Digital Identity: Using Social Media to Foster Student Engagement in the Student Union
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Presented by Lauren Meyer Created for a Webinar on August 13, 2014, for the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) - Region II. Program Description: This presentation describes methods to shape a Student Union’s digital identity through social media sites. In particular, it details ways to enhance student engagement, create an online presence and brand, and identify helpful online tools. The presenter will provide examples from experience and from relevant research. Attendees will leave the webinar with ideas for how to create and/or strengthen their social media presence and engage with students effectively online.
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- 35. References Bonini, J. (2013, August 26). The 7 personalities every successful social media manager has. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-manager-personalities-li Branding definition. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/branding Lee, K. (n.d.). The social media frequency guide: How often to post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. Retrieved from https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-frequency-guide Nanji, A. (2013, September 30). What are the best days and times to post on Instagram? Retrieved from http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2013/11752/what-are-the-best-days-and-times-to-post-on-instagram Nonprofit Tech for Good. (2014, April 14). Top 5 Instagram best practices for nonprofits. Retrieved from http://www.nptechforgood.com/2014/04/14/top-5-instagram-best-practices-for-nonprofits/ Page, J. (2013, August 9). The 5-minute-a-day Instagram marketing plan. Retrieved from http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-5-minute- a-day-instagram-marketing-plan/66439/ Sotolotto, D. (2013). Tune up your social media marketing. Retrieved from IMPACT Branding & Design website: http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/145335/file-31408986-pdf/inbound-marketing-social-media-marketing-dos-and-donts.pdf Stoller, E. (2013, May 8). Eric Stoller [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LeSSKJvS0Y TEDxPugetSound. (n.d.). Simon Sinek - Start With Why - TED Talk Short Edited [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPYeCltXpxw Twitter for Business. (n.d.). Best practices: Be the best at what, when and how you tweet. Retrieved from https://business.twitter.com/best- practices
Editor's Notes
- Pre-presentation Polls: How social media-savvy are you? Expert-level Pretty good Decent Struggling I don’t know anything about social media With which social media sites are you the most comfortable? Facebook Twitter Instagram Others [This slide will show until presentation begins] Hello everyone! Welcome to today’s webinar, which will focus on Digital Identity: Using Social Media to Foster Student Engagement in the Student Union.
- My name is Lauren Meyer and I am the Program Coordinator in the Student Union at Texas Woman’s University, located in Denton, Texas. My primary roles at TWU include managing the Student Union social media presence, coordinating major programs such as Family Weekend, Boo at the U, and our traditional Senior Breakfast, and advising the Student Union Board. I attended Texas A&M University for my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and recently graduated from Florida State University with a Master’s in Higher Education Administration. I am a native (and proud) Texan, I love a good project, and I really enjoy learning about trends and issues in social media. With that, let’s get started.
- Let’s paint a picture… You wake up early in the morning. You reach over to your bedside table, after having pressed snooze three times already, and you decide to get up. Before doing that, you grab your phone and, while doing the on-eye half open, the other eye half-closed face, you start thumbing through your email, then Facebook, then Instagram, then maybe Twitter, and then after what you meant to be two minutes (but what ended up being ten), you finally put both feet on the floor and get up. This might be your morning routine and it might not. But it’s certainly part of our Millenial students’ routines. Our smart phones, social media, and other technological devices have changed everything: from interactions between friends to dating to even waking up in the morning and going to bed at night. And this matters. Tremendously. Because if we, as institutions of higher education, still interact with our students in the exact same way we always have, then it won’t work like it always has. Because the social fabric of our culture has changed. We need to reexamine our approach to make sure that we’re engaging with students in a way that makes sense to them.
- So, to frame this presentation, I’m going to use one of my favorite TED Talks. It’s Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” and I’m going to show about a five-minute excerpt of his 20-minute talk. It’s a great way to conceptualize why, how, and what we’re doing with social media. [Click Link on Image] [End video at 2:45]
- So, coming back to the presentation, we have our own “Golden Circle” on the screen, like the one Sinek drew in his talk. This will serve as an outline for the remainder of our conversation today. We’ll start with why social media matters to universities, move to how we should approach social media, and finish with what strategies work to utilize social media effectively.
