When Alexander Met Facebook

1. When Alexander Met Facebook Scott P. Shields MoCPA Past-President & Coordinator of Residential Life Operations

2. What do these have to do with each other? Marketing & Student Retention

3. Alexander Astin: Student Involvement Theory • For student growth to take place, students need to actively engage in their environment. • The amount of student learning and personal development associated with any educational program is directly proportional to the quality and quantity of student involvement in that program (the more a student puts into something, the more he or she gets out of it).

4. Student Event and Service Awareness • Students can’t come to your event of utilize their services if they don’t know about it. • The frustrating part: Getting their attention with so many other distractions.

5. Student Involvement and Retention • Uninformed students lead to unsuccessful or frustrated students. • Frustrated and unsuccessful students lead to lower retention numbers.

6. Student Event and Service Awareness • Old Adage: The Marketing Rule of Seven – A prospect needs to see or hear your marketing at least seven times before they take action and buy from you. You need to break through: • The Noise • May not need your product • Price too high (need to value your product) • The don’t know you • That number may be as high as 25 today!

7. Today’s Implications for Student Involvement Theory • An involved student is a successful student. • The effectiveness of any educational policy or practice is directly related to the capacity of that policy or practice to increase student involvement. • The trick is getting them involved. • Our goal today: Learn how to best utilize the marketing tools available to us to catch their attention!

8. The Marketing Plan

9. Marketing Plan Goals • Make the information easy to understand • Format messages to where customers will best receive the information as defined through each communication medium • Give customers the opportunity to choose their preferred communication method • (Res Life) Promote incoming freshmen to live in campus housing • (Res Life) Increase students desire to re-contract

10. Marketing Plan Goals • Increase current student enthusiasm for and engagement with your department • Reduce email communication dramatically • Provide marketing and communication resources for professional staff, student staff and student leaders • Potential: Leverage text messaging capabilities

11. Accomplishing our Goals Brand Your Department • Develop a similar look to all publications: websites, official flyers, electronic communications.

12. The Look

13. Accomplishing our Goals • Branding considerations • Keep elements of your school’s look. • Don’t micromanage your marketing (i.e. RA program flyer) • Know that some changes may meet some resistance, but solicit feedback before final decisions to aid buy-in. • Possibilities include: • Standardized email signature lines • Required daily nametag usage • Approval required on some publications before publishing.

14. Managing an over-used tool in e-communication Email

15. Diversify Your Approach to Email Essential Emails Opt-Out Emails • Official departmental business (assignments, billing, judicial, check-in/out, breaks, department-wide satisfaction surveys, etc.) • Departmental processes (Room Selection, Class Registration.) • Emergency departmental crisis response. • Programming/Event information. • Marketing contests and promotions. • Secondary survey opportunities.

16. Managing Opt-Out Emails • Everyone is signed up initially. • For Consideration • What lists should there be? • One opt-in list only? • One per building? • Who should manage opt-out emails? • What kinds of opt-out emails need approval?

17. It is estimated that 57% of people talk more online than in real life. Social Media

18. Social Media Facts • The 18-24 year old demographic was the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook in 2011 with over 74% growth. • Ninety-eight percent of students are on Facebook, over 30% use Twitter (these numbers are climbing daily), and nearly all of them use YouTube on a daily basis. • College students average over 100 minutes a day on social media - over twice as much time than any other demographic. • Social media is where students are and we must go to them to be successful.

19. 1 in 13 people on Earth have a Facebook account. Facebook

20. Facebook Tips for Best Practice • Best leveraged by posting as minimally as possible (ideally no more than two times daily). • Balance factual and promotional messaging with engaging social media content. • No one is forced to follow your page. Therefore it is important to stay relevant and maintain interest through strategized communication.

21. Facebook Tips for Best Practice • Optimal post time on Facebook is between 1-3pm, with engagement rates 18% higher on Thursday and Friday than any other days of the week. Saturday and Sunday posts are found to get the most likes. • The key is to engage and interact with customers through humor and interest stories in this platform – not for “push marketing.”

