information flow
Dozensof projects &
100+reports, tools, events,
videos, podcasts every year
Project specific communities and
audiences: teachers, lawyers,
parents, developers, journalists,
policy makers, activists, librarians,
storytellers, etc, and the interested
public
We build, study,
educate, and
connect.
500+ staff, fellows, affiliates,
faculty associates , & alumni from
40+ countries ; Network of
50+ Internet & society research
centers internationally, as well as
other partner institutions and Harvard

WHY THE HECK DO WE NEED EMAIL???

2.5 billion
email users worldwide, many
with multiple accounts
Source: The Radicati Group
2.9 billion
email users worldwide by
2019
Facebook: 1.1 billion
Twitter: 310 million
LinkedIn: 255 million
Pinterest: 250 million
Google+: 120 million
Tumblr: 110 million
Instagram: 100 million
>

10 million
lists
600 million
emails sent per day
22-25%
open rate for emails in our sector (non-profit, education)

Welcome to List Management Hell
● Using (mostly) 4 entirely separate lists (newsletter, events,
reports, jobs)
● Buried among many other active, outdated, & defunct
lists
● No mechanism for detecting overlap between lists
● No system for clearing bounces
● Unsubscribing was nearly impossible

Trapped in an outdated template
Negatives:
● coded in html every week
● time consuming
● error-prone
● totally limited by
outdated template
● not mobile-friendly
Postives (sort of):
● We had thousands of
subscribers… but did they
engage with the content?

Impossible to gauge impact or success
No metrics???

Know what you want
PRODUCTION NEEDS
Easy list management
Quicker production time
Flexible templates
Multimedia inclusive
Mobile responsive
Meaningful metrics
EDITORIAL GOALS
Provide value to audience
Be interesting to read
Be inviting, tone & visually
Better showcase our work
with context & formats
Share work from the broader
community

Consider your audience...
...and their privacy

“Can we import your email address into
MailChimp?”
Be Transparent

Customizing cut our prep time in ½

when your emails are mobile friendly:

After the pilot phase: Expansion
Migrated 3 more lists - found tons
of crossover
Created groups within main list
Merged our events & Buzz emails
to reduce volume of emails sent
A/B tested headlines
On-boarded other staff

Prettify our templates
Create better systems for
finding good content
Learn & experiment with
features
Look more closely at data
More A/B Testing
More work to do

Join our Lists
brk.mn/mail
Follow us
@berkmancenter
Email us
gweber@cyber.law.harvard.edu
djones@cyber.law.harvard.edu
Thank You!

Instagram and Snapchat: Tips and Tricks for
Management, Victoria Marzilli, Harvard College
Admissions and Financial Aid
#DigStrat

Instagram + Snapchat
tips & tricks for management

What’s she talking about?
Quick overview of the platforms and their users
Developing a strategy
See what I mean: a few examples
Tips for management
Questions

Instagram
Founded by Kevin Systrom (from Holliston,
MA)
More than 400 million active users
Photo and video content with filters
Users like or comment on content
Content is searchable by hashtags
59.8% of users are between 18-34 years old

Snapchat
Founded by Evan Speigel (not from Holliston, MA)
Strictly mobile-app only experience
Temporary, real-time photo and video content
100 million daily active users
Seven Eight billion daily video views

Snapchat
63% of users are between
18 and 34 years old, but
23% are between 13 and 17.

“Simply, what if we rethought the
whole idea of the assumed
permanence of social media? What if
social media, in all its varieties, was
differently oriented to time by
promoting temporariness by design?
What would the various social media
sites look like if ephemerality was the
default and permanence, at most, an
option?” Nathan Jorgensen, Researcher, Snapchat
Temporary Social Media

Age Distribution by Social Network (2014)

Visual Storytelling: Real-Time

Strategic Approach
Instagram:
❏ What’s your visual identity?
❏ What story do you want to tell?
❏ What is your voice?
❏ What hashtags are relevant to your community?
❏ Can you post consistently?