- At the heart of this entire conversation lies our “why” – and it’s simple. Engagement. We know, from some of the most foundational Student Affairs literature, that everything comes back to student engagement. It is positively correlated with retention, performance, and so many other important metrics. And engagement no longer just means connecting with students in person in our offices, classrooms, and campuses, though that’s very important. It also means meeting the students where they’re at – which often means on social media and the Internet. We have to broaden what engagement means to adjust the definition to how our students define the term. Practically, I define my office’s “why” by connecting it to the mission of our Student Union. We want to be a place of connection for students: to each other, staff, faculty, and community partners. So, our social media accounts serve this purpose by creating a similar space online where they can do this. Our followers can build an affinity for the institution, ask questions and get answers, and feel like their university cares for them. Keeping this in mind, we’ll move to “how” we engage students through social media.
- Though there are many different approaches I could utilize to explain “how” we do social media management, I’ve chosen three primary areas I’d like to focus on: branding, planning, and interacting.
- Branding is a way to make your accounts stand out. To give them personality. Entreprenuer.com defines it like this: “Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.” Who are you as a department? What makes you tick? How are you different in the services you offer to students? Your brand should exude the answers to these questions. For the TWU Student Union, we are a fun-loving bunch. As an office, we do our best to always answer students’ questions and help them find resources. We provide a physical facility for them to enjoy and use while they’re on campus. And all of this reflects in our social media presence and brand – we’re often goofy or funny in our content, we try to provide helpful resources for students, and we interact and connect with students in as many ways as possible. You’ll note that as we go through this presentation, I’ve added a few memes and funny elements. This all goes back to branding and having fun with social media! Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/branding
- In addition, as I was preparing for this presentation, I came across a helpful article, “The 7 Personalities Every Successful Social Media Manager Has” by John Bonini of Hubspot.com. It confirmed some ideas I already had about voice and brand on social media and articulated those thoughts very well. In the article’s introduction, he writes, “Your social media strategy should have the ability to speak to a diverse audience in a variety of ways in order to appeal to all of their needs.” Certainly, as universities, we have students with many needs, so it takes a few different “personalities” to get all of that across. Keep in mind, while I say “personality,” I’m really alluding to traits. It’s important to maintain a sense of voice and consistency in your messages, as if it is one person sending all of your content. Students should feel like they’re connecting to a real human being…and they are! You…the staff person!
- So…personality #1: The Informant. Or as I like to conceptualize it, your inner Sheldon Cooper. If you’re a Big Bang Theory-watcher like me, you’ll know that Sheldon often spouts off facts (that are sometimes helpful, sometimes not). He doesn’t always read context well, but when he does, he contributes helpful knowledge that moves the conversation along. Now, as an office, you want to read context well – you can lose your students if you’re constantly giving them information they don’t want or need, but, again, appropriately timed tidbits can be very helpful for your students. One way the TWU Student Union has taken this role through social media is by pushing content about Union programs for students or about other departments’ programs or efforts. The idea here is to avoid being “territorial” – find ways to get students the information they need, even when not technically your programs.
- Moving on to personality trait #2: The Inquirer. Bonini characterizes social media as more of a walkie talkie and less of a megaphone. He writes, “don’t be that guy who loves to tell you about his day but [couldn’t care less] about yours. Nobody likes that guy.” Students want their voices to be heard! And what better way to do that than reaching out to them, proactively, on social media. Ask what questions they have, about their experiences, get them to share or take a survey. The idea is that you want to open up two-way communication. Now, I know that it can often be difficult to get them to respond, at least initially. It can be a helpful strategy to have a student worker or involved student ask you (via social media) a question to get the conversation started. And once students see your account responding to individual questions, the relationship will grow. It just takes time and effort.
- The third personality of a successful social media manager is: The Helper. Bonini writes that this is more about answering questions than asking them. Figure out ways that you can, in goodwill, provide help to your students. One of the easiest groups to target with this strategy is incoming first-year students. They have a lot of questions and you can answer them, or at least connect them to an office or person who can. Actively monitor all of your social accounts for questions or comments and respond…even if they haven’t directly reached out to you! Again, remember our “why” – engaging students and meeting them where they’re at, not expecting them to come to us.