22. Facebook Tips for Best Practice • Be direct in your requests and fans will listen. The most effective keywords are “post,” “comment,” “take,” “submit,” “like,” or “tell us.” • Ask questions at the end of a post using the words “where,” “when,” and “should” to drive engagement.

23. Walk the Fine Line • Post enough to stay visible without annoying you fans. • The average Facebook post lifespan is 3 hours, and is considered “alive” when it occupies the newsfeed, receives a continuous stream of engagement, and grows more than 10% per hour.

24. Northwest Residential Life Facebook Page • Two pages: “Residential Life” & “Find Your Bearcat Roommate.” • 2015 “Likes” as of June 1, 2013. • 826 new Likes since June 1, 2012 (2300 in our halls). • Vast majority of growth came late summer – fall (freshmen). • 65 votes in a “Light up the Halls” poll. • Most liked post to date: “It’s official… Maryville is getting a Jimmy John’s!” received 143 likes.

25. Northwest Residential Life Facebook Page 85 Likes

26. Facebook Management • Main page: Increase interactive content with pictures, contests, and increased staff participation. • Secondary pages for specific target populations. • Discussion Questions: • Should we mandate a page per hall. • If yes, who manages these pages? • If yes, what consistencies must be in place? • If yes, what content goes on these pages vs. the main Residential Life page?

27. Remember: Marketing Trends Change • Current trends (Mid-2013)show students are slowly moving away from Facebook. • If you have a high school – college age student… It’s your fault!

28. 1 billion + tweets are sent every three days. Twitter

29. Twitter Facts • Twitter is a social-networking resource used for micro-blogging. • Participants utilize the tool to provide updates that must be presented in 120 characters or less. • Users may choose to act as a “follower” to actively receive updates from other accounts. • It is estimated that 40% of Twitter users don’t tweet, but instead use it to keep up to date. • 84% (Oct. 2012) of colleges and universities tweet. • 73% of Americans trust information and advice from Twitter.

30. Northwest Residential Life’s Twitter Page • Twitter.com/NWMO_RESLIFE • 135 followers • Interesting tidbit: Res. Life at Mizzou is following us! • No current plans to mandate individual hall Twitter accounts.

31. Twitter Tips for Best Practice • Considering that the Twitter audience is more amenable toward receiving multiple messages throughout the day than our Facebook audience, at least 2 Twitter-only posts a day (weekdays) should be the norm. • Twitter posts between 1-3 EST Monday through Thursday receive the most clicks. • In order to best communicate through this method, there should be a variety of pushed messages (i.e. “Don’t forget to sign up today”) and interaction with other users. • Messages should be succinct (120 characters or less), accurate, innovative, intentional, relevant and dynamic.

32. A few thoughts about… YouTube

33. YouTube Tips • Create content that addresses your audience’s needs. Your goal should be to create videos that are helpful, valuable, and compelling to your clientele. • Video Variety • Range in professionalism, length, comedy, etc. to reach different target groups. • The goal is to get an audience to your YouTube site and let them choose which videos interest them. • Video Views • Allows tracking of views to help you lean what works, what doesn’t.

34. 4 Colleges That Do Social Media REALLY Well • Twitter – Harvard University • 125,000 followers • Active all day, every day • Keeps posts simple, featuring students/faculty as well as articles from the student newspaper • Facebook – University of Florida • 445,000 Likes • They talk sports, share photos, and make sure students know about upcoming events on campus.

35. 4 Colleges That Do Social Media REALLY Well • Google+ - Johns Hopkins University and Colorado State University • Offers the change to alter search results for users who follow certain pages. • Pinterest – Ole Miss • DIY dorm residence hall projects • Tailgating ideas • Ole Miss fashion

36. Let’s go to the Spreadsheet! Marketing Calendar

37. Evaluation Tools • Likealyzer • Google Analytics • Facebook Insights • Search for more!

38. Your 60 Second Takeaway

39. Q&AWhen Alexander Met Facebook Scott P. Shields MoCPA Past-President &Coordinator of Residential Life OperationsNorthwest Missouri State University