Minnesota State University at Moorhead

Minnesota State University at Moorhead

presented byChuck Reed

Sarah Lefeber

Teach Me:How to Take Social Media

Further

Attendee Introductions

■Name, Title■What pages/accounts do you manage?■What do you want to be better at when you

leave this room?

Agenda:

■Platform by platform tactics and explanation■Facebook EdgeRank■Listening Tools■Custom URLs, etc.■Messaging Tactics

A few starting points…

…and they throw a great house party.

So, have fun and let your hair down a bit, but remember, it’s not your house.

Think of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as your…NEIGHBORS!

Start with Measureable Objectives

■What are your office’s strategic objectives?■How do these translate to your efforts in social

media?■What can you measure to prove ROI?

■You need to know what numbers matter■Your effort s must support these

Initial Exercise:Translating goals using digital markers■What is an overarching goal for your

department? How can you measure this?

■Example: Admissions needs new leads. How do we measure success on social media?

Start with Measureable Objectives

■The beauty of digital is that everything on the web is measureable…■…but that doesn’t mean you should measure it■Measure what matters!■We have 6000 Facebook likes! – this means

nothing!□Let’s be honest – these people clicked a button – what

other value are they providing your institution?

Platform Metrics

■Facebook Insights■Twitter – 3rd Party Sites

■TweetStats■Klout■TwitterCounter■TwitterGrader

■YouTube Insights■Google Analytics

It’s all about return

■Yes, social media first and foremost is about interaction and communication

■But it’s also about marketing – and you need to know what’s working

Situation analysis:

■What’s working for you currently?

Now let’s dive in.

What platforms do you *need* to be using?

■Facebook■Twitter■YouTube

The rest? Add on at will.

Clearing the air…

■Is Facebook going away? No.

■Is it changing? Yes.

■Is it a closed platform? Yes.

■Is it harder to reach fans? No… you just need to be smart.

Why did it change?

■Facebook is smart. While it’s monetizing, it’s still built for the average user.

■Would you watch tv that had one minute of ads for every minute of programming? No. This is what was happening with Facebook.

So they changed it.

■Now only the most relevant posts are shown to users.

■Do you see ads for pages you never interact with now? No. (You would know if you did.)

■So how do they determine what gets shown?

Meet Edgerank

■Think of Google (PageRank). The platform uses your own data (what you search, how you search, where you’re located, what you view, how long you view it), and uses it to display relevant pages.

■Facebook is doing the same for brands.

What it does

■Edgerank takes the following into account:■What do you like?■Who do you interact with?■Who do you influence?■What are you likely to click on?■Who are your influential friends?■What do your friends like?

It also takes into affect past reviews

■Have people “hidden” that post?■Have fans unliked a page as a result of that

post?■Have fans had a negative reaction to posts like

it?■If so, you’re not going to see it.

So how do you play the game?

■ Pay close attention to Insights – the better the interaction, the more likely Facebook will show it.■What’s working well for you?■What’s not working?■How is your audience interacting?■When are they paying attention?■ Insights Example

One more thing…

■Facebook does not play nicely with competitors.

(If you use third party platforms, it’s not going to show the posts like it should.)

Listen.

■Do searches for important keywords on each platform

■Use a tool like Google Alerts or Social Mention to receive notifications when items are published, shared

What Works?

■Photos garner the most interaction■Short, 1-2 sentence posts■Asking for opinions■Ask for the “like” once every other week■Providing a resource (update them with info,

deadlines, etc.)

Facebook

■Messaging tactics:■ Calls to action – open questions, requests to share■ Rich media – 2x engagement (Facebook’s own

research, July 2011)■ Personality■ Timely■@mentions

■Other tactics:■ Timeline images

Insights Demo

Social Advertising

■You might not be using it yet… But it’s important in determining audience.

■Two types of ads: Sponsored stories and regular ads

■Facebook Advertising demo■LinkedIn Advertising demo

What does this look like?

Management Apps

■Download the free mobile application “Pages Manager”

Twitter

■Best practices■Posting 3-5 times daily

■active, relevant, and Follow back□Follow accounts of interest - expectation of users on the

Twitter is one of mutual respect and interest□Follow those who are following you, and engage them in

conversation□Review a Twitterer’s bio and tweet stream to determine if

they’re an appropriate and useful connection for the institution

□Proactively follow Twitterers of interest, and engage them openly

Tools

■Unlike Facebook, Twitter is an open platform. Developers are able to build from it and on top of it, offering a multitude of apps

■What have you used?

Management

■Certainly fine to use Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc. These integrate seamlessly within the platform and there is no “cost” within Twitter’s API.

■Use these as you see fit – if something works for you, go for it.

Measurement

■Klout, Kred are great tools, but only if you know what they’re measuring.

■Use them with care. They offer great insights, but know what you’re measuring.■Klout demo■Kred demo

LinkedIn

■Best practices:■Have senior administration, faculty and staff

join■Create or source the creation of an alumni

group(s)■Encourage students to join, interact with

faculty/staff, and connect to alumni■Let’s take a look at an example: Harvard U.

YouTube

■Best practices:■Brand your channel

□Background and avatar should be branded■Create and upload one marketing-focused

video per month□Video is the absolute optimal medium for offering

prospective students a candid, visual representation of the unique educational experience offered by a school

Foursquare

■How does it work?■Users "check-in" at venues using a mobile website, text

messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby

■ Location is based on GPS hardware in the mobile device or network location provided by the application

■ Each check-in awards the user points and sometimes "badges“

■Let’s take a look for Foursquare for Universities

Google Plus

■Stats:■Not many available, but 43M users in July, 2011

■What is it?■Social platform based on “circles” – groupings

of connections■Sparks (content of interest), hangouts (group

video chat), huddles (group messaging)

Now how can we find conversations?

■Use search options within each individual platform

■From there, there are multiple third-party tools that will give you any degree of information. ■Radian6 Demo

Shortened URLs: Bit.ly

■Technique in which a URL may be made substantially shorter in length and still direct to the required page■Convenient for social media messaging – fitting

within character limits■Also offer their own analytics (clicks)■Great way to determine what content is of

interest to users on various platforms■Can be branded, customized

QR Codes

■ Quick-response codes■ Matrix barcode that can encode much more data than the

average bar code■ When scanned by smartphone application, can lead to:

□ Website□ Rich media (videos, photos)□ Contact information□ Trigger text messages, emails

■ Perfect way to connect print to the web

■ Social is mobile

QR Codes

QR Codes

A quick note about memes

■http://www.quickmeme.com/make/

■Research them to ensure relevancy and appropriateness

Keep an eye on scheduled updates

■Many, many brands have been caught up in scheduled tweets being sent at insensitive times.

■NRA, Ashton Kutcher, Marie Claire – they’ve all been caught unaware

Now it’s your turn

■Any new platforms you would like to review?■What questions do you have on new and

emerging media?■Any questions thus far?

Success Stories

13,546 members13 subgroups

DePaul University’s LinkedIn Group

Image from Mashable

Success Stories

Publicize: Harvard posts mini lectures and case studies to show their expertise in business to capture interest from international community.

Success Stories

Engage: With almost 40,000 followers, Indiana University answers prospect questions, post events, and interacts with current students on their Twitter account.

Success Stories

Admissions Tab: Missouri State has connected prospects with current students to have a more personable interaction through a simple form.

Success Stories

Repetition: Foursquare has allowed current students to publish their location, allowing younger friends to consistently see the name of the university.

Success Stories

Unified : Expanding onto the new Google+ platform, University of Arizona maintains a cohesive message between all of its social media outlets.

Questions?