Presentation prepared for Case Europe Consumer Marketing in Higher Education. How to implement a digital marketing strategy Presentation prepared for Case Europe Consumer Marketing in Higher Education.

1. Developing a Social Media & Digital strategy in HE

2. Session agenda
• An overview of the social student
• Building a social media/digital strategy
– 4Ps of content
• Plan: plan your content strategy to reach your audience
at the right place, right time, right moment
• Produce: internal vs. external
• Publish: What content on what platform?
• Promote: Integrating social media in your overall
marketing mix

3. Meet the social student

4. Which platforms do students use?

5. User demographics

6. How students use social media in the
context of their studies
Sample 20 MSc students sampled at random
• Ask questions to peers (45%)
• Connect with other student with similar
academic interests (33%)
• Share research/information with peers (26%)
• Collaborate in a workspace (14%)
• Use research recommended by peers (10%)

7. Building your Social
Media/Digital Strategy

8. What is the theme of your content?
Who will create it?
When and where will it be shared?
In-house content creation vs. third party content?
Which platforms?
Strategic considerations

9. Social Media Strategy: setting your
objectives and measurement metrics
Brand awareness
Traffic
Word of mouth
Likes,Retweets
(= engagement)
Mentions in social media
(blogs, forum, Twitter)
Click through rate,
conversions
Objectives Measurement

10. The 4Ps of content strategy
Plan Produce Publish Promote

11. Step 1: Plan

12. Choose your key platforms
Facebook
• Role: engagement and awareness platform
• Content: e.g. visual content (photos, infographics), Facebook advertising to reach users at key dates
Twitter
• Role: Engagement and awareness platform; great for traffic
• Content: e.g. Twitter chats (hashtags), links to blog/whitepapers, Twitter advertising
Google+
• Role: Great for SEO/displayed on Google search page results
• Content: displays posts on the first page of Google; Google hummingbird algorithm takes into account
social sharing
YouTube
• Role: Showcasing thought-leadership
• Content: 2nd largest search engine in the world, great for thought leadership content, case studies
LinkedIn
• Role: Professional network
• Content: alumni groups, thought leadership pieces, information about open days etc.

13. Plan: the content marketing matrix
EMOTIONAL
RATIONAL
• Events
•Webinars (e.g. Google
Hangouts)
• Newsletters
(current/prospect students)
• Testimonials
• Articles/blog posts
•Guides / whitepapers
•Infographics
• Press releases
• Events
•Webinars (e.g. Google
Hangouts)
• Newsletters
(current/prospect students)
• Testimonials
• Videos/virals
•Infographics
• Photos /visual content

14. Populate your content calendar
Free template

15. Planning your content around
‘personas’
• Understand students’ information search process;
When are they searching for and when
– Undergrads
– Postgrads
– how are they searching and when (Google trends,
analytics)
• Create content tailored to their needs
– Social content
– Newsletters (look for data-capture opportunities; e.g.
findamasters.com)
– Web content (user journeys using Google analytics)

16. Creating personas: Meet Laurence
• Works full-time but wants to do a part-time masters
February-April: Information search
• Search starts at findamasters.com and shortlists two
universities
– Goes to university ranking sites
– Goes to student forums for reviews/testimonials
– Talks to friends for advice
– Follows universities on Twitter/Facebook
May: Evaluation of alternatives
• Final shortlist of universities and applications
June:
• Application successful; attends a seminar about
going back to university
• Checklist of thing to do over the summer
July-September:
• Miscellaneous research/reading

17. Step 2: Produce

18. Internal content production vs. external

19. Step 3: Publish

20. Set clear objectives for each platform
Facebook
• Role: engagement and awareness platform
• Content: e.g. visual content (photos, infographics), Facebook advertising to reach users at key dates
Twitter
• Role: Engagement and awareness platform; great for traffic
• Content: e.g. Twitter chats (hashtags), links to blog/whitepapers, Twitter advertising
Google+
• Role: Great for SEO/displayed on Google search page results
• Content: displays posts on the first page of Google; Google hummingbird algorithm takes into account
social sharing
YouTube
• Role: Showcasing thought-leadership
• Content: 2nd largest search engine in the world, great for thought leadership content, case studies
LinkedIn
• Role: Professional network
• Content: alumni groups, thought leadership pieces, information about open days etc.

21. Core platforms: Facebook and Twitter

22. What students interact with on
Facebook
• 30% interact with content about events: Students use Facebook as a way to stay in
touch with friends and make plans, so it makes sense that they’d want to read
posts about events happening on campus.
• 27% interact with photos: Whether part of an event post, news item, or
standalone content, photos instantly catch people’s attention and can often
prompt an emotional reaction faster than text on a screen. Students enjoy clicking
through photos related to campus events. You could even try an image-centered
campaign to raise awareness about a particular cause or campus service.
• 15% interact with campus news: Students use social media sites to get the latest
updates on what’s going on right now. Posts centered on campus news will bring
students back to your school’s Facebook page again and again when they realise
it’s a source of dynamic content and breaking news.
• 10% interact with academic-related content: Although Facebook was only open to
college students at its inception, it's more about fun than academics. If you choose
to post academic-related content, be sure to jazz up the content with photos,
related events, and anything that might be considered newsworthy. Leave the
academic details on department websites.
Source

23. What students interact with on Twitter
• 28% interact with content about events: Event status updates, promotional hooks,
and event details are the makings of perfect tweets.
• 22% interact with campus news: Twitter is a social media platform designed to
feature dynamic content. It’s all about up-to-the-minute news. Students go to
Twitter for quick 140 character updates or bits of information they can consume
quickly, whereas Facebook is better suited for more robust content.
• 21% interact with photos: Facebook has a better interface for viewing photos, but
Twitter still offers a way to share interesting images. Since Twitter is a more text-
based platform, keep the main focus on those 140 characters, and supplement
with a photo. Interestingly, photos were the number one type of content for
prospective students visiting a college’s twitter feed. Could be that soon-to-be
college students are looking for visual content since they can’t see what’s
happening on campus in person.
• well with students.
Source

24. Thought leadership: Soundcloud and
Google+

25. Engagement platform: Instagram

26. Step 4: Promote

27. The paid, owned and earned framework
Paid Owned Earned
• PPC
•Social advertising
• Website, newsletter
•Social media
•WoM
• Forums, blogs

28. Measure
• Set clear objectives:
– What do we want to achieve?
– How do we measure success?
• Social media is about trial and error
• Keep what works, and tweak what doesn’t

29. Questions?