Proving the Value of Your Social Strategy
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The document provides tips for gaining stakeholder approval for new social media initiatives. It recommends mapping new ideas to organizational objectives, using existing relationships or establishing new ones, doing thorough research before presenting an idea, and not getting discouraged when facing criticism. The overall goal is to prove the value of a social strategy by demonstrating how it will help meet organizational goals.
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Proving the Value of Your Social Strategy
- 1. Proving the Value of Your Social Strategy: How to gain stakeholder approval for new social media initiatives Madeline Kronfeld Manager, Social Media & Promotions American Public University System @madelinebray
- 2. change
- 4. Why do we resist change? • Fear of the unknown • The timing isn’t right • It could cost us • What if it fails?
- 7. Takeaway #1 Map new ideas to your organization's overall objectives
- 8. Map new ideas to your org’s goals • Generate student leads • Increase brand reputation • Increase graduation rates • Grow student/alumni engagement*
- 10. Takeaway #2 Use existing relationships or establish new ones
- 11. Social Media Customer Service Source: Sprout Social
- 12. Takeaway #3 Do your homework before you present an idea
- 13. What to research What does it cost? How long will it take? Who does it involve? How will you know if it’s successful?
- 14. Recipe for a business proposal • Purpose – why • Strategy – what • Implementation – how, when • Measuring success – where • People/teams involved – who • Appendix/supporting documents
- 15. Takeaway #4 Don’t get discouraged
- 16. Handling criticism • Listen to what they’re really saying • Assume good intentions • Don’t make excuses • Don’t take it personally • Use feedback to improve • Say thanks
- 18. Recap • Map new ideas to your organization's overall objectives • Use existing relationships or establish new ones • Do your homework before you present an idea • Don’t get discouraged
Editor's Notes
- Short intro about me and AMU/APU – unique in that we’re 100% online but similar to everyone represented here in that we have to come up with ideas that keep current students and alumni interested and attract new ones.
- So we have to introduce change. To some people it’s a four letter word.
- Change scares some people. Universities can be so ingrained in tradition that trying something new is often met with pushback.
- These are all valid concerns. Maybe your method has been “we know this works” but now with all the incredible competition in higher education, it’s impossible to keep doing the same things and expecting bigger and better results. Let’s take a look at some ideas that were new and different and see how they turned out.
- Despite its massive popularity, Coca-Cola’s sales were falling for 11 straight years so they had to do something to excite consumers again. After introducing their Share a Coke campaign, U.S. sales grew 2.5%. It was supposed to be a temporary campaign but it was so successful, they kept it going and introduced labels like “BFF” and “Mom” in addition to the top 250 names. They got a custom emoji to go along with the hashtag #ShareACoke so not only did their business improve, they also turned it into a successful social media campaign. You might be thinking, OK, but look at their budgets compared to ours. I hear you loud and clear – we don’t have as much as Coca-Cola or but they have just as much at stake, if not more. Big budgets don’t always equal success. Just look at Colgate entrees. Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/share-a-coke-credited-with-a-pop-in-sales-1411661519
- Oh, have you not heard of this idea from the 1980s? Of course not, because it failed. I get what they were going for – you need to brush your teeth after a meal to keep your mouth healthy but no one wants to eat dinner that reminds them of toothpaste. So what do the successful campaigns have in common? They can be directly tied back to the company’s mission and goals, and that’s what I want to turn to now.
- Everything we do should be mapped back in some way to our organization’s objectives. We’re all in higher ed so I think it’s safe to say our goals include generating more student leads, increasing brand reputation, increasing graduation rates, increasing student engagement, and a host of other things. This last one comes with an asterisk, though, because there are easy ways to boost engagement that have nothing to do with your school’s objectives. Don’t just go after more likes, go after more meaningful likes. I want to show you a recent campaign that we launched and are seeing success with.
- Story about conferral packets & opportunity to get a social sharing element. The concept ties back to our lifelong commitment to students after they graduate. The front has a phrase & hashtag, the back has details on what we want them to do and where to see pictures of their fellow graduates. This wasn’t a formal proposal because it’s something that I’d been talking to my boss about for some time. I always try to do things at minimal cost but I wound up getting an increase in my budget for this because it has such great potential for brand awareness, alumni engagement, and referral traffic.