- Personality #4 is the Thought Provoker. Essentially, this trait is all about establishing your accounts as “thought leaders.” You want students to learn to come to you with questions and to search for your account first. You can do this through several different routes – one is by providing innovative content and distinguishing your accounts from others and another is by interacting with your followers. Both of these create relationships and make you the go-to account.
- #5: The Class Clown. Now this one is fun. And I have to say, I love it, because this describes my office: we really have fun at work. Our students love funny content and enjoy a good laugh – especially when it comes to stressful times of year, like mid-terms and finals. Bonini writes, “The cardinal rule of online sharing is this: Nothing goes viral quite like funny.” And we all know this inherently, too. Most of us who are decently social media-savvy know about the black hole that is cat videos on YouTube, the Double Rainbow man, the David After Dentist video. It’s just too good not to share. So what’s the downside of sharing funny things occasionally on your social media accounts? There is very little, if you’re doing it appropriately (not like FAFSA, make sure you’re being considerate of students’ situations before posting).
- The next-to-last personality is The Entertainer. This one’s very similar to the previous personality and the point is this: your followers want to be entertained. It’s probably one of the biggest reasons they’re on social media to begin with. And, along with humor, it gives you a personality! No one likes to listen to the boring guy who lacks personality…they want the informative, bright, witty person. So go and be that account! Show visually appealing photos and images, provide information about fun things happening. Make it shiny.
- The final personality of a successful social media manager is: The Go-Getter. Initiate contact with students who mention your campus or programs…search them out! Know what’s trendy online and reference it in your content. Utilize online tools to measure your impact (we’ll expand on methods later on). The point is…stay on top of your game. Know what’s happening online and use new and innovative tools. You’ll have to do a little digging to continue to stay on top of all changes, but this is part of the fun of social…getting to explore and try new things. In sum, this article provides a helpful checklist for you: do you hit all of these notes? If not, brainstorm ways you can do so. I suggest even printing it off as a list and matching your posts categorically to the seven personalities.
- My next suggestion on “how” to manage your social media accounts is this: know your audience. Who are your students? Are they traditional, non-traditional? What are your campus demographics? The way that you conduct your social media presence will hinge on the answers to these questions. For example, TWU is 90% female…which means that visually appealing photos of campus (see the one on the screen) and traditionally more “feminine” content is more popular. It also means that use of Instagram has sky-rocketed on our campus. We know that pushing content on Instagram is a really successful and proven strategy for us. But it might not be for you – find out what makes your students tick and what they like. It’ll save you a lot of headaches later.
- Which brings us to planning, the second element of “how” to do social media. You should make sure not to launch into social media just to say you’ve done it. You can really do more harm than good to your accounts and brand. Have a strategy when you begin working on your accounts or trying to update your brand. I recommend using the “Golden Circle” model that we’re utilizing for this presentation and mapping out why you’re on social media, how you’re going to manage the accounts, and what sites, tools, and methods you’ll use. Also, always pre-load an account with content before you launch it to a larger audience. Nothing drives away potential followers like an empty page – it tells them that there won’t be anything there in the future.
- I’ll briefly cover a few resources you have for planning: 1. Observation – Check out other accounts that excel in social media practices. What do they do well? How can you emulate them? Take cues from accounts in and outside of higher education. For example, Hotels.com just created a Twitter account for their commercial-persona, “Captain Obvious,” which is a funny spin-off of their ads. You can also look at Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign on social media that’s gained a lot of traction. As for inside of higher education, all it takes is checking out your peers to see what they’re doing well. 2. Create a Social Media Management Team – Don’t let all of the work just fall on one person. Ask your students to participate, have posting responsibilities split among staff, and more. I’ve even heard of a university developing a “street team” of students who collaborate to produce live social media content. 3. Utilize online Social Media Management Tools – These include Hootsuite, Iconosquare, Klout, and more. While we’ll cover this in more detail later, you should know that there are tools that will allow you to schedule content in advance, so that you don’t have to be live-posting everything. These tools are life savers!!!
- The final point I’ll make about “how” we manage our accounts is that social media is about communication and not clutter.
- The best anecdote that I’ve heard on this topic was by Eric Stoller, who writes for InsideHigherEd.com. He said that social media is a conversation, not a giant bulletin board. No matter how bright, shiny, or stand-out of content you’ve got, you’re competing with everyone else – much like these bright yellow sheets of paper on this campus bulletin board. None of it matters if you’re not engaging with your students and followers. It’s just a lot of noise. So work on cultivating those relationships. Don’t add to the noise.
