This presentation offers ideas for using social media to get results for parent fundraising in education institutions. The presentation was a general session at the 27th Annual Parent Fundraising Conference in August 2012.

1. Social Media
#getresults
27th Annual Parent Fundraising Conference
Susan T. Evans | Senior Strategist | mStoner
page 1

2. Hello!
Susan T. Evans,
Senior Strategist
mStoner
page 2

3. 22+ years at the 2nd oldest college in the
nation
72...
page 3

4. Jack Rebecca
William & Mary Peabody
Class of 2010 Conservatory
Class of 2013
page 4

5. “It’s been a long time comin’...”
1969
page 5

8. Twitter

9. Twitter

10. Twitter

11. Huh. @susantevans seems a
lot smarter than I expected.
#parentfundraisingconf

12. It’s not about us, it’s about
the audience we want to
reach. #truethat
#parentfundraisingconf

13. Inbound marketing is
more effective for
earning the attention of
audiences.
#parentfundraisingconf

14. Agenda
• All on the same page?
• Social media is just communication!
• Amplifying your message.
• Susan’s pearls of wisdom...
• Bonus: use social for audience testing.
• #YourTurn

15. All on the same page?

16. The right tool for the right job.
From @ThreeShipsMedia
page

17. Social media is free.
page

18. Social media is easy.
page

19. You should be on every platform.

20. More than 66% of adults online in America are
connected to one or more social media
platforms.
Facebook has 845 million active users.
46% of Facebook users are over the age of 45.

21. —Pew Report
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Twitter-Use-2012/Findings/Twitter-use.aspx

22. As of May 2011, 71% of online adults
reported watching videos on sites like
YouTube or Vimeo.
—Pew Report

23. They might be anywhere...
Integrate your social
properties for multi-channel
communication.

24. They hover...
page

25. Parent giving is on the rise.
“Parents of alumni view their donations
as giving back to the school that helped
propel their children into fulfilling
careers and lives.”
— CASE Currents (November/December 2011)
2010: Parents gave nearly $540 million
to U.S. higher education (a 49% increase
from 2001)
—Council for Aid to Education’s Voluntary Support of Education Survey

26. Survey says:
51% use social media to communicate
with parents of current students.
—2012 Social Media & Advancement Research (CASE + mStoner +
Slover-Linnet)
http://www.mstoner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2012-CASE-SM-
Topline.pdf

27. Engaging parents.
According to a CASE survey, only 31%
of respondents considered raising
private funds as a goal of their social
media initiatives. (2010)
Let’s talk about using social media
to engage parents!

28. Social media is
just communication!

29. Find them
where they’re supposed to be.
http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/2049 page

30. Build a special place for them.
http://parents.blogs.wm.edu/ page

31. Make it personal and emotional.
St. Michael’s College: Commencement 2010

32. Make it personal and emotional.
St. Michael’s College 2010

33. Try something different.
http://www.jessup.edu/news-events/wju-raises-
more-33000-one-day-social-media-fundraising-
effort page

34. Amplify your message.

35. Everything is
connected to
everything else.
http://mstnr.me/9uemQS
page

36. Run a
campaign!
page 34

37. #getresults
Social Media Campaign:
Focused effort to achieve goals using a
variety of channels appropriate to the
results sought.

38. Nazareth College
Flight of the Flyers
Campaign

39. http://www.flightoftheflyers.com/

40. Find your flyer.

41. Get a Golden Flyer!
“To be honest, I was
surprised at how well it
did take off, both years. I
thought it was kind of a
harebrained idea. We
wanted to have some fun
—I had no idea how much
people would like it.”
— Kerry Gotham
Director of Alumni
Relations at Nazareth
College

42. Adding
Pinterest...
http://pinterest.com/nazarethcollege/flight-of-the-flyers/

43. William & Mary
Mascot Search Campaign

44. http://www.wm.edu/mascot

46. Jon Stewart ’84 (William & Mary Alum)

47. The Griffin

48. UW - Madison
The Bucky Challenge

49. http://buckychallenge.wisc.edu/
http://www.alumnifutures.com/2011/09/bucky-challenge.html

50. Parents issued a social
challenge.
http://buckychallenge.wisc.edu/

51. Emory University
The Blue Pig Campaign

52. http://college.emory.edu/home/news/
quadrangle/2011spring/pages25_28.html

54. Susan’s
pearls of wisdom...

55. Focus on content!
page

56. What kind of content?
questions
emotion
photos and videos
weather
famous alums
athletics
insider info / sneak peeks

57. The Dos
Keep it casual. Let the small
stuff go.
Have a plan.
Own your own
Try new things.
mistakes.
Adapt to change.
Listen and
Address serious interact.
problems.
Ask questions.
page

58. The Don’ts
Obvious Linking
promotion. Facebook and
Twitter.
Silence.
Responding to
Stuffy or overly
trolls.
professional.
All posts the
same sort.
page

59. It’s the
conversation,
stupid.
page 57

60. Beware of trolls.
page 58

61. I was once paid
to write tweets for
a squirrel.
@wmsquirrel
page 59

62. It’s like talking to your
kids about sex.
Answer the question that is asked.
@lordbot
page 60

63. Bonus: use social for
audience testing.

64. Crowd source photos.

65. Crowd source content.
“What is an object that means
William & Mary to you?”
“How would you describe William &
Mary in a Tweet or a Facebook
status?”

66. The Wrap

67. Recommended
• Establish partnerships with other campus
units
• Leverage the university web presence and
social
• Spend the time and resources to produce
great content (it always makes things easier)
• Determine the purpose, relevance and
importance of each channel
• Integrate social channels with your .edu
website

68. If you want to
learn more...

69. Join the network for
intergalactic edu knowledge.
http://eduniverse.org

70. Check out the CASE blog.
http://case.typepad.com/case_social_media/

71. Thanks.
http://bit.ly/NzDpT6
Susan T. Evans
Senior Strategist
susan.evans@mstoner.com
@susantevans
mStoner