- It’s always going to be easier to propose something new or work with another team if you have a relationship with someone. If I need something from another team, I try to start by letting them know how it can help them in the long run. To create these conferral cards, I had to work with our graphic designers, Alumni Relations, and the Registrar’s office. I actually used the relationship our Alumni Relations team has with the Registrar to make sure adding one more thing to the diploma packets was feasible.
- Another way my team improved an existing relationship was with our Student Support Center team. These are the folks answering questions through email, on the phone, and our online chat center. For anyone who provides customer service on social media, you know how time intensive it is and how little time you have to focus on your overall strategy. These stats from Sprout Social just a few reasons why we need to offer service on social media. For two years, my colleague and I provided customer service during business hours, at night, and on the weekends. To be honest and totally modest, we did an amazing job. So amazing, in fact, that we saw an increase in how many people were coming to us on social media to get their questions answered. We didn’t have all the answers, though, and even though we were able to escalate a lot of issues and get them resolved quickly, it wasn’t necessarily the most efficient method. Not to mention responding to a question about ordering course materials while I’m trying to enjoy a night out with my friends isn’t the most fun. So, after a lot of conversations with my boss, we piloted something. We went totally silent after business hours for a month and at the end of it, we painstakingly looked at each question, placed them into categories and labeled them as urgent or not. As it turns out, most questions or comments could wait until we logged in the next day. That solved one problem, but I still wanted to get away from customer service at a large scale. Through my boss and her existing relationship with the Student Support managers, we proposed introducing reps on our Facebook pages to answer the questions they were already getting, again, through email, phone, and chat. In return, we would provide weekly, and now monthly, customer service reports to show their added value and give them some bragging rights – trust me, when they can go back and say their response time was less than 5 minutes, it’s a nice feather in their cap. All of this leads right into my next takeaway, which is to do your homework before you present an idea.
- This is an obvious one but it’s too important to leave out. With this example, we had to research and document why cutting back to business hours was a good idea. It worked out in our favor but if we had found that the majority of questions were urgent then we probably would have continued checking our phones into the wee hours of the morning. Now, I was also lucky in that case to have my boss on my side and helping to push the initiative forward. That may not always be the case, or you may have an idea for something that you’ve never brought up before. In those instances, it’s time to develop a proposal.
- What do you need to look into? Well, what does it cost, who does it involve, how long will it take, how will you know if it’s successful, how is it really going to work? Once you have all of these details, put it all together in an easy-to-read format (or one pre-defined by your manager) to define:
- Purpose – Why you’re doing it, why it’s important Strategy – What will you do Implementation –How, When you will implement the proposal Measuring success – Where did it make an impact? People/teams involved – Who will work on it, need to approve? Appendix/supporting documents – provide any additional information, from industry reports to examples of other campaigns. They’ll either give you the green light to move ahead, say no, or come back at you with a million questions, which leads to my fourth and final takeaway:
- Don’t get discouraged- keep thinking happy rainbow thoughts. Not every idea is going to be approved. Not every new idea is going to work. But what I’ve learned, and I think a lot of us have by working in social media, is to have a thick skin and to not get discouraged. A few years ago we wanted to get to know our students better so we could tailor our social messages to them. To do it, we asked a bunch of this or that questions, sort of like polling them, and frankly, they got too lighthearted. Instead of asking things like, “do you study better in the morning or at night?” it was things like “are you a cat or a dog person?” Sure it’s fun but it has nothing to do with the message we’re trying to get across. We faced internal criticism but instead of slamming doors and stomping around the office, we took their feedback, rethought the plan and now make sure that the “fun” questions we ask have to do with their experience as a student.
- Listen to what they’re really saying. If they ask “what does this have to do with attracting new students?,” that doesn’t mean, “your idea is terrible and you should feel bad about it.” They’re likely trying to understand your idea, which is when you can consult your handy-dandy proposal and talk about the purpose and strategy. You can also pre-empt a lot of questions or potential negative feedback in your action plan.
- Let’s go back to Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke campaign. There’s no way they could manufacture labels with every name out there. They had to imagine that people with unique names, or common names with a unique spelling would have something to say so they gave the option of ordering your own custom bottle. Sure it’s a little more expensive for the consumer but it’s also a lot of fun. Thinking through the ways people might criticize your idea may lead to an even better one!
- And remember, change isn’t scary, it’s a fun adventure so go out there and propose new ideas to see meaningful change.