- Anddd we’re back to the golden circle to wrap up with our “what.”
- To provide a quick overview of “what” ways we engage on social media (yes, I know that’s not grammatically correct, but just go with it). We’ll start by giving tips and tricks specific to each social media account, then move to tools that will help you manage your accounts, and then finally (you didn’t think I would leave it out, did you?) assessment.
- I love this image to explain the many different purposes of social media. It’s funny and not meant to be taken too seriously, but it serves the purpose of explaining everything. The next three slides, we’ll describe best practices for what I term the “big 3 social networks:” Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. While there are other great networks, like the ones listed above, I feel that our time is best spent on these three. You’re welcome to ask questions about other networks at the end of the presentation, though!
- Facebook is the most basic of all social media accounts. With over 1 billion accounts, it’s almost ubiquitous worldwide. Your office should, at the minimum have an active Facebook page. But, as much as it is basic to have an account, it isn’t always intuitive to use. So, with that, I’ve assembled some do’s and don’ts that are thoughts of my own, mixed with a couple of different sources (which I’ll provide links to at the end of the presentation). Do’s First, you’ll want to post often. The optimal number of posts per day is about 2…more and you risk saturating students’ newsfeeds; less and you’ll look like you’re becoming dormant. You can still stay relevant by posting once per day, so don’t sweat it if you don’t hit the 2-post mark. Second, share photos, graphics, and videos. Facebook classifies information according to what it thinks users will most appreciate. Typically, your post will receive more views, “likes,” and engagement when you have something visual that accompanies the text. Next, utilize photo booths at events and then post the photos on Facebook. This is something we have tried and love. All you need to do is set up a quick photo opportunity at your event, get a photographer to take pictures (we utilize either our graphics department or our wonderful student assistants), and then tell students you’ll post to your Facebook page later. Students will “like” your page to see the pictures and then interact with the content. It draws attention to your page, where they can also find other helpful content. Fourth, encourage your student staff and involved-students to share important content. Your students are SO helpful in improving your office’s social media presence. Sometimes, all it takes to get other students interested is for one to like, comment, or share. Finally, consider allocating funds to purchase Facebook Ads. Facebook has modified its algorithms to prioritize paid ads. This makes sense, because in the last several years they became a publicly traded company, so they are much more profit-driven now. It is pretty economical, however, when you consider the other ways you spend your advertising budget. When you decide to “boost your post,” Facebook will provide a breakdown of how many people you’ll reach on a given budget. For $10, you can reach between 980 and 2,600 people; for $30, it increases to 2,700-7,00 views. It may be well worth the investment. And now, we move on to the Don’ts: Don’t post infrequently or too often. Just as mentioned before, you can seem overreaching or dormant. Avoid sharing only-text content. As mentioned previously, Facebook prioritizes content that includes a picture or video, so these posts almost always receive fewer views and lower engagement. Next, don’t remove or edit student posts unless they are graphic or absolutely inappropriate. If the posts are negative, look at them as a chance to win over students by responding to their concerns, publicly or privately. Also, don’t come across as a salesperson. This is one of the beautiful things about higher education…you are in this for the good of the student! Make sure that shines through everything you do – not just twisting their arms into doing things. Last, don’t be overly repetitive or spam posts. One or two well-placed and well-timed posts are worth so much. You’ll diminish the power of your message if you send it out too often. Also, avoid using all caps or too many exclamation marks…you don’t like getting those types of emails, so don’t post that kind of content. Before we move on to the next social network, I’d love to take one or two questions or comments on Facebook. Does anyone have questions or, possibly, suggestions that I didn’t already cover?
