Social media at SAU

Social Media@SAU

Covering Today● State of social media at SAU● Policies, guidelines, and procedures● Putting the "social" in social media● Communications and you

@SAU● 121% increase in traffic coming from social

media sites (to 52k pageviews) compared to 2010.

● On Facebook, we’ve seen a 1441% increase in post views and a 166% increase in user feedback and interaction compared to 2010. We’re up 1,767 new “likes” in 2011.

● In 2012 so far: 22% increase in social media traffic

Demographics

Our largest demographic on Facebook is females between the ages of 18-24. They're not only our biggest visiting demographic, they're the ones who respond and share the most. Males in the same age group are a close second on both metrics. For overall users, females far outreach males.

Website Traffic Generated

This shows traffic generated from all social media sources in the period of September-December 2011 vs January-April 2012. We see a significant increase in visits, pageviews, and unique visitors. This chart represents 1745 more visits, 12,035 more pageviews, and 418 more UNIQUE visitors in 2012 so far than a corresponding period in 2011. This is an ongoing trend, social media use is showing no sign of slowing down.

Current Initiatives1. Claiming ownership of all wayward

Facebook places, pages, and groups for merge and removal

2. Building on Timeline featuresa. major milestones using archives photosb. continuously refreshing cover imagec. evaluating new recruiting/retention opportunitiesd. using the new campus stories materials

3. Social media audit

The new FB Timeline roll-out launched more than just the cover photo feature. We're still figuring out all the tools and how to best utilize them.

Why Audit?

Of the 39 "official" University FB pages, 51% haven't been updated in more than a month, and 25% haven't been updated in more than 6 months. This is just PAGES on Facebook. This doesn't include groups, inappropriate "people", Twitter, or LinkedIn.

yep.

Audit Goals1. Clean up outdated, unused presences2. Evaluate effectiveness of each presence

a. Growth (Likes)b. Post quality and interactions (posts and comments)c. Traffic generated to main site (click-throughs)d. Goal conversions (applications, contact forms, etc.)e. Other appropriate metrics

3. Focus resources on goal-oriented activitiesa. What are you trying to accomplish with Fb?

4. Establish a consistent naming convention5. Educate on proper uses of tools to achieve

goals

In short, we need to provide more signal than noise and eliminate pain points in our social media strategy. Do less, better.

Audit PhasesPhase 1 - Document the situation & clean up "low hanging fruit"Phase 2 - Review & consolidate, establish goals and metrics for evaluation. Formalize a quick approval/review process for new and existing social initiatives.Phase 3 - Establish a social media working group for long term evaluation and support of social media initiatives.

We're at the tail end of phase 1. The social media brief I sent out last month went largely unanswered. Of the more than 125 Facebook (only) presences only 3 briefs were returned.

Low-hanging fruit?

That purple and green sections are on the chopping block. So are "people" profiles that violate Facebook's TOS. Groups will go under the microscope at some point during the fall.

PolicyUniversity Handbook (2010) Section 312f requires two employee administrators on any social media presence and specifies "checking" social media presences at least twice per day during the week.

social media is about quality, not quantity

...but, in some context quality comes from quantity of attention paid to the resource. Specifically, think of it as tending a garden.

Guidelines● Post twice per week● Respond to every comment within 2 hours

during the day, within 12 hours after hours● Be social. Develop a personality for your

social media initiatives. Who is your audience? Talk to them.

Social media is a conversation. Don't use it as a megaphone because nobody will be listening.

Define your audience. Write a mission statement. Establish goals. Put forth effort toward achieving goals.

That's a lot of work!

It absolutely is. I have a 6 hour a week student worker dedicated to social media and I spend roughly 10 hours a week building out or planning our social media activities. I also keep Facebook up in a tab at all times and revisit it every hour or so during the week. I usually email 6-12 questions from Fb/Twitter around campus every week.

How!?!● Announce upcoming events● Promote faculty/student stories

○ Link to existing content on your website● Curated content

○ Audience appropriate news, journal articles, blog posts, etc.

● Photo albums○ Post photos of conferences and events with captions

and tags● Respond!!! to comments and questions● Encourage users to post content

Don't often duplicate content across multiple Fb pages/groups. It's a huge turn-off and one of the biggest complaints we see.

now that's funny.

hello?

Notice that there hasn't been a single post on this page since January 27. What you can't see is that the admin of this page hasn't posted anything since December 4. How do prospective students who visit this page perceive this department, and, by extension, the university? There are over 125 individual Facebook presences for the University. If your untended FB page/place/group is cluttering search results, you're actually hurting recruiting and retention efforts. Also notice the lack of a cover photo. The switch was made by Facebook on March 30. There were notices and a "soft launch" for over a month and a half. If you still haven't updated your page, we need to have a serious discussion about whether you have the time and resources to effectively manage a social media presence.

Timeline

There were notices for over a month and a half. If you still haven't updated your page, we need to have a serious discussion about whether you have the time and resources to effectively manage a social media presence.

Timeline

Facebook launched the new Timeline feature for pages on March 30.

Facebook All-Stars● Alumni Association● Dept. of Nursing● PBL● The Bray● Graduate Studies

● Archeological Survey● Athletics● Theatre● Foundation● Volleyball

These departments all have their cover images updated and have some activity in the last month. The Gold stars have significant activity in the last month.

What this means

We've got 10 departments who are keeping up with their Facebook pages. Out of 39.

Likes Overview

Notice the higher likes tend toward the curated pages. The University, Alumni, Foundation, Athletics, Graduate Studies...all of these show constant activity and improvement over time. Be aware, people can unlike just as easily as they like something.

Ask yourself1. Do I have the time, staff, and understanding of social media

to manage a presence for my group/organization/dept?2. Do I have enough content to sustain continuous activity?3. Would my presence be better served by posting information

on the main page - attracting more viewers - than on a separate page? Do my stakeholders require a separate page - like alumni?

4. Can my goals be achieved by distributing information on the primary University presence?

5. How is my program/dept different?

Advertising, marketing, promotions...these things only work if you've got a way to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Mission, goals, objectivesMission: Support the greater SAU community.Goal: Increase traffic to University web properties.Goal: Promote academic accomplishment.Goal: Support campus events and activities.Goal: Keep alumni connected.

How do we accomplish these goals? We use the content on the University website to build out activity on the University Facebook page. We post upcoming events and photo albums of past events. We repost useful information from satellite presences. We also work pretty hard to track and measure results by using special links and a goal completion tool in our analytics package.

Truths1. It takes a lot of work to build a successful

social media presence in the post-MySpace age.

2. Not every department, group, or organization needs a dedicated Facebook page.

3. No page is better than a disused or poorly managed page.

4. All social media initiatives need to be focused on "real world" goals.

none of us can be effective when we're overloaded

If the idea of managing your social media presence makes you feel like this, perhaps we should discuss scaling back a bit. We are more than happy to support your initiatives by utilizing our almost 6,000 Facebook users and 1,200 Twitter followers.

So what's next?1. Evaluate your Facebook page with a critical

eye to audience, goals, results, value, & time/resources available to manage it properly.

2. Complete the Social Media Brief & send to Communications

3. Multiple presences? Consider consolidating.4. The audit will continue through the fall, with

continuous evaluation and improvement going forward.

Support?We can help you establish goals and measure results for your social media efforts. We're also available to provide basic "how-to" support for Facebook features.

smkeith@saumag.edu