How to Manage and Analyze Social Media in Higher Education

SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO MEASURE, TRACK, AND ANALYZE WHAT YOU’RE DOING ON ALL THINGS SOCIAL

BUT FIRST...WHO AM I?•Kelly Peiffer (married to Wayne

Peiffer - a 2012 Cairn grad, sister-in-law to Mitch Peiffer,

current Cairn student)

•Graduated from Elizabethtown College in May 2012 with BA in

Communications

•Assistant Director of Marketing Communications at Manor

College in Jenkintown, PA (20 mins away)

•Things I like: TV Show Survivor, Billboards and Mint Chocolate

Chip Ice Cream

MANOR COLLEGE? I’ve never heard of it...

r

•Private two-year institution offering transfer and career oriented programs to traditional age and adult students

•A SMALL college offering transfer agreements with many bigger universities (example, LaSalle University)

•Offers Vet Tech program, Dental Hygiene, Pre-Nursing and a few other career oriented programs

•An awesome place to start your degree for less

•95% commuter school

WHAT I DO AT MANOR COLLEGE•Manage all social media accounts for Manor College

(Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Vine)

•Design and create print publications and admissions/marketing pieces for the school

•Manage and create content for Manor Blue Jays Athletic Website

•Design and write the Annual Review (Manor’s Alumni magazine)

•Work with various departments (Student life, alumni relations, admissions, continuing ed.) to create print and

online marketing materials to promote in house events and activities.

SOCIAL MEDIA TIP

• CONSISTENCY IN DESIGN FOR ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES

• HAVE NICE PHOTOS, LOGOS, AND ICONS

FACEBOOK ANALYTICS•Monitor what's working and not working on your Page.•Understand the people who like your Page and engage with your posts.•Make decisions about the best ways to connect with your audience.

WHAT WORKS FOR MANOR COLLEGE’S FB PAGE

- VIDEOS/PHOTOS

- POSTS ABOUT VET TECH/ANIMALS

- POSTS ABOUT MEN’S SOCCER TEAM

-HOLIDAYS

WHAT DOESN’T WORK for Manor College FB

page

•Alumni things

•Anything about Campus Security

•Just posts (no pics/video)

•Announcements

•Academic/Reminders

How To Manage a FB Page•Post DAILY

•Check on hourly

•Make posts specifically for FB

•Diverse Content

•Schedule posts for different times throughout day/week

•Ask others for advice and things to post - always collecting ideas

ALL ABOUT TWITTER

MY DAILY TWITTER GOALS

• SEND OUT 22 TWEETS PER DAY (it’s tough)

• Schedule Tweets (via TweetDeck or HootSuite) in the morning but will post all day/week

•Include links/pics in at least half of my daily tweets

MANOR’S TWITTER STRUGGLES

• DIVERSE CONTENT

•USER ENGAGEMENT

•BALANCING OUT CONTENT

•GETTING CONSISTENT RETWEETS

TWITTER ANALYTICSHOW FAR DID OUR TWEET TRAVEL?

BUT FIRST....how do I organize, schedule and post tweets?

TWEETDECK

HOOT SUITE

TWITTER ANALYTICS

Tweet Reach•Tells you who’s talking about it, how many people saw it, and who those people are.

•Makes it easy to measure your Twitter campaigns so you can demonstrate real results.

•TweetReach Pro - better for LARGE companies/organizations using LOTS of custom hashtags with thousands of followers and engagements.

EXAMPLE

INSTA - WHAT?

“But institutions’ use of Instagram, the platform based on photo sharing,

jumped from 27 percent last year to 42 percent this year. That jump signals growing awareness that Facebook

might not always dominate.” Lee Gardner, The Chronicles of Higher Education published March 2014

SOME INSTAGRAM RULES

• DIVERSE CONTENT

•POST DAILY (if not more and on weekends)

•POSTS CAN BE RAW

•CAPTIONS ARE IMPORTANT

ANALYZING INSTAGRAM

Send you a snapshot of stats anytime

Ways to Track Instagram Hashtags

•For example, running a Photo a Day Challenge

•TagBoard

•Storify

EXAMPLE EXAMPLE

PINTEREST ANALYTICSARE PEOPLE PINNING OUR PINS?

WHY ARE WE ON PINTEREST?

•appeal to parents

•it’s free and has high reach

•always looking for more traffic

•looking to drive enrollment

•have many non-traditional students

MANOR’S PINTEREST STRATGEY

• 30% Re-Pin Content

• 70% Original Content

• Pin at least 15 new pins per week, dispersed times throughout the week

• Tweet out most pins, again, various times

PINTEREST ANALYTICSHOW WE ANALYZE

SO WHAT’S IMPORTANT?

• KNOWING WHAT WORKS

• DON’T WANT TO WASTE TIME

• TIMING IS KEY

• CONTENT IS KEY

AN EXAMPLE OF HOW I CONVINCED MY BOSS

TO SEND ME TO A CONFERENCE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA (all expenses paid!)

I SHOWED HIM THE STATS

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA GETS THE MOST

TRAFFIC?• FACEBOOK IS STILL KING

• INSTAGRAM IS ON THE RISE

• OTHER INDUSTRIES AND UNIVERSITIES TWITTER IS HUGE

CONVERSATION IS KEY

• SERIOUSLY, YOU HAVE TO BE IN ON THE CONVERSATION THAT’S HAPPENING

• HORSE CARE TEAM EXAMPLE

#MANORVETTECH

• I SAW THE CONVERSATION HAPPENING

• I JOINED THE CONVERSATION

• MADE IT A HASHTAG

• GREW THAT HASHTAG WITH CONSISTENCY

• MADE IT BIGGER THAN JUST A HASHTAG

• NOW IT’S A STAPLE AND PEOPLE JUST KNOW TO USE THAT HASHTAG

THE TIMELINE

• HAVE A PLAN WHEN STARTING TO MANAGE SOCIAL THINGS

• USE METRICS TO HELP YOU KNOW WHAT’S WORKING

• LOOK AT EXAMPLES AND OTHERS (AND STEAL IDEAS IF IT’S OKAY)

• THINK ABOUT THE TIMING, USE SCHEDULERS, THAT’S WHY THEY EXIST

• PHOTOS AND GOOD CONTENT ARE ROCKSTARS

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

QUESTIONS!!!!

Oh yeah, follow me on Twitter

@KellllllPeiffer