- Twitter is another huge social network that you should be utilizing. According to its website, Twitter has 271 million monthly active users and 500 million Tweets are sent per day. This is another network that can seem simple, but needs to be used carefully. Let’s start again with the Do’s: Again, post often! The optimal number of tweets per day is 5-20. This may seem like a lot, but with tools that help you schedule content, it can be pretty easily achievable. This count also includes replies and interactions with your followers. Which leads into our next point: INTERACT with your followers. The essence of Twitter is interaction and engagement. Twitter is your chance to reach out to your students and have conversations with your followers. And once they realize that you engage well, students will flock to your account. It takes time and effort, but the returns are tremendous – imagine being able to crowdsource opinions from your students in an instant, to be able to quickly and easily respond to complaints, to gauge student feelings toward different campus initiatives by just listening to what they have to say. Next, keep your tweets short and sweet, which means under 100 characters. Tweets under this threshold are read more often and experience higher levels of follower engagement. Try different ways of slimming down your content! Use Twitter to report live. Twitter is an excellent live-reporting site. In fact, many of our students learn about current events on Twitter first. So, if you have an event going on, use Twitter to make sure students stay in the loop! Another tip is to utilize contests. Twitter is a great medium for contests. In fact, I’ve included a document below on how to effectively run contests on a variety of sites. I do want to mention, though, that Twitter lends itself especially well to contests because it allows word to travel extremely fast through retweets and mentions. The next one seems like a no-brainer, but isn’t always: use your logo as a profile picture. Nice and simple…this is a great branding decision. Don’t modify your Twitter profile picture unless your logo changes – you’re establishing consistency and branding by doing this. Twitter is also great for promoting new, interesting additions to your building or programs. Students love hearing about these! Simple as that. Include useful (and sometimes funny) hashtags. Consistent use of hashtags can drive attention to your account. For example, we use #TWU for many of our posts, so that we establish legitimacy and also association with the university. But hashtags can be great ways to incorporate humor, for example #noms when you’re talking about delicious food. Follow students. When you’re trying to establish your account initially, know that you’ll need to follow a lot of students. Your follower count versus the number of people you follow may look lopsided, but it is difficult to gain those first few followers without showing them you’re committed to them! Then, once your follower count starts increasing, your perceived legitimacy will, as well. Phew! That was quite a list. Next, we’ll move on to our shorter list of Twitter Don’ts: First, and most obvious, don’t let your Twitter account go dormant. This looks especially bad, as Twitter is so interaction-heavy. You lose a lot of clout when you don’t have much content. Next, don’t just push content, but never interact. Again, seems easy but it’s not. It’s simple to just schedule content but never favorite, retweet, or mention your followers. Think of the campus bulletin board effect that I mentioned earlier. Third, don’t leave your bio empty. Just fill it out. Easy as that. Fourth, don’t just post general tweets. Offer your students specific, interesting content, like that mentioned earlier when we discussed the 7 personalities of a social media marketer. Fifth and finally, don’t ignore complaints. Twitter is the PERFECT place to respond to student questions or concerns. Companies do this all the time by responding every time to a mention of their products. It’s a perfect chance to quickly remedy the issue. So, with all of that information, what questions and comments do you have about Twitter, specifically?
- The final social network that I’ll discuss is Instagram. As of last spring, Instagram has over 200 million monthly active users. While this number is smaller than that of Twitter and Facebook, it is noteworthy that many Instagram users are younger…which includes college students. It’s also something that seems to resonate with our female students, in my own experience. We’ll start with things you DO want to do: Post often. The optimal number of posts per day is 1-2. You’ll also want to share attractive photos and images. Make sure what you’re posting is nice to look at! Mix up the informative content with creative photos of your space or campus. Third, make sure to use your Twitter handle as your username. This helps with integration across platforms and your followers won’t get confused. Next, report live with your photos, just like with Twitter. It’s a powerful and easy way to show students what’s happening on campus. The following suggestion is from personal experience: have your graphics team design Instagram sized-images when creating ads. That way, you don’t have to crop out any important information and it looks even better. Another plus is that you’re being consistent with branding. Also utilize contests with Instagram. “Regramming” works a lot like retweeting. Students will take screenshots of your image and share them with followers, which will increase your reach. Suggestions for Instagram contests are also included in the attached document. Ask followers to comment on your images. Instagram is a great place to ask for comments! This is because your followers won’t be notified of subsequent comments, unless they are explicitly tagged, unlike Facebook. And students love to give their opinions! It’s a great combination. Finally, you’ll want to follow students when you’re getting started. This will help you to gauge what your students like, as well as inspire commitment and brand loyalty. It helps you to get your feet off the ground and, from there, you can choose to be more selective in who you follow. As for your “don’ts” we also have several suggestions: To start, keep your content fresh! Post often. Next, avoid sharing content that is a cropped version of a graphic, poster, or ad. Make sure any designs are sized appropriately for Instagram. It looks more professional and your followers will appreciate it. Also avoid posting blurry images. This speaks for itself. Don’t spam the hashtag feature or post excessively long captions. Students will simply stop reading after a few lines of text. Fourth, do not share photos that are not your own without giving credit or asking permission. While it can be a great idea to ask for students to submit photos, if you don’t give appropriate credit, you can be infringing on copyright laws. Next, don’t post irrelevant content. It just acts as spam and, since Instagram users will see it in their feeds, they’ll become easily annoyed. This can tarnish your brand’s reputation. Post purposefully. Don’t ignore the captions! They are useful for helping to describe your image and can be a great place to include helpful and relevant hashtags. Last, don’t use Instagram solely for advertisements and promotions. Show off your campus, building, people, and programs! Instagram users want to see interesting, visually appealing content, and that means adding variety to your repertoire. Questions or comments on Instagram?
