How to Be a Social Butterfly: Leveraging Social Media for Your Institution

How to Be a Social Butterfly: Leveraging Social Media for Your Institution Joe Mulvihill SEO Manager

Social Media Landscape http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQzsQkMFgHE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQzsQkMFgHE

Agenda • Changes in the path to enrollment • Creating an effective social campaign • How to measure campaign success • Social monitoring benefits

Path to Enrollment • Now includes social media • Your admissions/marketing knowledge puts you ahead of the game • Social is a solidifier that drives home the aspiration; can be good from a referral standpoint

Example Communication

Where and When • Social media should be used throughout enrollment process Traditional Media Graduate Interactive Contact Interview Application Enrollment Start Outdoor Referral Don’t forget about job placement and alumni networking!

Creating an Effective Campaign • Strategic planning • Build where the people are • Start small and then expand • Division of roles & responsibilities

Strategic Planning • What are your goals? • Why are you participating in social media? • What are you hoping to achieve? • Who are you targeting? • Current, prospective, former students • Faculty and staff • Community members • Guidelines • Internal/external regulations • Formal stance will bring clarity to fuzzy situations

Asset Creation & Optimization • Where your target market is active • Build where the people are, not where you think they are • Create a formal, branded presence (page, profile, channel etc.) • Start with one or two networks • Gain experience and knowledge • Expand once the foundation is set

Division of Roles • Who is responsible for social media • Initiate training • Set expectations • Communication decision tree • If this, then that • Correct answers or point in the right direction

Good Social Media Is… • Represents the brand • Builds relationships • Conversational • Establishes the school as a community • Support other marketing initiatives

Bad Social Media Is… • Just a broadcast medium • A soap box • Focused on lead generation • Overly promotional

“Everything begins with the end in mind. What does the end look like? What is it that you are trying to achieve? The challenge comes when business strategy and social strategy work against each other, where the outcome is going to hurt each other. The best option is to stop, rethink why you’re doing this in the first place—alongside the objectives of consumers—and then re-create.” • Brian Solis, Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group, eMarketer

What is Success? • Exposure, engagement, or community-building • Clearly define what constitutes reaching the goals that have been set

Measurement Ideas • Engagement/comments • Types of comments • Interaction with posts • Referral traffic sent to branded website • Time on site • Page-depth of visit • Inquiries generated • Directly through social media • Indirectly through the website, after visiting social media

Depth of Reporting

What is Social Monitoring? • Identifying what people say about your brand, outside of your official social media presence • Blogs • Tweets • Posts • Images • Conversations

“Consumers are discussing companies online, offering advice and even criticizing brands, whether or not these brands are active in the social space.” • eMarketer

Benefits of Social Monitoring • Brand monitoring • Identify brand advocates/detractors • User-generated content leveraged for actionable insights • Competitive research • Retention

Retention Case Study • Student posted on Twitter that she was considering dropping out of school • Flagged through social monitoring and elevated to the school • Student concerns were personally addressed and decision was made to stay in school

Summary • Changes in the path to enrollment • Creating an effective social campaign • How to measure campaign success • Social monitoring benefits

How to Be a Social Butterfly: Leveraging Social Media for Your Institution