Strategic Approach
Snapchat:
❏ What does your audience want to know?
❏ Who do they want to hear from?
❏ How will my audience find my content?
❏ What moments do I want to share?
❏ Will you be able to post in real time?
❏ Who will you feature?

Case Study: Curated Stories on Instagram

Case Study: Real-Time Stories on Snapchat

60%
Engagement rate among
admitted students
(Winter/Spring 2015)

Geofilters
• Custom overlay graphics
• Submitted to and
approved by Snapchat
• Inexpensive
• Hyper-specific location
(geofencing)

Tips for Creating and Curating Content
Get personal
Be consistent
Consider the voice and tone
Maximize resources and delegate responsibility
Identify and connect with influencers
Crowdsource content
Have fun!

Follow us on
Snapchat!
Open the Snapchat App and aim
your camera at this logo then tap
and hold >>

Lunch 12:15 - 1:00pm
#DigStrat
Up Next: Team Collaboration

#DigStrat
Team Collaboration: Saving Yourself from Inbox
Overload: Ben Sharbaugh, HPAC

Team Collaboration:
Saving yourself from
Inbox Overload
Ben Sharbaugh

Our Slack Team
8% public channels
6% private channels
86% DMs

Slack Messaging
Public channels
(8%)
Private channels
(6%)
DMs and group messages
(86%)
● Conversations
open to all team
members
● Encourages
collaboration,
awareness,
general updates
● Sensitive or
confidential
topics meant for
small team
● Only channel
members can
see the private
channel
● Quick, private
conversations
between
individuals or
groups
● Sometimes
professional,
sometimes fun

Public Channels
Examples:
#articles-i-read
#cool-digital-stuff
#emergency
#fun-just-for-laughs
#media-relations
#p-gazette
#p-redesign-hedu
#site-monitoring
#feed-harvard-social

Integrations
RSS Feeds and IFTTT

Use cases
Editorial/Content
collaboration

Use cases
harvard.edu development/
ambient collaboration

#DigStrat
Money CAN Buy You Love (or at Least Likes):
Examining the Success of Paid Social Media:
Matt Weber, HGSE

Money Can Buy You Love
(or at Least Likes):
Examining the Success of Paid Social Media
Presented by:
Matt Weber
Director of Digital Communications Strategy. HGSE
@mattweber_

Making a Case for FB Advertising
• Budgeting?
• ROI?
• Redefining “digital marketing” in Higher Ed to
include social

Lessons learned
• Quick
• Inexpensive
• Simple
• Highly trackable
• Highly customizable
• Helpful to a campaign

• 2,048,657 impressions
• 838,890 engagements
• Not to mention a growth in page likes, expansion of
reach

#DigStrat
Browser and Work Hacks for the Digital Pro:
Jay Shemenski, HMS

BROWSER AND WORK HACKS FOR THE
DIGITAL PRO

DIGITAL TASKS
COLLABORATION
ANALYTICS
LISTENING
PRODUCTION
INSIGHTS
LEARNING
ORGANIZATION
COORDINATION

HOW TO KEEP IT
ALL UNDER
CONTROL?

STREAMLINE
collaboration &
tasks
AUTOMATE
data & listening
FOCUS ON
production,
insight, &
learning

FREE QUALITY IMAGE
RESOURCES
• Unsplash
• Stocksnap.io
• Pexels
• Negative Space
• Life of Pix

NEWSLETTERS
• Newscred
• Simply Measured
• SocialMedia.org
• Marketing Profs
• Ad Age
• Content Marketing Institute
• Convince & Convert
• Search Engine Watch
• Search Engine Journal
• Hubspot
• Marketo
• Direct Marketing News
• Social Media Today
• LinkedIn Sophisticated Marketer
• Contently
• Webdesign News

PODCASTS
• Sophisticated Marketers Podcast
• PNR: This Old Marketing
• Marketing Nerds
• The Growth Show
• Social Pros
• Content Pros
• Simply Social
• The Marketing Huddle
• Six Pixels of Separation
• Marketing Smarts
• Duct Tape Marketing
• Marketing Book Podcast
• Social Media Marketing
• The Marketing Companion
• Maximize Your Social
• HBR IdeaCast
• Influence Pros