- So, in addition to these great networks, I’m going to share about a few key tools that I use to manage my accounts, whether for planning, assessment, or other means.
- First, and most helpful to me, is Hootsuite. This site allows you to see various feeds or searches on your Twitter or Facebook accounts, schedule posts, and post to multiple accounts at the same time. This site is a life saver!! You’ll be able to save searches for popular hashtags (for us, this means #TWU, #TWU18, and #Tdub). This way, you can always keep an eye on what others are saying about your institution and/or office. Hootsuite also allows you to cross-post content on Facebook and Twitter, so your messages are going out at the exact same time, whether in the present or in the future. My favorite feature of Hootsuite, though, has to be the scheduling component. It allows you to look at how many posts you have going out on a given day and to anticipate big events and programs, so you have content going out, even when you don’t have time to post live. Basically, Hootsuite is one of the best tools in your social media arsenal. If you aren’t using it already, hop on the bandwagon.
- Iconosqure is very helpful for Instagram. Since Instagram’s site is not very desktop-friendly, this external website helps you to see metrics from your account, like you can see on this screenshot, as well as view your images and like or comment on other images. It will also give you a rolling month analysis, which I love for measuring how we’re doing. Make sure to log on to this site regularly, though, as it only collects historical data for the dates you open it.
- Facebook Insights is built into the Facebook Pages site and you should have access to this as an “Administrator” of your page. It will give you metrics that will help you monitor your posts, images, and individuals who “like” your page. Knowing this information will help you learn what content is most effective and monitor how your posts are doing.
- Klout is also a very, very helpful tool. I like to think of it as the “macro” approach to measuring your social media presence. Essentially, you can link your social media accounts to Klout and it will give you a score (0-100) that rates your online influence. It will break down how much influence comes from each social network and give you an idea about how you’re doing overall. On the main Klout webpage, you can look up scores for brands and individuals that will help you gauge how you’re performing. The average Klout score is 40, according to their FAQ site, and users with above a score of 63 are in the top 5% of users.
- You can use the sites we just discussed to measure your presence, engagement, and more, but I also advocate for in-person assessment. I love learning from students who have attended our programs and asking where they heard about the program. If they learned of it online, ask for feedback on the office’s social media accounts. It’s also a great idea to add social media questions (qualitative and quantitative) to your existing assessment measures. Social media assessment is important on multiple fronts: It allows you to find out how well you’re engaging with students online (versus what you think you’re doing). It helps show you whether engagement in one arena leads to connection in another (which, I would argue, creates an even stronger connection with your student and higher overall engagement). So, bottom line, add social media measures to your assessment efforts!
- With all of that, I have a few concluding points that I hope you’ll take away from this presentation: Social Media is all about engagement. It’s not a bulletin board or a megaphone – interact with your students, help them to engage with your institution. Be real and authentic. Represent the culture of your office and be human! Students crave a glimpse of our vulnerable, authentic selves and this is a fun way to provide that experience. Utilize research and online tools. There is SO much out there! You don’t even have to do too much digging…Google will do most of the work for you. Keep up with new trends and tools that come out and don’t be afraid to try new things. Measure your influence. Make sure you’re actually being engaging…if not, back to square one. Don’t lose your sense of purpose when working with social media! With that I’d love to take your questions!