Reach out, I’d love to
hear from you.
JAY SHEMENSKI
Digital Manager / HMS
@jshemenski
jason_shemenski@hms.harvard.edu

Break 2:00 - 2:15pm
#DigStrat
Up Next: Building a Data Landscape

#DigStrat
Building a Data Landscape: Aaron Baker, HPAC

Building a Data
Landscape
Aaron David Baker
Digital Analytics Lead
Harvard University a
Public Affairs and Communications ‘`

An actual data
landscape
Dark
Light
Far Near

A data landscape
is a way to graph
your access to and
understanding of
various data sets
as an analyst
in a certain situation.

an analyst
in a certain situation.

★ Context
★ Relavance
★ Access
★ Procedure
C
R
A
P
What’s your situation?
Typical data analyst
questions:
★ What are the business
objectives?
★ How can data support them?
★ Where is the data stored?
★ How was it collected?

CRAP!
...is what you say when you don’t have a clear idea of what you’re doing or why.

Day 1 at Harvard
Dark
Light
Far Near
Literally the only thing I had
access to when I started
Never used these before

...and find your place in it.
Harvard Public Affairs and
Communications manages and
facilitates the University's relationships
with neighboring communities; local,
state, and federal government; the
media; and the general public. HPAC
advances information and
communications related to the
University's mission of excellence in
teaching, learning, and research
through a variety of managed channels
and other means including the
University's homepage, the Harvard
Gazette, and Harvard's Information
Center.
HPAC works to
tell the Harvard
story.
As the digital
analyst I
measure how
we tell it.
Start with the mission...

What’s your
situation?
questions:
✓ What are the business
objectives?
★ How can data support them?

How can data support lofty mission
statements?
Metrics are numbers that
tell you how many
★ Impressions and pageviews
loosely measure audience size
and interest
★ Clicks, shares, bounce rate, time
on page, and scroll depth
measure engagement
Dimensions are text that
tells you how, who, where,
or what
★ Channel, source, medium,
share, retweet, etc. = how
★ Age, gender, interest,
employment class, affiliation, etc.
= who
★ Geolocation = where
★ Page, post, item, url = what

Desktop vs Mobile browsers, 2010–2016
The metric is sessions, the dimension is browser platform:
desktop, mobile, and tablet (not pictured).
This data supports the mission by informing HPAC leadership,
staff, and constituents (y’all) about an important trend with
huge implications

Your situation
is improving
questions:
objectives?
✓ How can data support them?

Identify where data is stored
Create a list of your data sources:
★ Websites
○ Google Analytics
★ Email Campaign Providers
○ Silverpop, MailChimp, Constant
Contact, Emma, etc.
★ Social Media Accounts
○ Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Instagram, etc.
★ Multimedia Repositories
○ YouTube, Vimeo, Kaltura,
Soundcloud, etc.
Then graph each one:
★ Your access to the data (near/far)
○ Near—data that you have
access to (login credentials)
○ Far—data you would have to
request from someone else
★ Your understanding of the data
(light/dark)
○ Light—you know what the data
means, how it was collected,
transformed, etc.
○ Dark—you’re not exactly sure
what it is or how to use it

Identity confirmed: data analyst
An analyst can use a
data landscape
to better understand
her current situation
and where she can
make improvements
in her data analysis

What do you pay attention
to?
Websites
★ Harvard Homepage, Gazette
News site
Social Media Accounts
★ Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Instagram, Google+
Multimedia Accounts
★ YouTube, Kaltura, iTunesU,
SoundCloud, Giphy
Email
★ Daily Gazette, President &
University- wide emails

How do you pay
attention to it?
Web
★Google Tag Manager,
Analytics, and Search Console
★Chartbeat (real-time stats)
★Moz and other SEO tools
Email
★Silverpop
★Litmus

Social and Multimedia
★Platform-specific
analytics/insights (directly from
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
SoundCloud, etc.)
★Hootsuite Analytics
★Buzzsumo (social listening)
★TweetDeck
How do you pay
attention to it?

Back to your
situation
questions:
objectives?
✓ How can data support them?
✓ Where is the data stored?

The analyst
graphs data sets
on both a near/far
axis and a
dark/light axis to
inventory where
it is and how it
can be used

But how was the data
collected?

Analytics Ecosystem
1) Content Generation
Articles are published on the Harvard
Gazette site: news.harvard.edu/gazette.
● Some pieces are featured on the
harvard.edu homepage
● The Daily Gazette email links to
certain articles and events
● Social media posts also link to
articles, and create third party
sharing opportunities

2) Data Collection
User interactions create data points in multiple
platforms and tools.
● Silverpop tracks email open and
clickthrough rates
● Tag Manager sends data to Analytics
which tracks user counts, sessions,
pageviews, and time-on-page
● Chartbeat also tracks real-time
engagement, and scroll depth
● Hootsuite provides social media analytics:
shares, likes, retweets, favorites, etc.
● Buzzsumo is used for social media
listening, brand mentions, organic share
counts, and competitive analysis
DATA ANALYTICS
Analytics Ecosystem

3) Data Analysis
Reports are generated from these sources and
insights are shared with the team.
● A daily afternoon report tracking the
success of the morning’s Gazette email
● A weekly report of selected Gazette
content activity (pageviews, shares, social
actions)
● An in-depth monthly report with highlights
of the harvard.edu homepage, Gazette
(web & email), Multimedia, Social, and
Mobile
● Ad-hoc reports as needed
DATA ANALYTICS
Analytics Ecosystem

Data points we look at
Web
Chartbeat: real-time dashboard
concurrent users and engaged time
per page
referrers and specific tweets bringing
us traffic
Google Analytics: historical information
on traffic, behavior, and usage
users, sessions, pageviews, pages-
per-session, bounce rate
session/page duration averages
event tracking for measuring
interaction
Social
Platform-specific tools (native
Twitter Analytics, Facebook
Insights, etc.)
Hootsuite: integrates and
aggregates Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, and Google
Analytics
Buzzsumo: primarily for social
listening and measuring social
shares across several
platforms
● competitive analysis and
comparison
● trending content reports

Multimedia
Youtube: view percentage reports,
demographics, traffic sources, and
audience retention
Kaltura: plays, minutes viewed, avg. view
time, player impressions, ratio, view
drop-off
Soundcloud: plays, likes, comments,
reposts, downloads
iTunes (Harvard Mobile app): app store
views, units, sessions, active devices,
crashes
Google Play: installs/uninstalls by
user/device, ratings, crashes
Email
Silverpop: email marketing
platform
unique open and
clickthrough rates for
email
trending content reports
Litmus: email preview testing
Data points we look at

The next frontier
What’s next for HPAC analytics

Today’s graph...
Dark
Light
Far Near

...becomes tomorrow’s strategy
We added “report builder” to
our Chartbeat account which
gives us access to our account
history and gives us a greater
understanding of the data
Chartbeat API will give better
access to the data and will
allow us to integrate this tool
with others like Google
Analytics

Room for improvement
Investigate Quality of Stats
● What affects the quality of
information per platform?
● Bogus accounts in Silverpop (or
Spam filters) that click on all
links
● Users who delete cookies
appear as “new” users in
Google Analytics
● Compare stats across platforms
when able to verify
● Clicks in Silverpop become
Sessions in Google Analytics
● What effect if any does sampling
have?

What we wish we could do
New data sources
● email: inbound tracking/volume/qualitative
● social: instagram, snapchat
● MTS/Live stream
Data warehousing and integrated analytics
● automation and API integration
● one-stop source for reporting
● big data analysis tools
● predictive analytics
Reporting and dashboards
● quicker and more automated reporting
● transparency
● evangelism

Questions?
Y’all been swell.

#DigStrat
Thank you for attending!
harvard.edu/guidelines

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